Wrapping up this rundown of Hawkeye's appearances on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes...
The second season of Avengers: EMH premiered in April 2012, also on Disney XD paired with the new Ultimate Spider-Man animated series (more about this show in the next part of the retrospective), both airing inside the Marvel Universe block which continues to air today, though sadly AEMH has been replaced in the meantime with another Avengers show which I don't like as much, but I'll get to this later on as well. The first part of the season features a pretty amazing story-arc concerning the Skrull's Secret Invasion, the show's longest running story-line, which was actually alluded to in the first season and has a pretty awesome pay-off here. The latter half of the season unfortunately isn't as good - the episodes have apparently been modified in order to make the stories seem more stand-alone and to focus more on the "more important" characters on the show, thanks to a change of command in Marvel's television department. The episodes for the most part are still pretty good, with some great moments here and there but more often than not the stories feel rushed.
The season premieres with "The Private War of Doctor Doom"; from the start we see Lucia von Bardas report to her boss about the Avengers: their powers, skills and threat levels (Hawkeye's threat level was considered low). Probably the most fun portion of this episode is seeing the Avengers interact with the Fantastic Four. Clint, for example is playing a poker game with some of his team-mates and the Human Torch and Thing. There's a neat scene where he "defends" Cap's mistake of not recognizing Johnny Storm, claiming that Steve is like 100 years old. He spends the rest of the episode mostly fighting Doombots at the Avenger's Mansion, and joins the others on their mission to Latveria to save Wasp and the Invisible Woman. Doom was great here - not only was he prepared for pretty much everything the heroes tried against him, but the real reason for his seemingly random attack and kidnapping was a pretty clever way to remind us of the Secret Invasion story. All in all, a great way to start the season.
In "Acts of Vengeance", Clint accompanies Iron Man on a mission to save the Crimson Dynamo from Amora's wrath. There's a fun scene towards the end of the episode as well when (back at the Avengers Mansion) Clint shoots an electric arrow on the Enchantress' head which shocks her (literally) just as she was boasting that no one can touch her.
The arrival of Michael Korvac on Earth leads to a confrontation between the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, at least until the heroes stop and actually listen to what the "space Avengers" have to say. Hawkeye is present though he doesn't get to do that much here; he goes up against the Star-Lord and manages to defeat him temporarily with one of his trick arrows, and has a good line when he first sees the Guardians up close ("There's a tree and a raccoon scowling at us, man!"). There's also a neat moment with some more Clint/T'Challa interactions, when they investigate the crater Korvac created when he landed on our planet.
The Skrull story-arc continues to build up in "Who Do You Trust?", where Nick Fury lets Iron Man know about the aliens and warns him that the Avengers have been infiltrated as well, and suspects Hawkeye to be the traitor. But before I get to all that, we get to see most of the Avengers (including Hawkeye) out of costume, enjoying a pizza in a diner trying to officially welcome Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel to the team. It's a nice moment, as we haven't really seen that much of the heroes' private lives, and it also helps make the conclusion to this episode have a bigger impact. There's some good stuff here - not only some more background on Carol, but also more of the neat interactions between the characters. Once the Griffin attacks Carol is "forced" to fight him, with the others simply watching her fight from a safe distance (some sort of initiation ritual). Clint also comments that he's not the low man on the totem pole anymore. A pretty amusing scene.
Following the events from the previous season's "Hail, Hydra!" episode, which introduced the Skrulls on the show (Madame Viper was revealed to be an alien), Mockingbird explains how Clint was spared his life when they were captured by Baron Strucker, fueling the idea that he's the most likely suspect. Iron Man confronts his teammates with these news and what follows is a pretty intense scene, with the team starting to fall apart due to trust issues. Clint has been considered a traitor before and doesn't want to hear any of this - he gets some great lines here as well ("I saved this team more times than I can count. I helped save the world. I'm not some alien.") Ms. Marvel has to follow orders and tries to bring Clint in for questioning, which leads to a brief but great confrontation between the heroes. In the end, the team disbands with Iron Man claiming he can no longer trust any of them. Clint gets another good line here to Carol, before she leaves (and interestingly enough doesn't report any of this to SWORD) : "I'm not a Skrull. And I'm not some flunkie for SHIELD. I'm an Avenger. And if you're going to try and take me you'd better be sure. You'd better be sure about all of us."
