The latest MCU series to land on Disney+, Marvel Studios' Hawkeye, has set its sights on being a grounded MCU story, with somewhat lower stakes and grounded characters. Specifically, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), the two stars of the show who both share the moniker of Hawkeye. One of the main opposing forces teased in the show's marketing material and the more prominent one in the clips that have been released is the Tracksuit Mafia, a group of Russian gangsters that run crime and drug operations in New York City. To better understand the characters in Hawkeye, here’s a brief background and introduction to the Tracksuit Mafia.
Making their first appearance in writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja's run on Hawkeye in 2012—also referred to there as "Tracksuit Draculas"—the New York-based mafia began butting heads with the Archer when Clint tried to make one of their members, Ivan Banionis—who is played by Aleks Paunovic in Hawkeye—to sell his apartment building to Clint. This eventually leads to Clint fighting the Tracksuit Mafia and protecting the apartment complex and its tenants from them. Clint eventually acquires the building from Ivan, and in doing so stops a development deal that would have seen the whole neighborhood be torn down for the purpose of building a mall. Only Clint’s single apartment building and his tenants stand in the way of the Tracksuit Mafia getting this deal to go through.
So, while the members of this mafia don’t exactly have any special abilities or powers, their sheer number makes them trouble for Clint and eventually Kate, who also joins Barton in his fight against them. To even the odds against them, however, the Tracksuit Mafia hires an assassin called The Clown to kill Clint. (Actor Fra Fee will play The Clown in the Disney+ series.) This conflict ends with Kate and the tenants of Clint’s apartment complex fighting off the Tracksuit Mafia and Clint fighting the clowns, with the mafia finally being defeated in this final stand.
The Tracksuit Mafia is mostly known in the comics not just for their tracksuits, but the way they called Clint “Hawkguy” and casually refer to himself and each other as “bro”. Their mundane responses and reactions to Hawkeye’s antics are what lead to some of the funniest interactions in the comics. Most of their crimes were lower level and not exactly the Avengers-level threat Clint is used to dealing with, either. Clint’s feet-on-the-ground approach to super-heroics during Fraction's run on the character is what mostly lead to the creation of the Tracksuit Mafia, a more grounded and realistic foe for Clint to fight.
The Hawkeye television show is sure to keep the grounded approach to these villains, keeping them as a criminal organization. The humor used for them in the comics is sure to be a focal point for the levity in the Hawkeye show as well. Other than that, the Tracksuit Mafia is a by-the-numbers crime organization with a personal vendetta against Clint Barton.