Hawkeye offered a unique and unparalleled look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe archer, allowing him to shine in a spotlight he so seldom had in the team-up Avengers movies where he first established his reputation as the world's greatest marksman. Yet, at the same time, the MCU has yet to delve into the hero's past or cultivate his very own rogues gallery, obscuring his origins in secrecy and making his personal rivalries a mystery.
But by introducing his brother Trickshot from the comics, a Hawkeye sequel could have one of the MCU's greatest future villains on its hands while also giving its hero all the backstory he deserves. Many MCU fans may not know him yet, but before long, they could well need to familiarize themselves with Charles "Barney" Barton.
Barney Barton was Clint's brother, with the two brothers sharing in the physical abuse of their father during their early childhood. It was only after their parents' death that the boys ran away to join the circus, but whereas Clint took the training of Swordsman and an archer named Trickshot to hone the abilities that would later make him Hawkeye, Barney primarily focused on trying to gain a semblance of a normal life. He eventually got his G.E.D. before working for the U.S. government on secret assignments, but eventually, the weirdness of Hawkeye's life caught up to Barney and nearly took his life. Almost killed by the villain Eggman and later revived in a plot to get back at Hawkeye, Barney honed his abilities to be almost as good as his brother's before taking the name "Trickshot" for himself.
Since that time, Trickshot's love/hate relationship with Hawkeye defined much of his appearances in the comics. He later appeared as a member of a Dark Avengers team where his insecurities over his unfavorable comparison to his brother dominated his character, and ultimately, that is exactly what gets at the heart of what is great about the character. It's hard enough for the world to spare much love for the world's greatest archer, but the world's second greatest archer gets even less. But what already works so well in the comics would work even better in the MCU where Trickshot could truly shine.
Despite Hawkeye appearing in five films and now his own television series, the MCU iteration of the character has next to nothing known about his past before joining the super team. There is frequent mention made of his career as a SHIELD agent and a partner to Natasha Romanoff in the MCU thus far, but fans are still left clueless about his childhood or how he came to select such an idiosyncratic weapon to specialize in. Introducing Trickshot in a future Hawkeye season would provide the perfect occasion to explore that, and to do so better than ever before.
Despite Hawkeye's mainstream comic counterpart primarily tracing his origins back to the circus that created his origin, the MCU version is actually far more inspired by his Ultimate iteration, whose more militaristic and professional interpretation has nothing of the circus-based origins. But the Trickshot of the mainstream Marvel Universe already has his origins tied in with the U.S. military and secret services, meaning that tying him in the MCU can further reconnect the bowman to his comic roots. Digging into the brothers' abusive past could offer unprecedented insight into Clint's psychology, and by using Barney as a foil, the audience can further understand the dark road Clint could easily have gone down.
Trickshot has never been a particularly popular character, but then again, in the grand scheme of things, neither was Hawkeye. The MCU continues to bring unparalleled attention to all sorts of characters who were rarely featured as primary protagonists or antagonists and who certainly were not household names.
Now that Hawkeye occupies that space, it may be time for his brother to step up as well. With the first season of Hawkeye standing out as a tremendous success, it is anyone's guess what the series' future may be. But the further the MCU presses into that future, it might just benefit the most from looking at Hawkeye's past.
To see Clint's past explored, Hawkeye is streaming now on Disney+.