Captain America (the real undercover Skrull agent) won't quit, and asks the ones who have stayed behind to remain as part of the team - Clint (quitting now would only make him seem like he's admitting he's guilty), Jan and Hulk. Sort of this show's version of the Kooky Quartet line-up from the comics. In the end, everything is going according to the Skrull's master plan - the Skrull Cap is now in charge of the Avengers, and Mockingbird is revealed to be a Skrull herself, and not just any Skrull, but their Queen Veranke. All in all, a pretty amazing episode and the story-arc isn't over yet.
I guess this is a good a time as any to mention the final moments of this show's opening credits, where the Avengers are shown. The intro gradually evolved as the team got more members, and these last few episodes it only showcased the key characters for the episode (only Thor for "The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill", and this Kooky Quartet-esque team for "Nightmare in Red"). The latter episode introduces the Red Hulk, whose real identity is still sort of a mystery at the end and it'll only be revealed in a later story (though you can guess who he is), as well as a certain "Dell Rusk" who'll also play a larger role in the future (once his real identity is also revealed) and his team of warriors, including the Winter Solider and Falcon. The few remaining Avengers are called in to help SHIELD as the Helicarrrier is under attack from the Red Hulk, who everyone aboard just assumes it's still Banner.
Meanwhile we get some neat scenes highlighting the bond between Banner and Clint, as the former tries enjoying one of his few days "outside" the Hulk by fishing. Clint is more annoyed by all this and mentions he already misses the Hulk. Once the news about Rulk reach Clint, he's asked to bring Banner back to the Mansion and keep him safe - they are in fact attacked by Falcon, who is defeated with one of Clint's electric arrows. Clint is however knocked out by Rulk and joins Cap and Wasp in a sort of rescue mission to save the Hulk from the Rulk. The red villain seems to be more than a match for all the heroes (and pretty much each of Clint's trick arrows), though Hawkeye does manage to temporarily blind Rulk with one of his flare arrows, long enough for the others to defeat him. He manages to escape though, and (thanks to the Skrull Captain America), Banner surrenders himself to General Ross, thus leaving the Avengers powerless, all according to the aliens' plan of conquest.
In "Prisoner of War", we get to see what happened to the real Captain America: he's been a prisoner aboard a Skrull ship for two months. After the aliens try tricking him to give them more information by pretending they're the Avengers and have come to rescue him (one of the Skrulls impersonates Hawkeye - he even uses a freeze arrow to make things look more realistic!) Cap realizes it's a trick and manages to escape from his cell. What follows is Cap freeing the other captives (both heroes and villains) and leading them to safety, once they get past the first of the Super Skrulls.
A group of Skrulls posing as the Avengers try attacking Wakanda in "Infiltration", claiming they're the real ones and have been replaced by aliens when they got back from Asgard. Ms. Marvel is tricked by them at first but that changes once the real Black Panther and the real Hawkeye and Wasp intervene and reveal the alien's true identities. As a bonus, amidst all the fighting we get to see the two Hawkeyes dueling - the real one obviously wins, with his skills surprising his extraterrestrial doppelganger. Even without his bow, Clint manages to catch and shoot an arrow with perfect accuracy, taking out the Skrull Wasp, before punching his doppelganger. ("No! No one's that good!" / "Guess what. I am.")
The Skrull story-line reaches its climax in the episode titled "Secret Invasion" - all undercover Skrull agents have started disposing of Earth's defenses, and the fake Captain America broadcasts a message to the world explaining the aliens are here to help the human race. Hawkeye alongside Ms. Marvel and Wasp try getting through an army of Super Skrulls, before getting help from the real Cap and the prisoners he freed in an earlier episode, as well as Iron Man and Thor who has just returned to Midgard. There are some great moments here, some of them also regarding Clint. For example, his anger when he realizes Cap has been the traitor all along, or when he sees Mockingbird took part in all of this as well. Also some more interactions between him and Ms. Marvel, building off the events from when she suspected Clint of being a Skrull. It's a pretty amazing episode overall, and it works great as a conclusion to this long running story-line. In the end the world is saved, but not without paying a price (this mostly affects Cap, as the world won't be trusting him as much in the future), and some of the consequences to this war will be featured in the following episodes. Unfortunately, pretty much each of the following stories are a little rushed, resulting in them not being as awesome as the episodes up to this point. For the most part they're still good, but the difference in quality is quite noticeable.
