Author: Charles Murphy

The latest episode of the Marvel Studios Disney Plus series Hawkeye picks up the pace and presents probably the most complete and best episode so far. Part of picking up the pace meant speeding through flashbacks to tell the origin story of one of the series’ main characters, Maya Lopez. Much like the flashbacks that told the tragedy of Kate Bishop’s early life, Maya’s flashbacks take up about 5 minutes of screen time and end in a similar tragedy. Through the use of these flashbacks, the episode draws some intriguing parallels between the two young women and gives them a common point from where their paths through life diverged.

Paterfamilias

In the cases of both Kate and Maya, Hawkeye establishes a loving relationship between father and daughter. Both Derek Bishop and Willie Lopez are shown to share special bonds with their daughters. In Kate’s case, it’s made clear that her childhood relationship with her father is stronger than that with her mother. When it’s noticed that she is eavesdropping on her parents’ argument, her mother indicates to her father that he’s the one who will have more success communicating with Kate while she’s upset. In Maya’s case, it’s implied that her father is a single parent but it is clear that the two share a special bond. When Willie is unable to send Maya to a deaf school, he teaches her to embrace her disability and assures her that she’ll be stronger for it. He’s portrayed as a father who teaches his daughter to refuse to use her disabilities as an excuse and one who wants the best for her, even if his station in life doesn’t make it possible for him to deliver.

Essentially both girls look up to their fathers as heroes but the two fathers’ lives are very different. Derek is portrayed as an optimistic silver spooner while Willie is equally optimistic but seems to have to scrape for every penny and chooses to do so as part of a criminal organization. And make no mistake about it, the difference in the circumstances in which Kate and Maya were raised lead directly to the divergent paths they took in life.

For both characters, the relationships with their fathers have truly made them who they are. Both are shown to be uniquely skilled and driven; both are shown to be determined and dynamic; both are also shown to have apply those characteristics in very different ways.

Death of a Father

In the case of any child, the death of a parent is traumatic. Hawkeye draws another parallel between the two characters by having them both experience the deaths of their fathers. However, the responses of the two character to the death’s of their fathers are entirely different. The death of Kate’s father (bit mysterious, don’t you think? I’m not convinced her mom didn’t kill him) during the Battle of New York set Kate on her journey to be a protector, a hero, like her father; the death of Maya’s father (much less mysterious) set her on a journey to become a violent, vengeful criminal.

The New Father Figure

After suffering the loss of their fathers, Kate and Maya have father figures step into the void. In Kate’s case, Jacques Duquesne tries to charm his way into her life, going so far as to brag about buying a book about being a stepdad. In Maya’s case, her not-so-mysterious “Uncle” is still looking after her and she find herself in his employ. On one hand, we see Kate rail against allowing someone as slimy as Jacques into her life; on the other hand, we see Maya, choose the life of a mob enforcer. Simply enough, one chose the light while the other chose the dark.

The Clint Connection

The two characters have walked divergent paths following the losses of their fathers but those divergent paths have now converged thanks to a common interest: Clint Barton. The ending of Episode 2 and beginning of Episode 3 really highlight the entirely opposite interests the characters have in Barton: Kate comes crashing into the abandoned KB Toy Store warehouse to save Clint just as Echo makes her way to interrogate him about the Ronin. Clint Barton is the intersection of these characters lives and the revelation of his secret, which he’s holding from both of them, will greatly impact how both of them view him.

How will Kate look at her hero when she finds out he was Ronin? How will Maya deal with discovering the identity of her father’s murderer? While it was Clint that brought the two together, the answers to those questions could well set them on divergent paths once more in the aftermath of Hawkeye.

Episode 3 of Hawkeye, “Echoes”, delivered on last week’s tease and gave us a full introduction to Maya Lopez, aka Echo, played by newcomer Alaqua Cox. While the translation of the character to the MCU from the comics stays faithful to her Native American heritage, her deafness and her connection to Wilson Fisk, the series makes one major change to her origins that will have a huge impact on how the remainder of the series plays out.

