Easter Eggs You Missed In Hawkeye

Contains spoilers for "Hawkeye"

Hawkeye (Clint Barton) might not seem like the most exciting character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his Disney+ show has certainly offered plenty of excitement on all fronts. Apart from introducing viewers to amazing characters like Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) and Pizza Dog, the show does some pretty heavy lifting to depict the everyday struggles of a habitually modest, non-superpowered Avenger who lives in a world where half the people hero-worship his team ... and the other half want his head, due to his bloody activities as Ronin. "Hawkeye" also features some pretty interesting returning characters, an intriguing plotline ... and, of course, tons and tons of nods at other corners of the MCU. 

As the show that's chronologically furthest out in the MCU timeline, "Hawkeye" is free to allude to events all across the board, and the show uses this liberty to quite a large extent. Let's take a look at some of the most interesting Easter eggs you might have missed in "Hawkeye." 

Since Kate Bishop's origin story involves losing her dad and starting her hero-worship of Clint Barton during 2012's Battle of New York, she's essentially one big call-back to "The Avengers" and the event that ended MCU's Phase 1. However, her story also involves a nice Easter egg featuring the movie that started said phase. 

The first time Kate demonstrates her considerable archery skills in the show ends in a disaster, when a bow-and-arrow prank goes wrong and destroys the bell tower at her campus. A blink-and-you-miss-it sign reveals that the doomed structure is called Stane Tower, which is a reference to the very first MCU villain: Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), the second-in-command of Stark Industries in "Iron Man." The seemingly affable and trustworthy Stane turns out to be a full-on villain who's behind Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) kidnapping ... and who eventually acquires a powered suit of his own, with destructive results.

"Iron Man," of course, is the movie that kicked off the whole MCU thing, and the fact that the newest superhero to join the universe semi-accidentally destroys a prestigious part of its first supervillain's legacy is a magnificent continuity detail that immediately establishes Kate as a believable part of this world.   

Kate Bishop is an extremely talented and focused individual who excels at virtually everything she puts her mind at, as long as it doesn't require listening to orders of any kind. She even has an eye for marketing and branding, and immediately points out to Clint that his comparative lack of popularity is due to the fact that his image isn't particularly captivating. 

Unfortunately, Kate hasn't applied her considerable talents to art or fashion design, and when she shows Clint a sketch of a possible new costume that would turn him into the talk of the town, the older hero is decidedly unimpressed. Fans who are familiar with Hawkeye's look in the comics, though, are in for a treat. After all, Kate's drawing skills might be less than impressive, but her idea for Clint's new costume is actually pretty close to how the Avenger should really look — in other words, Kate casually brings Clint's classic costume design from the comics in the MCU. 

"Hawkeye" is the first time we see Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) little sister, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), as the main Black Widow of the MCU. As such, it's only natural for her to have a lengthy scene with the up-and-coming Hawkeye, Kate Bishop. Pretty much everything about the pair's meeting in Episode 5 is an Easter egg of some sort, from their general chemistry — which mirrors that of the sardonic Clint and the cool Natasha to a startling degree — to the various nods at previous events that you might have missed. For instance, Yelena's self-professed love of American-style Holidays and mac and cheese are both references to her sleeper agent childhood days in "Black Widow," and she still continues to refer to Alexei "Red Guardian" Shostakov as her "dad." 

Interestingly, Yelena also mentions Kate that she wants to see the "new and improved" Statue of Liberty, meaning the version retrofitted with a giant replica of Captain America's shield that's the location of a pivotal action scene in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." It sure looks like the MCU version of New York is either feeling very nostalgic about Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), or fully embracing Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the new Captain America. Hopefully, it's both.

One of the most interesting characters "Hawkeye" introduces in the MCU is Maya "Echo" Lopez (Alaqua Cox), an anti-villain who uses her status among the Tracksuit Mafia to avenge her father's (Zahn McClarnon) death at the hands of Hawkeye's alter ego, Ronin. In the show, Maya dresses in a fairly straightforward fashion, eschewing her gang's customary tracksuits in favor of biker leather and practical streetwear. However, "Hawkeye" takes care to include a few handy Easter eggs that nod at her comic book incarnation. 

In the comics, Maya Lopez is immediately recognizable by the painted handprint across her face, which was inspired by a bloody handprint her father left before his death — a scene that's also replicated in the show, complete with the handprint on her face and everything. Earlier in Episode 3, you can spot a painting that features another handprint in Maya's room, virtually confirming that she'll take on the Echo identity in her upcoming solo series ... or will she? It just so happens that another prominent superhero identity Maya uses in the comics is none other than Ronin, and during Clint's fight with Maya in the Tracksuit Mafia's hideout, parts of their battle are framed much like Clint's Ronin rampages, possibly indicating the fact that the fight's between the two versions of the Ronin character. Exciting times! 

"Hawkeye" Episode 5 confirms once and for all that Netflix's Marvel shows are at least somewhat part of the MCU canon by bringing Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk in the fold. However, the show already included a stealthy nod in that direction in its very first episode — and it's far from the only MCU work to do so. 

The Easter egg in question is the very real newscaster Pat Kiernan, who has been the MCU's go-to anchorman since "The Avengers" ... but who's also appeared in multiple Netflix Marvel shows in the same capacity. Kiernan's appearance in "Hawkeye" might initially appear to be just fun little wink-and-nod thing to the fans who are particularly good at paying attention to details like this, but as Kingpin's emergence shows, he can also be seen as the first harbinger of the apparent merging of MCU and the Netflix corner of the world.