"Along Came a Spider" was the first cartoon in over 30 years to guest-star Spider-Man, so the episode (and the show) became even more special. The story sees Peter Parker and Betty Brant trying to take an interview with Cap, in an attempt to explain he wasn't the one who basically sold out or planet to the Skrulls in the previous episode. Cap alongside Hawkeye and some SHIELD agents are overseeing a transport of super-villains to the Baxter Building (where they'd most likely be imprisoned inside the Negative Zone prison 42), but they are under attack by the remaining members of the Serpent Society who wish to free their leader Madame Viper. The episode mostly takes place in an underground tunnel, below the subway tracks where Cap and Spidey try to keep civilians safe from the Serpents. It's a pretty awesome episode overall, with some great scenes between Cap and Spidey. Even Clint, despite not really doing anything worth mentioning in this episode at least gets a good line when he sees the young photographer the Daily Bugle sent ("Respect your elders, kid.").
Ultron returns in "Behold... the Vision!", where he sends his creation the Vision to acquire adamantium, vibanium and Cap's shield in order to make himself indestructible. Cap alongside Thor and Hawkeye have traveled to Wakanda, where the Black Panther has agreed to repair Cap's shield (which was shattered by Loki back in the season one finale). Clint spends most of his time in Wakanda arguing with T'Challa, apparently still holding a grudge against him for quitting the team during the Skrull invasion so he can protect his own kingdom. Apart from enjoying the Wakandan "scenery", Clint even tries to challenge T'Challa for leadership of Wakanda though fails in some pretty comedic ways - a nice distraction from all the other stuff going on in this episode, while still staying true to the character's portrayals on the show so far. Once the Vision attacks them, the android seems more than a match for every hero present. He manages to make Clint mad when he simply disintegrates his bow ("Oh, you're gonna pay for that!"), prompting the archer to try his hand to hand combat skills on the machine though without any success. In the end the combined forces of the Avengers (and T'Challa's vibranium forge) manage to injure the android's body, who retreats from the battle before completing his mission. But he will return, and true to the comics will eventually join the Avengers.
"Powerless" is probably the weakest episode of an otherwise amazing show. Some of the show's continuity is pretty much ignored here, which makes this story seem off. Thanks to one of Amora's spells, the Avengers have lost their powers and have to face the Destroyer (controlled by Loki). The main idea behind this episode is that Thor has to learn humility - something that already happened throughout the first season, so it doesn't really make any sense here. Cap, Thor and Iron Man are affected by this weird spell (with some even weirder results) though Hawkeye's skills remain unaffected. Clint tries keeping the others safe from the attacks of the Wrecking Crew (these guys and the previously mentioned Serpent Society were the most often used recurring minor villains on this show), and eventually the Destroyer armor. Probably the scene I enjoyed the most here was Clint managing to enable Iron Man's prototype armor to shoot its repulsor rays ("Cars, motorcycles, repulsor rays... Hot-wiring is hot wiring."), but that's about it.
In "Ultron Unlimited", Ultron begins his plan to replace the Avengers with his own synthezoid Avengers he believes he can control. This is just the first step in his master plan - replacing the entire human race with robots he will build. The Vision leads most of these attacks on the heroes and thanks to the neural interfaces placed on the trapped Avengers, the synthezoids now have access to all of their skills and powers. Hawkeye is captured by his robotic doppelganger, as are pretty much all of the other heroes except for Captain America who manages to rescue the others (with a little help from Vision, whom he has convinced with his beliefs to turn against his master). The robot Avengers are all destroyed - the Hawkeye android is crushed by Thor, while the real Hawkeye destroys Ms. Marvel's double. Loved the way he just smiles as he says "Nothing personal" to the real Ms. Marvel, most likely alluding to their previous misunderstandings. In the end Ultron is apparently destroyed while a badly injured Vision is saved by Cap, and claims that he believes that in order to become perfect he should act more human. There's also a neat scene before the heroes are replaced with robots where Clint is having lots of fun playing around with the energy shield Iron Man built for Cap while his mighty shield was shattered (and which the real Cap has barely had a chance to use on the show; it was mostly used by the undercover Skrull agent posing as Cap earlier this season).
When Hank Pym takes on the mantle of Yellowjacket (after he is believed dead) and starts imprisoning members of the Serpent Society inside his new micro-prison. The Avengers try to stop him but they all get trapped inside the micro-verse, with the prison about to collapse. The Serpents get free and attack the heroes; Hawkeye gets to fight and defeats Bushmaster. In the end they manage to escape and Yellowjacket is "welcomed" to the team. There's another neat scene regarding Clint when he's interviewed by the press about who Yellowjacket really is, prompting him to exclaim "When it's good news, Tony always gets interviewed looking like a movie star. When it's bad news, they ambush me. Never fails.".
