Hawkeye episode 1 introduces us to MCU Lucky the Pizza Dog

Hawkeye episode 1, “Never Meet Your Heroes,” is now available on Disney Plus, and most importantly for our perspective here at Dog O’Day, in addition to introducing Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), the second Hawkeye of Marvel Comics, it also introduced MCU viewers to Lucky the Pizza Dog.

Additionally, there is a fair amount of disabled inclusion, as Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) is at least partially deaf, and there will also be another deaf character called Echo appearing at some point. But again, for our perspective, Lucky’s status as a partially blind Golden Retriever (he’s missing his left eye) is what caught our attention. (I, Wes, am blind in my right eye.)

Anyway, what happened in Hawkeye episode 1, and when is it set?

It’s set during Christmastime in New York City at an unspecified year (likely 2024, about eighteen months after the Blip returned everyone).

Hawkeye episode 1 introduces viewers to Kate Bishop and Lucky the Pizza Dog.

Storyline

Kate grew up idolizing Hawkeye as her favorite Avenger after surviving the Battle of New York, where her father was pummeled by debris and rubble.

Since his death, Kate and her mom Eleanor (Vera Fermga) have had a pretty strained relationship, though that didn’t affect their finances (Mom owns a security company) or Kate’s athletic prowess (archery, fencing, gymnastics and karate at least were all mastered). It does make Eleanor’s impending remarriage to a rich guy named Jack Duquesne a sore point of contention.

Meanwhile for Clint, he’s unhappily sitting in the audience of the Broadway smash hit musical Rogers, attempting to cope with all the trauma triggers this brings up with his time with the Avengers, including Natasha’s Endgame fate.

At a charity gala, Kate meets a one-eyed Golden, and her habit of snooping in places she doesn’t belong leads her to a black market auction for stolen superheroic goods, including Chitauri skulls and Ronin’s sword and suit.

When this auction is hijacked by a bunch of Russian dudes in tracksuits, Kate swipes the suit and escapes successfully, keeping Lucky from getting run over by a taxi in the process.

After dropping him off at her apartment (and learning he loves pizza), Kate is ambushed by the Russian dudes, only to be saved by Clint, who is very less-than-thrilled with a Ronin sighting in the streets.

What we thought

Unlike the Netflix portion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, New York City here isn’t a punishing, depressing locale (though this likely has much to do with the setting; the Bishops are super rich and Clint is there on vacation, while the Christmas season brings an aura of lighthearted holiday cheer as well).

The first episode of this miniseries deals well at establishing the plot and particularly in letting its characters process trauma, while including some nice action sequences as well, even if here or there the dialogue may be Hallmark Channel at points. (But again, that could have been intentional. too).

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• Pretty sure the physics of Kate’s collapsing a bell tower with a fist-sized chunk of metal is impossible, but that scene worked well to establish her rebellious, playful nature.
• The Bishops lived in the same building that the Osborns did in the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy.
• This miniseries is based on the Hawkeye series written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by David Aja.
• I REALLY WANT TO WATCH ROGERS THE MUSICAL. Like Hamilton with the Avengers! (Also, it would be hilariously perfect if Rogers was credited to Lin-Manuel Miranda.)

Hawkeye episode 3 will drop on Disney Plus on Wednesday, December 1. For more coverage, see our FanSided Network sister site Bam Smack Pow for all the latest.