In an interview with MTV, hot-to-trot Jeremy Renner was asked about his upcoming role in 2012’s “The Avengers.” He plays Clint Barton, a marksman who goes from petty thief to gimmicky bow-and-arrow superhero as the purple-clad Hawkeye. Hawkeye consistently held his own with teammates in the Marvel Comics source despite not having any superpowers and using only his mighty quiver, so naturally, questions about Renner’s characterization tend to focus on the innate realism of the character in an onscreen setting.
On his costume, Renner hypothesized, “I think it’s going to be a little more reality-based… you can kind of tell with Scarlett [Johansson]’s character, it’s going to be more of a uniform . . . and not a big purple, comics sort of thing.”Johansson, you may remember, was the black-clad secret agent-type in “Iron Man 2,” a martial artist/spy from SHIELD code-named the Black Widow. It’s likely Renner means to say that he, too, will have more of a nondescript black leather outfit.
In the comics, there was a bit of a relationship between Hawkeye and the Widow, though both racked up a more-than-respectable list of bedmates. When asked if that pairing would happen in the movies, Renner said, “We will [have a relationship], I think, in this one as well. We’re kind of a team, and what that relationship is, is still to be discovered.” This of course suggests that Barton will also work with SHIELD as more of a field operative in the vein of Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) than as a spandex-clad worldbeater opposite the Hulk and Thor. Though a romantic triangle with Renner, Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. would probably be more interesting anyway.