Whilst Black Widow is getting a raw deal in the MCU, but that's nothing compared to the stick Clint Barton gets. Jeremy Renner is a very good actor, as his breakthrough performance in The Hurt Locker showed. It was that suddenly rising star that captured the attention of the Marvel folks, and he was swiftly brought in to, er, point an arrow at some people whilst in a cherry picker in the first Thor film without explanation. And besides having a goofy coat, he's probably not going to have much to do in Age Of Ultron either. Poor old Hawkeye. He deserves better. Especially since the most recent run in the comics has been so strong, with writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja casting him as a downtrodden Rockford Files type, a perpetually battered and bruised everyman trying to do the right thing. Billed as what Hawkeye gets up to when he's not being an Avenger, mostly the comic has been about the archer saving a one-eyed dog from his abusive gangster owners, and saving his apartment building from being overrun by the Russian mafia, all of whom wear tracksuits and call him bro. It's smaller-scale, street level stuff, which would work perfectly in a serialised animated series or one-off special.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
