WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hawkeye Episode 3, "Echoes," which aired Wednesday on Disney+.
Sooner or later, every character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe must confront The Suit. Modern artists and production designers regularly make modern superhero costumes look both functional and cool, but the four-color legacies of comic books speak to far more garish outfits that cannot be ignored forever. Heroes and villains needed to pop from the page in the comics, leading to iconic outfits that don’t always translate properly to live-action.
Hawkeye's suit is one of them, a grounded superhero with very human skills rather than powers who has avoided the question of the costume before now. His outfit in the MCU has been comparatively stripped-down, with little of the character’s signature purple and no sign of the flared Silver Age outfit that the character started with. That’s changed with the new Hawkeye series. Though oblique and appropriately downplayed, the original outfit still receives a pair of Easter eggs that highlight its connection to the character.
Marvel tends to lean into the costume question or play it for laughs. That goes back to the original X-Men movie when Cyclops wryly asks Wolverine if he would prefer “yellow spandex” to the movie’s black leather uniforms. Early incarnations of most MCU heroes featured outfits in desperate need of a reboot, from Tony Stark’s cobbled-together Mark I suit in the original Iron Man to Steve Rogers’ literal theater costume for his USO tour in Captain America: The First Avenger. Loki took the full plunge with Richard E. Grant’s variant God of Mischief, garbed in bright yellow and green straight from Jack Kirby, and WandaVision did much the same with its Halloween costumes for Scarlet Witch and the Vision.
Hawkeye’s traditional suit is striking, but also quite silly: purple and black with flared horns on the mask and an “H” on the forehead. That simply doesn't work in a modern setting, and Clint Barton’s more grounded look – in both the comics and onscreen – feels much more in keeping with reality, even a stylized one like the MCU. With Barton one among multiple Avengers in the five movies that constitute his appearances thus far, his old-school costume could've comfortably rested in peace. But with the new series giving him the spotlight for the first time, it was time to at least give it a nod.
And Hawkeye finds suitably subtle ways to do it. The first appearance can’t readily be spotted in the show itself, but appears in “Meet the LARPers,” a behind-the-scenes look at Barton’s semi-willing participation in a live-action role-playing session during Episode 2, "Hide and Seek." He’s forced to participate to get the Ronin outfit back, but among the extras in the scene is one LARPer wearing a suit of purple armor very similar to Hawkeye’s original look. The special draws attention to it, along with the Ronin outfit.
The second appearance comes in the coffee shop in Episode 3, “Echoes,” as Kate Bishop explains the origin of her hero worship and they discuss their burgeoning relationship. In the process, she frames his lack of public recognition as a “branding issue,” and sketches a costume on the paper placemat with a black crayon. “Picture this in purple,” she proclaims to his deep skepticism. Hawkeye uses it to leap into a solid bit of character development, as Barton first describes the need to stay unseen in his line of work and then quietly explains that he’s no one’s idea of a hero.
The genuine emotion of the moment lets Hawkeye acknowledge the absurdity of the costume without actually having to show it. It’s also a quiet way to remind the MCU’s Clint Barton that he is a hero of the Silver Age variety simply by his willingness to help Bishop out of a jam. The MCU did something similar, in its own way, for Wanda, Vision and Loki. Hawkeye gets a quieter take, but the connection is the same: the franchise is unlikely to ever lose sight of its roots.
To spot Clint's comics-accurate costume, new episodes of Hawkeye air Wednesdays on Disney+.