Episode 3 introduces not only Maya, but her father, Willie, and lays out that he works in “upper management” of the Tracksuit Mafia for the head of organized crime. This, too, is true to the comics were her father, Willie “Crazy Horse” Lincoln, works for the Kingpin. And in both the comics and the series, Maya is forced to watch her father’s life in crime catch up with him as he dies in her arms and places his blood-soaked hand on her face. However, Marvel Studios has chosen to make a major change to that event and the consequences of that change are already becoming obvious.

In the 1998 Daredevil series, Maya’s father is killed by the Kingpin. While Kingpin called Willie his “good friend”, he ruthlessly shot him for an undefined mistake. Willie’s dying wish was for Kingpin to take care of his daughter, a promise he kept by raising her and affording her every luxury. Twenty years after her father’s death, Maya was told by Kingpin that it was Daredevil who murdered him, setting the two up for an epic clash. Eventually, Maya learns the truth about who murdered her father and takes her revenge my shooting the Kingpin in the face at point blank range.

Hawkeye tells a very different version of Willie’s death, making Clint Barton the man responsible for it. In the series, Maya sees her father take the business end of Ronin’s blade and then holding him as he dies. The first two episodes of the series made it clear that the Clint and the Tracksuits had a history; this episode clarifies the extent of that history and now puts Clint not only in Maya’s crosshairs, but also potentially the Kingpin’s. In episode 3, Clint tap danced around the identity of Ronin both in conversation with Maya and Kate; it probably won’t be long before his secret comes out. How will the series choose to deal with the reveal? What will be the cost of Echo and Kingpin finding out? Hopefully Clint doesn’t meet the same fate as Fisk did in the comics, but it is clear that these changes will result in some very different takes on both Echo’s existing relationships and those she might forge along the way.

Today’s episode of Hawkeye, “Echoes”, jumped right into Maya Lopez’s backstory. The first 5 minutes of so of the episode gave us everything we need to know about the character and introduced the two most influential men in her life: her father, Willie Lopez, and her “Uncle.” We later find out that her “Uncle” is also the big boss of organized crime in New York City, a man, as Clint explains it, will “do anything to grow the operation” and is “someone you don’t want to mess with.” Who is this “Uncle” and what does his presence mean for the Hawkeyes and the future of the MCU? Read on, True Beleivers.

In this case, the term “Uncle” is clearly not a strictly familial term but rather a way of recognizing the close relationship between Maya’s father and the man in black that we meet at about 5:18 into the episode right before Maya’s karate match. As the episode explains, Maya’s father worked for “Uncle” as upper management in the Tracksuits, meaning he was someone that the man trusted very much. His death, at the hands of Ronin, not only interrupted operations but also may have been a very personal loss for both Maya and her “Uncle.” In putting all the pieces together and digging into the comics for some support, it’s clear that Maya’s “Uncle” is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of New York City.

While there are some pretty significant changes to the story and the relationship in Hawkeye, the Kingpin was a similarly significant figure in Maya’s life in the comics. In her origin arc, which was told beautifully over several issues of 1998’s Daredevil, we learn that Maya’s father worked for Fisk and was, in Fisk’s words “a good friend.” It’s that close friendship between the two men that’s being interpreted as Fisk being Maya’s “Uncle” in the series.

Rumors of Kingpin appearing in Hawkeye, with Vincent D’Onofrio reprising his role from the Netflix Daredevil series, have swirled for months; today’s episode laid any doubts to rest. At the 5:18 mark when “Uncle” touches young Maya’s face and chuckles, the chuckle discernably belong to D’Onofrio. With such a blatant tease in Episode 3, it won’t be much longer before the series fully reveals the identity of Maya’s “Uncle.” The arrival of the Kingpin on the scene will mean that Kate and Clint will now be faced with a ruthless and powerful adversary, much more competent and deadly than his Tracksuit goons.

With Wilson Fisk operating in the MCU, it’s only a matter of time before he crosses paths with Daredevil and, potentially Spider-Man; in fact, D’Onofrio, who took to Twitter to share his excitement for the upcoming series, mentioned in a recent interview that if he were to reprise the role of Fisk, he’d love to square off against Spidey. Now it seems that’s not only possible, but maybe even inevitable.