In "Emperor Stark", the Purple Man takes control of pretty much everyone on the planet, starting with Iron Man (he used one of his satellites to enable his mind-control powers to cover the entire world). The Vision - who has been repaired, joined the Avengers and has been off-line for the last 30 days - awakens and gradually helps the other heroes come to their senses and plan an attack on the Purple Man. Cap is the first one to recover, though the two are soon under attack by Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel. Hawkeye and Cap take part in a chase on a couple of sky-cycles, with Clint managing to catch the old man and try to crash their sky-cycle to make sure the traitor is dealt with. What follows is a pretty awesome exchange between the two, resulting in Clint coming to his senses. Cap's little speech perfectly describes what Clint is all about.
Clint: It's over, Cap. You lose.
Cap: You're being used, Hawkeye. By the Purple Man.
Clint: Think I'm gonna listen to you? Stark said you were a traitor. So I'm taking you down.
Cap: You've never listened to anyone. Not me, and sure as heck not Iron Man. And now, you're just gonna blindly follow orders? You've never done that in your life. And now you're gonna get yourself killed because Tony Stark told you to? No one tells Hawkeye what to do. Come on, Clint!
Once most of the heroes are back to normal, Cap plans on confronting Iron Man himself, while the others try to use a Quinjet to reach and destroy the satellite used by the Purple Man. There's a great moment where Vision comments how easy it was to take out the Iron Man armors that weer guarding the jet, prompting Clint to teach him that one should never mention how easy a fight is - something which will come up again in a later episode. He was right though, as a mind-controlled Thor tries to stop them but the Vision manages to keep him busy long enough. In space, Clint once again controls the jet's guns, taking down every Iron Man armor guarding the satellite, and in the end the satellite itself. There's another neat scene where Ms. Marvel briefly falls back under Purple Man's control and tries to dispose of Clint, but he manages to distract her with a flare arrow. All in all, a decent and very entertaining episode.
Hawkeye is briefly featured during the Red Skull mini-arc. In the first part, "Code Red" he gets to fight Falcon again when the latter breaks into the Avengers Mansion as part of the Code Red team deployed by the Secretary of Defense, Dell Rusk after the heroes have been framed regarding an epidemic in the city. Clint wins the fight thanks to a sonic arrow ("Birds hate them"), but starts to feel the effects of the virus himself. He does manage to find the device that caused the explosion and spreading of the virus in the first place, and thanks to his SHIELD background recognizes the device and where it came from. The rest of the episode is basically Captain America revealing that Rusk is the Red Skull (though they never bothered to really explain how he survived all this time) and manages to take him down.
In the second part, titled "Winter Soldier", the title character is revealed to be Bucky, Cap's old sidekick from the days of WWII who has been brainwashed by the Red Skull and turned into a perfect solider. The Avengers now have to stop the Skull's giant robot called the Sleeper from destroying the Capitol building. Hawkeye is seen among the assembled heroes though he doesn't really get to do anything worth mentioning here - his trick arrows weren't the best thing in the world to stop a giant rampaging robot.
The Hulk returns in "The Deadliest Man Alive", and once again fights with the Red Hulk - who is revealed to be General Ross, and is in the middle of his plan of discrediting Hulk and trying to join the Avengers himself. He manages to trick most of the heroes with his intentions, except for Cap who still believes Hulk is innocent. I guess the main thing that bothered me this episode was that Hawkeye was a little too willing to believe Hulk is the threat Ross made him out to be. The show has established very well just how close their friendship is in past episodes so seeing them so willing to fight Hulk was kind of weird. These three characters were actually the only ones who decided to remain as Avengers when the team split up during the Skrull invasion. Plus, Hawkeye was the reason Hulk re-joined the team after the events of the two-part "Gamma World" episode, back in season one. That should say something about how close they became. A little inconsistent regarding character development, but still a pretty neat adventure and it does tie up nicely some of the events from previous episodes.
