As a Christmas gift, Crystal Dynamics presentedMarvel’s Avengersplayers with a new and unusual Hawkeye skin. This design, which hit the store on December 29 and costs 1,400 credits (about $14), turns the superhero archer into a hybrid between a hawk and a human. The new Hawkeye wears his typical black and purple outfit with his bow and quiver, but he is now also covered in purple feathers and has a detailed falcon head with large red eyes that replace his human head. This version is the one inhabiting Earth-666, an alternate reality captured intheSecret Avengersseries, first seen in Vol 1. #33 and created by Rick Remender and Andy Kuhn. However, it has only reappeared in #34 and #36.
Crystal Dynamics' game about Marvel’s heroes was not the success its creators expected, and everything seems to indicate that it will stop receiving updates sometime in 2023. In the meantime, it seems like Crystal Dynamics is going to have as much fun as it can making skins for this title. An example is the aforementioned ‘Werehawk’, a suit for Clint Barton (Hawkeye’s real name) in theMarvel’s Avengersgame that literally turns him into a hawkman. This skin was revealed as part of the most recent war table, the game’s weekly update blog. It is quite reminiscent of the fun werewolf outfit Captain America received for Halloween 2021.
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Lore About Werehawk and The Evil Avengers
Comic book connoisseurs will immediately know that this cosmetic is based on the sagaThe Rise of the Descendants, published in 2012 inSecret Avengers. In this story readers meet a variant of the hero who comes from the 666 universe, a gothic reality where everyone is either dead or undead. To avoid possible confusion, this is not the same dimension asMarvel Zombies.
In that universe there is a supernatural andevil group of Avengerswho control that reality with totalitarian overtones and who have all somehow transformed into monsters; Thor was a mummy, Wolverine became a vampire, and Punisher took the form of the reanimated Frankencastle. While the Captain America from Earth-666 became a normal werewolf, Hawkeye somehow transformed into an undead Werehawk who seems to follow the same rules as werewolves. As a native of this dimension, Clint was presumably already dead, apparently from some sort of werehawk possession.
The nature of this world made Captain Britain of Earth-616 think that it was the right place to hide the Orb of Necromancy, since he assumed that no one would covet its power as everyone was already dead. Brian (Captain Britain’s name) left the Orb in the custody ofthe Avengers of the Undead, the champions of this alternate Earth. However, Brother Voodoo, leader of this group, gave the Orb to the Celestial Undead with one goal: to spread the undead to the ends of reality by awakening all the dead throughout the Universe.
The success of their plan depended on Brian not returning to Earth-666 to recover the Orb, but unfortunately for the evil group, this was just what happened since Earth-616 suffered the attack of the Descendants who were trying to transform all the humans of that reality into robots. Accompanied by Hawkeye of Earth-616, Brian visited Barton and his companions in what seemed a simple procedure to recover the Orb, but nothing could be further from the truth. Brother Voodoo took them to the Undead Celestial and there he led the Avengers of the Undead to ambushCaptain Britainand Hawkeye, who had to fight for their lives.
Despite being outnumbered,Clint of Earth-616managed to get his hands on the Orb, although Brother Voodoo used his magic to close and nullify any portal through which they could return to their dimension, leaving the two Avengers trapped in the reality of the dead and forced to run away, evading all attempts by the archer and his companions to recover the Orb.
Knowing that they could not escape or hide for long, the natives of Earth-616 decided to take a chance and went to the headquarters of the Avengers of the Undead whereHawkeye and his companionswere gathered to plan the next step to locate and capture the fugitives. Their surprise was total when the three heroes (as they had been joined by the Beast) appeared before them, but they thought Earth-616 natives had surrendered because of the terror that Earth-666 generated in them, so Brother Voodoo confidently approached to pick up the Orb. He was inadvertently within reach of the power of the object that brought him back to life, allowing Hawkeye to hit him with an arrow and letting Captain Britain open a dimensional portal back to his Universe.
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Marvel’s Avengers' New Hawkeye Skin is Overdue, But Could Be One of His Last
Clint Barton was added toMarvel’s Avengersin early 2021, and it was the game’s second DLC character afterfellow Hawkeye Kate Bishopwas added a few months prior. Like other playable characters from the game, Hawkeye has several alternate costumes based on his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before Werehawk, the most recent Hawkeye skin added to the game was the character’s costume from the 2012 MCU filmThe Avengers.
While some leaks have suggested that several new characters could be coming to the game, including Captain Marvel and Shuri, other leaks from the same sources claim that game developer Crystal Dynamics is potentiallyending support for the game in 2023. Crystal Dynamics has yet to confirm any of this, though, so fans of Hawkeye and the other heroes will have to wait patiently for more information.
Marvel’s Avengersis currently available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
