WARNING: The following contains spoilers for What If...? Season 1, Episode 8, "What If... Ultron Won?," streaming now on Disney+.
It's safe to say that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), despite being human, have truly cut intimidating figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a world of gods, aliens and super-powered beings, they have held their own as spies for SHIELD, inspiring Captain America, Iron Man and the rest to be better. However, as good as they were, the What If TV series kicks it up a notch, shaping the most badass version of the duo and making them the type of soldiers we wish we'd gotten to see on the big screen.
In "What If... Ultron Won?," the opening sequence features Ultron's robotic legion hunting down the duo, which allows Clint to flex big time. With his robotic arm, invisibility cloak and a vast array of explosive arrows, he's like a mix of Ronin and Hawkeye, but with a lot more aggression. Seeing him manually attacking the bots, using arrows to confuse and impale them, and even decapitating some with his bow proves this is indeed a man who's lost everything after Ultron nuked Earth.
To top if off, the way Nat commandeers her bicycle, leaping over bots and crushing their heads with the bike tires, proves that she's every bit the super-soldier Steve Rogers was, all without the serum. She pulls off epic stunts in this episode, knowing she and Clint are the last resort after Ultron killed off Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The relentless, lethal nature of the war they're fighting also informs the way she and Hawkeye behave, and why they're so tired. We didn't see a modicum of this viciousness in the Avengers movies or even the Black Widow film, so it's something we can't help but appreciate in this alternate reality.
A lot of it has to do with their attitudes, as Nat's trying to get Clint not to be defeatist, hoping he continues to cut loose, as they don't have rules to play by anymore. They double down on this violence, in a way the MCU would never allow, when they free Arnim Zola and upload him into a minion so he can help them hack and shut Ultron down.
In a firefight at the Hydra base, Nat's once again cracking skulls and ripping off heads with her electric batons, even using Red Guardian's shield to aid her in the fight. Hawkeye, however, proves to be the scene-stealer with his selfless acts, using force-field arrows to subdue the tyrants, only to sacrifice himself in a remix of the Black Widow death in Avengers: Infinity War.
There, he drops into a pit with the encroaching bots, using a bomb arrow to incinerate everyone coming after them. It's quite heroic, and it absolutely breaks Nat. While a part of her might be glad no one's around to impose some self-righteous will on this mission, she's broken over losing her partner, especially as she's not able to use Zola to take Ultron out despite all the rage bottled up.
The season finale of What If...? airs Wednesday, October 6th on Disney+.