The Hawkeye Episode 1 Character Fans Agree Is The Absolute Worst
*This article contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 1 of "Hawkeye" on Disney+*
Efficiency is everything in film and television.
When you're pressed for time and have to introduce all the characters, all the plot mechanics, and the whole world your story is taking place in, establishing everything you need to know about a character or a group of them in one quick swoop can be a boon. Perhaps the most famous example of this is when Gene Wilder's frail-seeming Willy Wonka teeters over before rolling and bouncing to his feet at the last minute in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." Not only effective for all of the aforementioned reasons, this scene is also one of the most memorable of the film.
The first episode of the new Disney+ series "Hawkeye" has no shortage of bad guys to introduce in its little sliver of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The plot Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) stumbles onto is one of arms dealers and their buyers, who wind up getting themselves robbed by the gang known as the Tracksuit Mafia. How is she –– and how is the viewer –– supposed to process and rank these threats? Whose side is everyone on? Who might be redeemable? Who's the baddest of the bad?
One way the episode helps answer this is by murdering one of those buyers and having Kate find his body. But it pulls another, faster trick with one of the members of the Tracksuit Mafia, one that made sure fans would have no sympathy for him and his compatriots going forward.
Don't mess with the Pizza Dog
Long story short, he kicked the dog.
Lucky the Pizza Dog was perhaps the breakout character of Matt Fraction and David Aja's comic book run on "Hawkeye" that served as the primary source material for the series, even getting an entire issue told from his point of view. In the show, he helps Kate as the Tracksuit Mafia members are loading their stolen goods onto a truck for their escape, biting at the pant leg of one and taking a couple of blows from his shoe for the trouble. He flees and is rescued by Kate from oncoming traffic.
The Tracksuit Mafia guy (shown above) won't be so lucky. It's not the sort of thing the internet is ever going to forgive you for. "Most evil MCU characters ranked: 3. Ultron 2. Thanos 1. Tracksuit mafia member that kicked Lucky," wrote u/thorsmagicbelt on Reddit. To some fans, even the biggest, baddest bad guys in Marvel history wouldn't put up with that sort of evil. "Wilson Fisk is going to show up late in the season and go: 'Gentlemen, I understand one of your number kicked a dog. I will not allow such behavior in my organization,'" wrote u/ContinuumGuy.
Even some part of the perpetrator seemed to realize what he was doing was wrong. "I'm going to kick you," he warns before he lands the first hit. That's probably not going to save him from the wrath of the internet though. Everybody knows what kind of character he and his buddies are now.