WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hawkeye Episode 3, "Echoes," which aired Wednesday on Disney+.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Avengers roster, as virtuous as the superheroes are, it's clear that in the field of battle -- whether you like it or not -- they do kill. Of course, it's more digestible when it's Hydra agents or Thanos' army, which has led to many believing that when it comes down to it, Thor's the deadliest of them all in the field. However, as the latest episode of Hawkeye proves, this title should go to Clint Barton himself.
This isn't to take anything away from Thor, who definitely would claim more lives in terms of volume compared to Captain America, Black Widow and even Iron Man. Avengers: Infinity War, as well as Endgame, showed this with Thor's torrents of lightning, not to mention how he beheaded the Mad Titan when they eventually found the villain. However, Thor isn't as clinical or accurate, not nailing the target when it counts, which leads to dire consequences.
Hawkeye, though, lives up to this billing when the time comes for him to escape the Tracksuit Mafia and save Kate Bishop. As he breaks free and gets his quiver, Clint begins using the bow and arrow in a scary manner, tacking up guys with shots to the torso, their limbs and even their hearts. Sure, this may be a family-friendly Disney+ series, but Hawkeye may well have murdered some of these guys in cold blood with well-placed shots as we don't see most of them returning again in the chase.
He doesn't even need to look as he shoots at dudes behind him, continuing his bloody rampage left, right and center, which harkens back to when we saw him in Japan slicing up the Yakuza as Ronin with no mercy. At that point, we thought Hawkeye just fell to the dark side, but this clip proves, while he's lighthearted, he is that lethal spy and immaculate assassin that Nick Fury's SHIELD was always eager to unleash on the world.
The Tracksuit Mafia aren't the best opponents admittedly, but it reiterates that Clint is indeed a one-man army who doesn't miss, as seen when he fought the Chitauri too. It also nods to when he dropped cars on Iron Man in Civil War, which now affirms he could have killed Tony Stark or anyone who fought him if he wanted to.
From this action sequence in Hawkeye, it's very clear that while Thor missed with his axe, not landing the head shot on Thanos in Wakanda, Hawkeye -- had he not been retired -- would not have made the same mistake. He's not about gloating as much, but more about the business end of things, so he would have put an arrow in between Thanos' eyes, especially as most folks underestimate him.
Ultimately, all this time, it does seem like Hawkeye has been holding back, but with Black Widow gone and the Ronin identity coming back to haunt him, maybe he's turning the screws loose again, as these goons have now found out.
See how Clint Barton is deadlier than Thor as new episodes of Hawkeye air Wednesdays on Disney+.