Hello, I m Adrian, and today we re taking an
in depth look at Hawkeye's fighting style in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
Hawkeye, or Clint Barton, is a skilled marksman, former special agent of SHIELD,
and one of the original members of the avengers.
The goal of these videos is to figure out just how many fighting styles our combatant
is familiar with by analyzing the specific moves featured in their footage and pairing them with
the martial art or fighting style which most aptly represents those moves. There is a huge
amount of crossover in martial arts techniques, and a technique that is present in one fighting
style may also be present in another, such as the roundhouse kick being present in multiple
martial arts. But in order to not give combatants multiple fighting styles for the sake of variety,
I have instead opted to list the most apt fighting style that best represents
that particular character, technique, or set of techniques. Also, there are various degrees of
knowing a fighting style, and although one may know elements of something, this doesn't mean I
m saying the fighter I m talking about is a master in every style I mention.
I highly recommend watching the Disney Plus series Hawkeye, as well as the other films
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Hawkeye appears in, as this video will analyze footage
from said films and series. I will try and keep plot and story details to a minimum, but there
are details that need to be revealed for this analysis, so do take this as your spoiler warning.
Fighting Styles that Hawkeye may know in any other form of media, such as comics or animated films,
do not count. Without further ado, let's take a look at how many fighting styles Hawkeye knows!
Hawkeye was recruited by Nick Fury to become a member of SHIELD and operated as an agent within
said organization for several years. As such, given this background, it stands to be reasoned
that he would have a pragmatic fighting style. And for the most part, this absolutely holds true and
his fighting style doesn't change much until after Thanos's snap when he becomes known as ronin.
During the feudal period of Japan, a ronin was a samurai without a lord or master.
Clint, feeling completely disconnected to any sort of authority following the chaos
and tragedy after losing his family to Thanos, focused his anger and grief and
channeled it by eliminating any and all criminals who survived Thanos's snap.
Bearing this in mind, we can now contextualize several of Hawkeye's martial arts techniques
behind Japanese martial arts, as he clearly felt a strong connection to their culture
having adopted a ninja like persona during his time as a vigilante.
And we begin with one of Japan's most popular martial arts styles, karate.
Karate is an umbrella style martial art with several different sub styles beneath it,
but they all share characteristics of being a predominantly striking art that uses punches,
kicks, knee and elbow strikes as well as open handed techniques
like palm hands. Hawkeye demonstrates several of these striking techniques.
We can see him throwing an elbow strike, a blink and you miss it open palm strike right here,
as well as a backfist against these enemies. He also is fond of throwing punches that are
infused with a karate style influence to them as seen during his brief scuffle with Vision.
Who by the way reinforces his skull right before Hawkeye starts throwing them. Very cool detail.
Hawkeye also throws a quick step in side kick during his fight with Maya as well as the
Indeed, the push kick. If you'd like to learn more about the push kick and why it's so effective,
check out my Captain America Fighting Skills video.
Throughout the Disney Plus series, one of the things that is explored
about Hawkeye is how all those dangerous battles within the MCU have affected him,
and specifically, his hearing. He needs to wear a device in order to hear properly,
and has learned quite a bit of ASL, or American Sign Language. As I saw his conversations with
others, most specifically Maya, I was intrigued by how it worked and wanted to learn more about it.
And I'm happy to say that Meredith Rathbone's Class on Learning how to Sign ASL on Skilshare
was an excellent introductory course. I learned how to sign simple phrases like
nice to meet you and same here, and also learned the meaning behind each of the distinct signs.
As you progress through the videos you'll learn about non manual signals,
affirmations, and several other nifty introductory phrases. If all of this sounds interesting to you,
you can try it out for free by just clicking on the link in the description.
The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare.
Prior to learning about ASL, I personally joined Skillshare because it's helped in refining skills
and hobbies I've been interested in. If you've seen my other videos, you've known that I've
learned great tips to better my drawing, as well as leveling up my technique with the bo staff,
and my martial arts skills too. Besides the aforementioned language, illustration and
martial arts classes, Skillshare offers a vast array of classes on varied topics like
photography and graphic design. There are no ads and classes are broken down into individual
segments that are automatically saved when you complete watching them. The whole catalog also
has subtitles in Spanish and French among other languages. So if you'd like to start
your own journey of discovery on whatever topic you'd like, click the link in the description.
Besides striking techniques, Hawkeye also uses certain grappling and throwing techniques against
his opponents. And for that, we turn to Japan's premiere grappling and throwing art, Judo,
known as the gentle way. And in Hawkeye's case, he takes it quite literally
as he usually turns to Judo when he's fighting opponents he doesn't want to hurt.
When he is fighting Black Widow during Civil War for example,
he executes this throw known as an ogoshi, or major hip throw, in Judo.
The point is to break the opponents balance by lifting with the hip and bending forward.
When he is fighting Yelena on the rooftop he uses a variation of the hadakajime. The hadakajime is
a classic Judo choke applied with both arms that doesn't use the gi. There are tons of
variations to the technique, with this one being popularly known as the bulldog choke.
Later on when he's trying to stop Yelena from ending him, he also uses a a very
loose variation of the hadakajime, but here it is much more of a restraining technique.
It also goes without saying that Hawkeye is extremely skilled with the bow and arrow.
From almost bringing down an entire helicarrier with one arrow,
to taking out a variety of goons with zany trick arrows. He is also a master of predicting enemy
behavior and catching things out of his peripheral vision as he can easily pull his own version of
a 360 no scope shot whenever the situation requires it. He also uses the arrow itself
as a stabbing weapon on multiple occasions. And not only that, he uses the bow of the
bow and arrow as a blunt striking weapon too. Like Lara Croft and Arrow before him, it goes
without saying that Hawkeye has taken the skill of Archery and uses it as a distinct fighting style.
This brings us to his time as Ronin, in which he fully immerses himself in this ninja like persona
to enact vengeance on all criminals who survived Thano's snap. For this, we turn to to ninjutsu.
Ninjutsu is a Japanese umbrella style martial art that is composed of 18 distinct disciplines,
for more information on each of the disciplines please see my Arkham Batman fighting styles video,
but for now, let's take a look at how some of these disciplines can be seen with Hawkeye.
He ended up trading in his bow and arrow for a sword, and for that we turn to Kenjutsu,
the art dedicated to sword fighting within Ninjutsu. During this sequence we can also
see him throwing this small weapon with ease, no doubt due to his experience in shurikenjutsu,
or the art dedicated to throwing blades and other small weapons, with the most well known one being
the star shaped shuriken. And going back just a bit to Civil War, he actually turns his bow
into a makeshift Japanese bo, or more commonly known bo staff, and wields it perfectly well,
indicating knowledge in Bojutsu, or the art of stick and staff fighting.
During the Hawkeye series, we also see a couple very Batman esque sequences
in which criminals are silently eliminated one by one, as if the shadows themselves are taking them.
For this we turn to Intonjutsu, or the art of escaping and concealment.
He even pulls this with Maya when one moment he is there, and the next, he's gone.
Considering his skill in avoiding detection, he is also well versed in Shinobi iri,
or the art of stealth and infiltration. We can also add Kayakujutsu, or the art
of pyrotechnics and explosives, as this pairs really well with several of his trick arrows.
In conclusion, how many fighting styles does Hawkeye know
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? They are: