Hawkeye’s History Of Deafness Carries Onto New Disney+ Series

Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye often doesn’t get the credit he deserves, as he’s a rather simplistic hero. While Iron Man has a super suit, Captain America is a super human, Hulk is a giant ball of berserker strength and Thor is literally a God, a bow-wielding hero doesn’t seem like the best out of the bunch.

Hawkeye has come to find appreciation in the MCU. While some would argue that Avengers: Endgame really developed Clint Barton, others believe that the character hasn’t gone through his entire arc yet. While Barton gets his family back, he’s still left to deal with his past crimes as the vigilante Ronin.

Clint Barton’s story still remains unfinished, as he’s found a new protégé in Kate Bishop. He’s busy showing his the ropes of handling herself amid the dangers of the real world, while trying to fend off his own demons.

Hawkeye’s deafness has its origins in the 1983 miniseries in comics where he fights a villain named Crossfire. The villain wants to make superheroes go berserk with his sonic weapon, which Hawkeye himself incapacitates with his sonic arrow. The whole struggle leaves him with a deafness problem, which he recovers from.

Seeing how the superhero has not dealt with this in the MCU, a 2014 comic revealed childhood trauma to be behind his hearing loss. His trauma amid the Avengers missions which took throughout the MCU are the reasons for his hearing struggles.

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is quite common in ex-servicemen. It often comes after extreme cases of tinnitus. The lack of balance between incurring trauma and regulating recovery is behind the superhero’s hearing loss, while it also has its origins in his struggles with the missions he underwent with the Avengers.