There’s a moment on planet Vormir in Avengers: Endgame when Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton finally embraces his Hawkeye persona again. In Endgame, Clint is shown to have descended down a dark path following the deaths of his family. For the majority of the movie, Clint Barton is the sword-wielding vigilante, Ronin.

In the comic books, Clint Barton has an unparalleled reputation when it comes to his mastery of archery. With a multitude of trick arrows and infallible accuracy, Hawkeye is able to fight on par with some of Marvel’s biggest heroes. The MCU’s take on Barton captures these aspects of the character, but Avengers: Endgame moves the hero in a different direction by making him Ronin, a costumed identity used by the comic book version of Clint briefly in the 2000s. As Ronin, Clint abandoned the bow and took up swordsmanship in an effort to hide his true identity. Avengers: Endgame takes a page from this period in Clint Barton’s life.

Here’s the moment where Hawkeye actually returns to the MCU. When Clint and Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) travel to planet Vormir to find the Soul Stone, they encounter the Red Skull (Ross Marquand), who tells them about the life that must be traded for the Stone. In a scene that originally included Thanos, Clint and Natasha fight to see who gets to make the ultimate sacrifice. To stop Natasha from jumping off the cliff, Clint fires an arrow. This moment marks the long-awaited return of Earth’s Mightiest Marksman, who had been absent since 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.

Unlike all the other Avengers, it had been quite a long time since Clint Barton had a chance to showcase his biggest asset, his archery skills. Clint Barton had the misfortune of sitting out for the entirety of Avengers: Infinity War, and when he finally returned in a sequence in Japan in Avengers: Endgame, it was as a swordsman. Following the scene in Vormir, Clint keeps his Ronin look but goes back to more familiar territory in Avengers: Endgame’s final battle when they fight over the Infinity Gauntlet. Here Hawkeye gets to show off his signature skills.

Due to his absence in Infinity War, Hawkeye had much less screen time in the two-part Avengers story than the other original Avengers. Thankfully, Clint will get plenty of chances to remind viewers that he is Earth’s Mightiest Marksman with the release of his Disney+ series, Hawkeye, although Renner’s own involvement is currently in doubt.

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