The Kree story-line is wrapped up towards the end of the show, in two episodes ("Operation Galactic Storm" and "Live Kree or Die"). In the first part, the Kree plan on opening a worm-hole next to the sun, which would tear the sun apart and eventually end all life on earth. The Avengers launch an attack in space against the aliens, which ends with Black Panther (seemingly) sacrificing his life so that their mission is a success, and after Hawkeye uses his uncanny skills to shoot the five generator ships, the heroes end up going through the wormhole into Kree space. In the second part, the heroes are split up across the Kree home-world and encounter various threats, such as some alien beasts on a training ground or the Supreme Intelligence itself. There's not a lot to talk about here in regards to Clint; the entire team is in the spotlight in this story, and ultimately it's Mar-Vell the one who saves the day. There is a neat little scene where Clint is reminded that one should never say how easy a fight is (something which Vision learned the hard way back in "Emperor Stark"). It's a good story with some nice action scenes and a good enough conclusion to some of the long-running sub-plots this show had.
The show ends with "Avengers Assemble", the episode where pretty much every super-hero that appeared on the show before returns and together they face off against Galactus and his four heralds (sadly, no Silver Surfer here). The Avengers and their allies split up into teams to take care of the heralds, who are building devices that would help Galactus consume the Earth. Hawkeye is joined by Wasp, the Human Torch, Thing and Wolverine as they confront Stardust (Clint is actually the one who destroys the device with his trick arrows). With the large number of characters featured in this episode it would have been impossible to give each one the same amount of screen-time, but what we got worked out great in the end. The story did feel rushed but it was still fun and a good enough send-off to this amazing show.
All things considered, I really liked how Hawkeye was presented on this show. He was one of my favorite characters here, though I really can't think of a character I didn't like on this series. Pretty much everything about him worked out so well, and he was lots of fun. I can say the same about the show in general - while the latter half of this season is far from perfect, as a whole it's still an amazing and fun animated series, and I think it's remarkable how much stuff they managed to fit into the show's run. I'd say it's one of the best Marvel cartoons of all time, and it's definitely my favorite super-hero team show from Marvel. A shame I find it's successor isn't anywhere near as entertaining or well-written, but I'll get to that a little later. Next stop: Hawkeye on Ultimate Spider-Man and Iron Man: Rise of Technovore!
The second season of Avengers: EMH premiered in April 2012, also on Disney XD paired with the new Ultimate Spider-Man animated series (more about this show in the next part of the retrospective), both airing inside the Marvel Universe block which continues to air today, though sadly AEMH has been replaced in the meantime with another Avengers show which I don't like as much, but I'll get to this later on as well. The first part of the season features a pretty amazing story-arc concerning the Skrull's Secret Invasion, the show's longest running story-line, which was actually alluded to in the first season and has a pretty awesome pay-off here. The latter half of the season unfortunately isn't as good - the episodes have apparently been modified in order to make the stories seem more stand-alone and to focus more on the "more important" characters on the show, thanks to a change of command in Marvel's television department. The episodes for the most part are still pretty good, with some great moments here and there but more often than not the stories feel rushed.
The season premieres with "The Private War of Doctor Doom"; from the start we see Lucia von Bardas report to her boss about the Avengers: their powers, skills and threat levels (Hawkeye's threat level was considered low). Probably the most fun portion of this episode is seeing the Avengers interact with the Fantastic Four. Clint, for example is playing a poker game with some of his team-mates and the Human Torch and Thing. There's a neat scene where he "defends" Cap's mistake of not recognizing Johnny Storm, claiming that Steve is like 100 years old. He spends the rest of the episode mostly fighting Doombots at the Avenger's Mansion, and joins the others on their mission to Latveria to save Wasp and the Invisible Woman. Doom was great here - not only was he prepared for pretty much everything the heroes tried against him, but the real reason for his seemingly random attack and kidnapping was a pretty clever way to remind us of the Secret Invasion story. All in all, a great way to start the season.
The arrival of Michael Korvac on Earth leads to a confrontation between the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, at least until the heroes stop and actually listen to what the "space Avengers" have to say. Hawkeye is present though he doesn't get to do that much here; he goes up against the Star-Lord and manages to defeat him temporarily with one of his trick arrows, and has a good line when he first sees the Guardians up close ("There's a tree and a raccoon scowling at us, man!"). There's also a neat moment with some more Clint/T'Challa interactions, when they investigate the crater Korvac created when he landed on our planet.
