WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hawkeye: Freefall #3 by Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt and VC's Joe Sabino, on sale now.
The big mystery going into the Hawkeye: Freefall miniseries is the identity of the new Ronin. Whoever is now wearing the samurai mask has it in for the street-level villain, The Hood, hitting his safe houses and stealing his money. The character at the top of the suspect list also happens to be a hero who took up the Ronin mantle years ago: Hawkeye.
Clint Barton has been questioned by the likes of Falcon, Winter Soldier, Luke Cage and Black Widow, but continues to deny his involvement with Ronin's illegal activities. Plus, the first issue of Hawkeye: Freefall ended with Ronin defeating Clint, Falcon and Winter Soldier single-handedly. Anyone that knows Hawkeye would be hard-pressed to believe he could pull off that level of deception, at least not without a lot of help.
However, Hawkeye was shockingly revealed to be Ronin at the end of Issue 2, with The Hood's tech support guy connecting the dots between the hero and the vigilante. How did Hawkeye fool his friends and fellow superheroes? All it took was a piece of stolen technology from a major Avengers villain.
Ever Heard Of A Temporal Boomerang?
Only Clint Barton could have a teenage hacker deduce his secret Ronin identity and then immediately add him to his payroll. Ronin came across Bryce Bandau after he broke into a Hood safe house in Sugar Hill, Manhattan. Bryce used video evidence to link Hawkeye to Ronin, and Hawkeye: Freefall #3 picks up with the duo in Clint's Bed-Stuy apartment.
Bryce, like the rest of us, is curious to hear how Hawkeye can be in two places at the same time. The answer has to do with a confiscated time machine that used to belong to the time-travel villain, Kang the Conqueror. Hawkeye goes on to explain that the government recovered the tech after one of Kang's many invasions. He then hijacked it from the federal agents as Ronin in Hawkeye: Freefall #1.
The time machine can send Hawkeye forward in time an hour and then bring him back to where he was, which is where his unofficial title of "temporal boomerang" comes from. Unfortunately, the device was damaged during an encounter with Spider-Man, so Hawkeye needs Bryce's help to fix it. All it takes to get Bryce to flip sides from The Hood to Hawkeye is $10,000 of Hood's own money.
Hawkeye has never been considered the smartest Avenger, and we can point to him asking a hacker to try to fix a complicated time-travel machine as evidence. Clint is desperate to keep up his illusion, but it is only a matter of time before the truth comes out. The issue ends with Daredevil finding a maskless Ronin inside a Maggia safe house full of dead henchmen. Since Daredevil is blind, does this mean he won't recognize Clint in his Ronin costume? After all, his heightened senses only show him an outline of a person's figure.
Another possibility is this is all wishful thinking since the time machine is broken anyway. Hawkeye can't even get a stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoy of himself to function properly. Maybe Kang can take some time out of guest-starring in the Doctor Doom solo series to help Clint out.