The latest Disney Plus series Hawkeye received its very first trailer earlier today and people very quickly noticed that Clint Barton is now wearing hearing aids.

This series is the fifth Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series on Disney Plus following WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and most recently What If...?

Much of the inspiration of this series seems to be on the most popular Hawkeye comic run and with that comes reason for what appears to be hearing aids in the trailer.

  • MORE: Who is Echo in Hawkeye?
Hawkeye Hearing Aids

What Comic Run Is Hawkeye Based On?

Like pretty much the entire MCU thus far, Hawkeye is not exclusively based on one comic run only. However, the one that it seems to be largely inspired by is the Matt Fraction run of the Hawkeye comic series, often referred to as Hawkguy.

The Matt Fraction run moves away from some of the world ending type of plots you are used to with Marvel and instead focused on Clint and his protege Kate Bishop working together to protect his apartment building from criminals. There is even a Christmas issue as well, which seemed to help inspire this run.

In the case of this movie, Clint meets Kate Bishop for the first time, who is being played by Hailee Steinfeld. This definitely will change their dynamic in some ways, which was always a very important part of that comic run, as well as their dog Lucky, aka Pizza Dog of course.

Why Does Hawkeye Have Hearing Aids?

In the comics, Clint has had bouts with hearing loss a number of times. This dates way back to the 1980s, where he ended up losing his hearing as a result of stopping a villain.

During the Fraction run specifically, Clint is stabbed in both ears by a villain named The Clown, rupturing his eardrums and leaving him with hearing loss.

We don't know what happens to Clint before or during the Hawkeye series to prompt him to have to wear hearing aids, but it does look like it's in what would be an early scene. It could be that all of the situation he's been in have just ruined his hearing or something else entirely we don't know about yet.

This almost certainly will also tie in with the introduction of Echo into the show, which is a character who was born deaf and likely will be involved with Clint's learning of ASL and dealing with hearing loss.

Hawkeye will debut on Disney Plus starting on November 24 and will run for six episodes.