The Skrull story-arc continues to build up in "Who Do You Trust?", where Nick Fury lets Iron Man know about the aliens and warns him that the Avengers have been infiltrated as well, and suspects Hawkeye to be the traitor. But before I get to all that, we get to see most of the Avengers (including Hawkeye) out of costume, enjoying a pizza in a diner trying to officially welcome Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel to the team. It's a nice moment, as we haven't really seen that much of the heroes' private lives, and it also helps make the conclusion to this episode have a bigger impact. There's some good stuff here - not only some more background on Carol, but also more of the neat interactions between the characters. Once the Griffin attacks Carol is "forced" to fight him, with the others simply watching her fight from a safe distance (some sort of initiation ritual). Clint also comments that he's not the low man on the totem pole anymore. A pretty amusing scene.
Following the events from the previous season's "Hail, Hydra!" episode, which introduced the Skrulls on the show (Madame Viper was revealed to be an alien), Mockingbird explains how Clint was spared his life when they were captured by Baron Strucker, fueling the idea that he's the most likely suspect. Iron Man confronts his teammates with these news and what follows is a pretty intense scene, with the team starting to fall apart due to trust issues. Clint has been considered a traitor before and doesn't want to hear any of this - he gets some great lines here as well ("I saved this team more times than I can count. I helped save the world. I'm not some alien.") Ms. Marvel has to follow orders and tries to bring Clint in for questioning, which leads to a brief but great confrontation between the heroes. In the end, the team disbands with Iron Man claiming he can no longer trust any of them. Clint gets another good line here to Carol, before she leaves (and interestingly enough doesn't report any of this to SWORD) : "I'm not a Skrull. And I'm not some flunkie for SHIELD. I'm an Avenger. And if you're going to try and take me you'd better be sure. You'd better be sure about all of us."
Captain America (the real undercover Skrull agent) won't quit, and asks the ones who have stayed behind to remain as part of the team - Clint (quitting now would only make him seem like he's admitting he's guilty), Jan and Hulk. Sort of this show's version of the Kooky Quartet line-up from the comics. In the end, everything is going according to the Skrull's master plan - the Skrull Cap is now in charge of the Avengers, and Mockingbird is revealed to be a Skrull herself, and not just any Skrull, but their Queen Veranke. All in all, a pretty amazing episode and the story-arc isn't over yet.
Meanwhile we get some neat scenes highlighting the bond between Banner and Clint, as the former tries enjoying one of his few days "outside" the Hulk by fishing. Clint is more annoyed by all this and mentions he already misses the Hulk. Once the news about Rulk reach Clint, he's asked to bring Banner back to the Mansion and keep him safe - they are in fact attacked by Falcon, who is defeated with one of Clint's electric arrows. Clint is however knocked out by Rulk and joins Cap and Wasp in a sort of rescue mission to save the Hulk from the Rulk. The red villain seems to be more than a match for all the heroes (and pretty much each of Clint's trick arrows), though Hawkeye does manage to temporarily blind Rulk with one of his flare arrows, long enough for the others to defeat him. He manages to escape though, and (thanks to the Skrull Captain America), Banner surrenders himself to General Ross, thus leaving the Avengers powerless, all according to the aliens' plan of conquest.
In "Prisoner of War", we get to see what happened to the real Captain America: he's been a prisoner aboard a Skrull ship for two months. After the aliens try tricking him to give them more information by pretending they're the Avengers and have come to rescue him (one of the Skrulls impersonates Hawkeye - he even uses a freeze arrow to make things look more realistic!) Cap realizes it's a trick and manages to escape from his cell. What follows is Cap freeing the other captives (both heroes and villains) and leading them to safety, once they get past the first of the Super Skrulls.
A group of Skrulls posing as the Avengers try attacking Wakanda in "Infiltration", claiming they're the real ones and have been replaced by aliens when they got back from Asgard. Ms. Marvel is tricked by them at first but that changes once the real Black Panther and the real Hawkeye and Wasp intervene and reveal the alien's true identities. As a bonus, amidst all the fighting we get to see the two Hawkeyes dueling - the real one obviously wins, with his skills surprising his extraterrestrial doppelganger. Even without his bow, Clint manages to catch and shoot an arrow with perfect accuracy, taking out the Skrull Wasp, before punching his doppelganger. ("No! No one's that good!" / "Guess what. I am.")
