[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for "Hawkeye: Volume 4" and Hawkeye.]
Hawkeye has finally landed on Disney+. The new series is the first to truly explore Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton, juxtaposing a look at his past and trauma with the joy of the Christmas season. This is also the latest venture to add a younger hero, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who could make her way into a "Young Avengers" lineup in the MCU (think Kid Loki, Billy and Tommy from WandaVision, and the upcoming characters America Chavez and Kamala Khan with their introductions planned for 2022). With the introduction of these new young heroes, Marvel has also introduced a slew of other supporting characters: bad guys, parents, step-parents, and yes, adorable pizza dogs.
What are Lucky’s Origins?
[Content Warning: Animal Abuse]
The Pizza Dog, Lucky, first appears in Hawkeye (Vol. 4) #1 from writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja. This is the same run of comics that the TV series takes its inspiration from. The pup was first owned by Ivan Banionis, a member of the "Tracksuit Mafia" and Clint’s landlord. Lucky, then-Arrow, assists Clint by trying to save him. As a result, Arrow is beaten and heavily injured by the Mafia and thrown into traffic. Clint is able to rescue the dog, but he loses his left eye despite the rescue.
Clint renames the dog "Luck"’ but, as revealed in Hawkeye (Vol. 4) #11, an issue told completely from the dog's point of view, he refers to himself as Pizza-Dog; you know, since he likes to eat pizza. He also meets Kate Bishop, and later moves with her to LA, but returns to NYC with Bishop to rescue Clint. He ends up back in LA with Kate, but not before he teams up with Mew, Doreen Green’s (Squirrel Girl) roommate’s cat in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (Vol. 2) #15 by writer Ryan North and artists Erica Henderson and Zac Gorman.
What About the TV Show?
It’s clear that Hawkeye took Lucky’s (played by Jolt) backstory as inspiration when creating the live-screen version, but not everything lines up to a tee. As of the second episode, The Pizza Dog hasn’t even been given his name.
Additionally, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) is the Hawkeye that rescues him in the series. Traffic plays a role in both rescues — although Hawkeye hasn’t gone into the events that led to Lucky’s missing eye or connected him to the Tracksuit Mafia in any way, except for stealing the watch from the Avengers Bunker that they were after. If Lucky’s original owner treats him the same in both TV and written word… then revenge is so, so sweet.
Hawkeye also follows the consequences of Clint’s battles over time as a non-powered human, including his partial deafness in one of his ears. If we do find out that there is any connection between Lucky’s possible war-scars and the Mafia, maybe we can also see some sweet Hawkeye-Lucky bonding.
What about powers?
Sadly, Lucky seems to be just a normal dog. Maybe he showed a bit of intuition when he vacated to the second story of Kate’s flat just before it was attacked, but most of man’s best friends seem to sense what its owner needs at the right time. And even though he has an unhealthy diet of pizza, we can't blame him. Lucky is a good boy who needs to be protected at all costs.