Marvel Studios' latest series, Hawkeye was quite the ride for MCU fans. Not only did it provide audiences with a fun, entertaining adventure for six episodes, they were also given greater insight into what makes Clint Barton tick, as well as the grief he carries over the loss of his best friend, Natasha Romanoff in Avengers: Endgame.
Warning: Spoilers for Hawkeye Episode 6 Follow.
Who Is Hawkeye's Agent 19?
The finale of Hawkeye was an all-out battle between heroes, Kate Bishop and Clint Barton, and their villainous opponents, the Tracksuit Mafia and the Kingpin (a.k.a. Wilson Fisk). After making it through the battle, Clint and Kate made it back to the Barton family farm, just in time for Christmas.
In a quiet moment with his wife, Laura, Clint hands her a Rolex watch with the SHIELD emblem and the number 19 engraved on the back and jokingly chides her about "taking better care of her stuff."
Laura Barton: Agent of SHIELD
So, the message is clear here, Laura Barton was once a member of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, or SHIELD for short. The very same clandestine government agency that employed her husband before he became an Avenger.
It's kind of a small bombshell of a moment, one that some fans saw coming, but it's surprising all the same.
What's even more curious is the "19" etched into the watch. Comic die-hards will be quick to pick up on Agent 19 being the codename of one Barbara "Bobbi" Morse, Clint's wife in the books and the superhero known as Mockingbird.
Is Laura The MCU's Mockingbird?
The episode seems to be strongly implying that Laura Barton was, at one point, Mockingbird in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This raises a few questions, however. One might be wondering "Hey, wasn't Mockingbird already in Agents of SHIELD and played by Adrianne Palicki?"
The Mockingbird Reveal Doesn't Mock Agents Of SHIELD Fans
Well, that's true to a point. While, yes, the long-running ABC show (which was NOT produced by Kevin Feige and the team at Marvel Studios) did feature Bobbi Morse as a main character for several seasons, not once was she addressed by "Mockingbird" or "Agent 19." So there's still room to say that Laura was Mockingbird and have the continuity line up fairly neatly.
Speaking of continuity, that argument assumes that Agents of SHIELD was canon to the MCU in the first place. The jury's officially still out on that. Many fans claim that the popular show is very much canon but that stance also has a healthy amount who decry it.
Something else that's interesting to note is when Emily Van Camp's Sharon Carter is first properly introduced in 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, she states that her codename is Agent 13, SHIELD Special Services.
If Sharon was Agent 13 and Laura was Agent 19, could they have been in the same type of role at the agency? Perhaps they know each other and Laura could, at some point, help reign in Sharon, who has gone a bit off the reservation as of late.
And finally, the fact that Clint's wife is in fact an agent makes Tony Stark right all along. The Avenger correctly guessed that Laura was a SHIELD operative within seconds of meeting her in Age of Ultron back in 2015. Although with Tony, there's a fair chance he may have just been being a smartass.
Whatever the case may be with Laura Barton, it's currently unknown when she or any of these characters will appear next. But fans can stream Marvel Studios' Hawkeye in its entirety only on Disney+.