The Skrull story-line reaches its climax in the episode titled "Secret Invasion" - all undercover Skrull agents have started disposing of Earth's defenses, and the fake Captain America broadcasts a message to the world explaining the aliens are here to help the human race. Hawkeye alongside Ms. Marvel and Wasp try getting through an army of Super Skrulls, before getting help from the real Cap and the prisoners he freed in an earlier episode, as well as Iron Man and Thor who has just returned to Midgard. There are some great moments here, some of them also regarding Clint. For example, his anger when he realizes Cap has been the traitor all along, or when he sees Mockingbird took part in all of this as well. Also some more interactions between him and Ms. Marvel, building off the events from when she suspected Clint of being a Skrull. It's a pretty amazing episode overall, and it works great as a conclusion to this long running story-line. In the end the world is saved, but not without paying a price (this mostly affects Cap, as the world won't be trusting him as much in the future), and some of the consequences to this war will be featured in the following episodes. Unfortunately, pretty much each of the following stories are a little rushed, resulting in them not being as awesome as the episodes up to this point. For the most part they're still good, but the difference in quality is quite noticeable.
Ultron returns in "Behold... the Vision!", where he sends his creation the Vision to acquire adamantium, vibanium and Cap's shield in order to make himself indestructible. Cap alongside Thor and Hawkeye have traveled to Wakanda, where the Black Panther has agreed to repair Cap's shield (which was shattered by Loki back in the season one finale). Clint spends most of his time in Wakanda arguing with T'Challa, apparently still holding a grudge against him for quitting the team during the Skrull invasion so he can protect his own kingdom. Apart from enjoying the Wakandan "scenery", Clint even tries to challenge T'Challa for leadership of Wakanda though fails in some pretty comedic ways - a nice distraction from all the other stuff going on in this episode, while still staying true to the character's portrayals on the show so far. Once the Vision attacks them, the android seems more than a match for every hero present. He manages to make Clint mad when he simply disintegrates his bow ("Oh, you're gonna pay for that!"), prompting the archer to try his hand to hand combat skills on the machine though without any success. In the end the combined forces of the Avengers (and T'Challa's vibranium forge) manage to injure the android's body, who retreats from the battle before completing his mission. But he will return, and true to the comics will eventually join the Avengers.
"Powerless" is probably the weakest episode of an otherwise amazing show. Some of the show's continuity is pretty much ignored here, which makes this story seem off. Thanks to one of Amora's spells, the Avengers have lost their powers and have to face the Destroyer (controlled by Loki). The main idea behind this episode is that Thor has to learn humility - something that already happened throughout the first season, so it doesn't really make any sense here. Cap, Thor and Iron Man are affected by this weird spell (with some even weirder results) though Hawkeye's skills remain unaffected. Clint tries keeping the others safe from the attacks of the Wrecking Crew (these guys and the previously mentioned Serpent Society were the most often used recurring minor villains on this show), and eventually the Destroyer armor. Probably the scene I enjoyed the most here was Clint managing to enable Iron Man's prototype armor to shoot its repulsor rays ("Cars, motorcycles, repulsor rays... Hot-wiring is hot wiring."), but that's about it.
When Hank Pym takes on the mantle of Yellowjacket (after he is believed dead) and starts imprisoning members of the Serpent Society inside his new micro-prison. The Avengers try to stop him but they all get trapped inside the micro-verse, with the prison about to collapse. The Serpents get free and attack the heroes; Hawkeye gets to fight and defeats Bushmaster. In the end they manage to escape and Yellowjacket is "welcomed" to the team. There's another neat scene regarding Clint when he's interviewed by the press about who Yellowjacket really is, prompting him to exclaim "When it's good news, Tony always gets interviewed looking like a movie star. When it's bad news, they ambush me. Never fails.".
In "Emperor Stark", the Purple Man takes control of pretty much everyone on the planet, starting with Iron Man (he used one of his satellites to enable his mind-control powers to cover the entire world). The Vision - who has been repaired, joined the Avengers and has been off-line for the last 30 days - awakens and gradually helps the other heroes come to their senses and plan an attack on the Purple Man. Cap is the first one to recover, though the two are soon under attack by Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel. Hawkeye and Cap take part in a chase on a couple of sky-cycles, with Clint managing to catch the old man and try to crash their sky-cycle to make sure the traitor is dealt with. What follows is a pretty awesome exchange between the two, resulting in Clint coming to his senses. Cap's little speech perfectly describes what Clint is all about.
Cap: You're being used, Hawkeye. By the Purple Man.
Clint: Think I'm gonna listen to you? Stark said you were a traitor. So I'm taking you down.
Cap: You've never listened to anyone. Not me, and sure as heck not Iron Man. And now, you're just gonna blindly follow orders? You've never done that in your life. And now you're gonna get yourself killed because Tony Stark told you to? No one tells Hawkeye what to do. Come on, Clint!
