With the character of Kate Bishop looking to make her MCU debut this November with the Hawkeye show on Disney+ played by Hailee Steinfeld, those unfamiliar with the archer can brush up on their comic history with this handy guide. From the character's origins to her current standing in the Marvel Universe, here is the character of Kate Bishop, explained.
In a darker period of Marvel comics, which had found the Avengers disbanded and the original Hawkeye dead, Kate Bishop took it upon herself (along with a group of other young heroes) to become the Young Avengers. This occurred in the solo Young Avengers comic in 2005. It's at this point in time that Kate took the Hawkeye mantle for herself. There was no real passing of the mantle at the time, with Clint Barton being dead in the comics. Instead it was a slow process of becoming a part of the Young Avengers, and defending the teams right to exist when heroes like Captain America and Iron Man wanted nothing to do with them. It wasn't until Kate stood up to Steve Rogers himself and explained to him that they wouldn't stop doing what they believe is right, that Steve Rogers changed his outlook on her, and the Young Avengers as a whole. In fact, later on in that same run, Captain America would send her a letter, addressed to 'Hawkeye', saying that he respects what the Young Avengers were doing. It was after this encounter that Kate Bishop proudly took the moniker of Hawkeye.
Her only connection to Clint Barton at this point in time is, much like the original Hawkeye, Kate Bishop has no extraordinary powers or abilities. Taking inspiration from Barton, Kate is just a regular person who has honed her archery skills to try and help make a difference along with the rest of the Avengers. She is just a skilled marksperson and also a very impressive fighter. Much like almost every other character in comics (sorry Uncle Ben), Clint Barton eventually returned to the land of the living. Taking up the identity of 'Ronin', Clint Barton allowed Kate Bishop to continue to use the Hawkeye name. Clint even tested her himself by fighting her under his Ronin persona, before deciding himself to pass the mantle on to her. An uneasy partnership between the two developed as well. Clint eventually dropped the Ronin persona and became Hawkeye once again, choosing to share the name with Kate Bishop. The two Hawkeyes team up in Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon, in a much more ground level comic story that has Clint and Kate fighting against the mafia in control of Clint's apartment building.
It is in this comic that Clint and Kate's relationship is most well defined. There is an older brother/little sister like dynamic between them throughout the comic. From being an inspiring figure to Kate in earlier comics, Clint is brought down to a more relatable level for Kate, and even some disillusionment on her part. She sees that Clint is just as flawed as herself, and their relationship matures because of that. This is one of the most essential aspects to Kate's development as her own independent character, separate from Clint Barton.
With that being said, it seems Fraction's Hawkeye series is what the Disney+ series is taking the most inspiration from. With the street level crime that Clint and Kate have to contend with, to smaller things like Lucky the Pizza dog, who makes a brief appearance in the trailer for the show and was introduced in Fraction's run on the comic. If this is anything to go by, it seems Kate's future in the MCU may be out west. The uneasy partnership between the two in the comic leads to Kate wanting to distance herself form her mentor and forger her own identity as Hawkeye, leaving for the West Coast. From there Kate Bishop goes out to be her own Hawkeye in California.
And with that, we have everything essential you need to know about Kate Bishop and how she comes into the role of Hawkeye. With her being introduced as her own stand-alone character in the upcoming MCU Disney+ series, it will be interesting to see how her story and relationship with Clint Barton plays out in live action, especially with Barton's tumultuous tenure as Ronin. More importantly, it will be fun to see Kate Bishop take the Hawkeye mantle and make it her own.