Marvel is making a huge change to the Avengers lore that fans know and love as the Ultimate Universe’s Hawkeye officially debuts, immediately making an enemy of Steve Rogers. In the original comics, Hawkeye was the seventh hero to join the Avengers, having first encountered them as a villain. Now, as Marvel reimagines Avengers history for the Ultimates, Hawkeye again debuts by taking on the team – but this time, it’s not Clint Barton behind the bowstring.

In recently released solicit information, Marvel has revealed details for Ultimates #5. The issue will debut this universe’s version of Hawkeye, who has taken up Clint Barton’s costume and equipment after he abandoned them, refusing the Ultimates’ call to join them.

The new Hawkeye will be introduced with a knock-down, drag-out fight with Captain America, as the Ultimates try to reclaim the hi-tech armor and bow they gifted Barton. In this world, Tony Stark has been carefully trying to choose who gets superpowers. The new Hawkeye isn’t on his list, but they wouldn’t be living up to the name if they did as they were told.

The Ultimate Universe Debuts Its Hawkeye

Clint Barton Rejected the Role in This Reality

Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe (aka Earth-6160) debuted in 2023, and is an alternate timeline where the villains rule the world. This timeline was created by the Maker, who used time travel and his knowledge of Marvel’s mainstream history to kill, corrupt or de-power everyone who might have offered a challenge to his plans of world domination. In the timeline created by the Maker, most Marvel heroes never got their powers, allowing him to divide up the world among his “Maker’s Council” of villains and pursue horrific human experimentation while distracting the world with a constant state of war.

Thankfully, Tony Stark’s father found out the truth, managing to trap the Maker in his own lab for two years (the lab is a time prison, meaning that centuries – or possibly millennia – are passing for the Maker inside.) That gave the Ultimates eighteen months to build some kind of resistance movement, with Tony making it his mission to re-empower the heroes whose lives were warped by the Maker. Sadly, Ultimates #1​​​​​​​ (Deniz Camp, Juan Frigeri, Federico Blee, and Travis Lanham) revealed this mission is harder than it seems – most of Marvel’s heroes have been broken so badly they can’t handle their powers, either rejecting them or dying trying to master them (Captain Marvel among their number.)

One of the heroes who couldn’t cut it was Clint Barton, who abandoned his new costume in an homage to John Romita’s ‘Spider-Man No More!’ artwork. Now, it seems a new hero has found the advanced equipment that Tony Stark intended to give to Clint, and refuses to give it back. It’s an interesting development – while the Ultimates have been recruiting heroes to stand against the Maker, their choices have been highly tactical. It will be interesting to see how they cope with a hero who they didn’t hand select.

The New Hawkeye Resurrects the Original’s Captain America Rivalry

But This Steve Rogers Is a LOT More Hardcore

While the Ultimates may not be happy to see the new Hawkeye, that’s par for the course for the Avenging Archer. Hawkeye joined the Avengers as a member of the team known as Cap’s Kooky Quartet, and immediately started bucking for a leadership role. Hawkeye had a huge grudge against Captain America as a symbol of authority, needling him constantly. While the two are friends today, most of their relationship has been characterized by Hawkeye opposing Steve Rogers and pushing back against his authority every chance he gets.

Unfortunately for the new Hawkeye, this Captain America isn’t the mainstream Steve Rogers. This Cap was left frozen in ice far longer, waking up to a world where America no longer exists and the dream he fought for is long dead. Captain America shocked Marvel fans in Ultimates #2 when he chose to kill thousands of innocents by releasing a superhuman who was being used as a power source for essential infrastructure. Usually, Captain America is more willing to lose than to risk innocent lives, but the Ultimate Universe has created a far more extreme Super Soldier. This time, the Captain America/Hawkeye rivalry might not have such a happy ending.

However, the danger isn’t just coming from Cap. The new Hawkeye should be even more capable of holding their own, even against a more violent Cap. InHyuk Lee’s variant cover makes it clear that the new Hawkeye is wearing Iron Man-style armor, likely with some experimental and highly weaponized arrows (hence why the team want to reclaim the tech.) The hero also appears to be Indigenous American, adding extra layers of meaning to the idea of Captain America trying to strip them of power – especially in a timeline where the actual nation of America was disbanded in 1969.

Hopefully, the New Hawkeye Can Avoid the Original Ultimate Hawkeye’s Fate

Black Widow Slaughtered Clint Barton’s Family

Marvel’s new Ultimate Universe isn’t the first use of that name – the imprint was first used in 2000, spawning a new timeline that heavily influenced the modern MCU. Sadly, in that world, it was eventually revealed that Black Widow was an embedded traitor, and she killed Hawkeye’s family as part of a grand plan to destroy the Ultimates and unseat America as a world power. Not only did Hawkeye take his revenge by killing his former friend, but he gained a major nihilist streak that inspired some incredibly dark moments.

The new Ultimate Universe is a very different world, almost a mirror image of the original Ultimate Universe. However, it does include references back for fans who followed the original. Ultimates #2 saw two of Ultimate Captain America’s biggest moments flipped and given new context, and it’s likely that the new Hawkeye will experience some echoes of the original’s dark journey. Hopefully, they’re given a more positive spin this time around.

Weirdly, This Isn’t 2024’s First New Hawkeye

Avengers: Twilight’s Bullseye Reveals What’s Essential About the Codename

While the new Hawkeye is a major change to Clint Barton, 2024 actually already gave fans a new version of Hawkeye. This happened in Chip Zdarsky and Daniel Acuña’s Avengers: Twilight – a comic set in a near future where the Avengers have been discredited and the US is turning into a dictatorship. That Hawkeye was originally a Thunderbolts soldier who turned against the administration when she was ordered to kill Steve Rogers, joining up with Captain America’s new Avengers roster and receiving the Hawkeye codename from him.

What’s interesting about these two new Hawkeyes is how they show what’s consistent across different characters using the codename. Hawkeye is an outsider who first encounters the Avengers as an enemy, butting heads with Captain America despite (so far) the potential for a close relationship. It’s yet to be seen what elements of the ‘recipe’ the new Ultimate Universe Hawkeye will use and which they’ll redefine, but whatever the answer, The Ultimates continues to put its own unique, modern-day spin on the Avengers lore fans thought was set in stone.

Ultimates #5 is coming from Marvel Comics October 9.