Once most of the heroes are back to normal, Cap plans on confronting Iron Man himself, while the others try to use a Quinjet to reach and destroy the satellite used by the Purple Man. There's a great moment where Vision comments how easy it was to take out the Iron Man armors that weer guarding the jet, prompting Clint to teach him that one should never mention how easy a fight is - something which will come up again in a later episode. He was right though, as a mind-controlled Thor tries to stop them but the Vision manages to keep him busy long enough. In space, Clint once again controls the jet's guns, taking down every Iron Man armor guarding the satellite, and in the end the satellite itself. There's another neat scene where Ms. Marvel briefly falls back under Purple Man's control and tries to dispose of Clint, but he manages to distract her with a flare arrow. All in all, a decent and very entertaining episode.
Hawkeye is briefly featured during the Red Skull mini-arc. In the first part, "Code Red" he gets to fight Falcon again when the latter breaks into the Avengers Mansion as part of the Code Red team deployed by the Secretary of Defense, Dell Rusk after the heroes have been framed regarding an epidemic in the city. Clint wins the fight thanks to a sonic arrow ("Birds hate them"), but starts to feel the effects of the virus himself. He does manage to find the device that caused the explosion and spreading of the virus in the first place, and thanks to his SHIELD background recognizes the device and where it came from. The rest of the episode is basically Captain America revealing that Rusk is the Red Skull (though they never bothered to really explain how he survived all this time) and manages to take him down.
In the second part, titled "Winter Soldier", the title character is revealed to be Bucky, Cap's old sidekick from the days of WWII who has been brainwashed by the Red Skull and turned into a perfect solider. The Avengers now have to stop the Skull's giant robot called the Sleeper from destroying the Capitol building. Hawkeye is seen among the assembled heroes though he doesn't really get to do anything worth mentioning here - his trick arrows weren't the best thing in the world to stop a giant rampaging robot.
The Hulk returns in "The Deadliest Man Alive", and once again fights with the Red Hulk - who is revealed to be General Ross, and is in the middle of his plan of discrediting Hulk and trying to join the Avengers himself. He manages to trick most of the heroes with his intentions, except for Cap who still believes Hulk is innocent. I guess the main thing that bothered me this episode was that Hawkeye was a little too willing to believe Hulk is the threat Ross made him out to be. The show has established very well just how close their friendship is in past episodes so seeing them so willing to fight Hulk was kind of weird. These three characters were actually the only ones who decided to remain as Avengers when the team split up during the Skrull invasion. Plus, Hawkeye was the reason Hulk re-joined the team after the events of the two-part "Gamma World" episode, back in season one. That should say something about how close they became. A little inconsistent regarding character development, but still a pretty neat adventure and it does tie up nicely some of the events from previous episodes.
The Kree story-line is wrapped up towards the end of the show, in two episodes ("Operation Galactic Storm" and "Live Kree or Die"). In the first part, the Kree plan on opening a worm-hole next to the sun, which would tear the sun apart and eventually end all life on earth. The Avengers launch an attack in space against the aliens, which ends with Black Panther (seemingly) sacrificing his life so that their mission is a success, and after Hawkeye uses his uncanny skills to shoot the five generator ships, the heroes end up going through the wormhole into Kree space. In the second part, the heroes are split up across the Kree home-world and encounter various threats, such as some alien beasts on a training ground or the Supreme Intelligence itself. There's not a lot to talk about here in regards to Clint; the entire team is in the spotlight in this story, and ultimately it's Mar-Vell the one who saves the day. There is a neat little scene where Clint is reminded that one should never say how easy a fight is (something which Vision learned the hard way back in "Emperor Stark"). It's a good story with some nice action scenes and a good enough conclusion to some of the long-running sub-plots this show had.
The show ends with "Avengers Assemble", the episode where pretty much every super-hero that appeared on the show before returns and together they face off against Galactus and his four heralds (sadly, no Silver Surfer here). The Avengers and their allies split up into teams to take care of the heralds, who are building devices that would help Galactus consume the Earth. Hawkeye is joined by Wasp, the Human Torch, Thing and Wolverine as they confront Stardust (Clint is actually the one who destroys the device with his trick arrows). With the large number of characters featured in this episode it would have been impossible to give each one the same amount of screen-time, but what we got worked out great in the end. The story did feel rushed but it was still fun and a good enough send-off to this amazing show.
