Why would anyone think Hawkeye would even come within spitting distance of a court or legal proceeding, period? There's no need to convince a DA or jury of *anything*, because he's not going to be tried, or arrested, in the first place. Never mind that the analogies to drunk driving are utterly, laughably fallacious.
Put bluntly, if SHIELD is fine with employing Black Widow, who actually *was* a willing murderer for hire, they are not going to kick Hawkeye out for being mind controlled.
Who's to say then that Black Widow's not a liability too since she could still easily be bought out by the opposition, whomever that may be. Hell, they might even play with that idea a bit in Winter Soldier. But regardless, the Director of SHIELD apparently trusts her enough to keep her on board despite her questionable background that was completely devoid of mind control.
Speaking of mind control...
I would hope that Fury recognizes the circumstances of Barton's sudden 'mental weakness'. Which in reality was nothing like getting drunk, and nothing like a lapse in good judgement. We are talking about a cosmic level device of alien origin that is capable of COMPLETELY ENSLAVING AN INDIVIDUAL TO THE USER'S WILL. Fury even saw the process with his very own eye. Legal systems probably won't recognize alien mind slave devices, but Fury's whole agenda in Avengers was to be prepared for such outlandish situations. And guess who's pulling the strings here?
Regardless of what the legal systems are like in our world our theirs' I highly doubt that Fury would let Barton go on trial for such a thing, even if the World Council themselves ordered it. Fury cuts corners to fit his sense of justice, not a sense of legal process. For goodness sake's he shot down one of his own planes because he disagreed with the plan.
So unless they cut out Fury's control or bastardize his character, we won't be seeing Barton on trial or imprisoned. It will be swept under the rug, much like many of SHIELD's operations. They are the epitome of shadow agency and I very much believe they can completely and will completely reprieve Barton of any perceived war crimes.
Yes, dear. We, as an audience, know exactly what happened, and that it's not Hawkeye's fault. In the filmic world, Hawkeye and his lawyers would have one HELL of a hard time convincing a judge and/or jury to swallow such an argument. The DA would demand proof of these phantasmagorical claims of magic and mind control, and would get none. Yes, Loki's a god, yadda yadda, yes, the Cube yadda yadda. None of those powers have been defined or proven or understood in a court of law, or by science, or by laypeople. The DA could easily ask Hawkeye and Selvig why Nick Fury wasn't possessed, nor any of the rest of the SHIELD agents inside the JDEM lab, nor any of the Avengers.
The burden of proof would be on Hawkeye to show that he wasn't in control of his faculties, and the only ball in his legal court is Selvig, who is now madder than a hatter, and whose evidence and testimony would be thrown out as wholly inadmissible.
This is not a feasible scenario. No court tries people when the basic facts of the situation is too classified for the jury to hear. Plus, after everyone knows aliens exist and have incredible capabilities, the ability to judge their ability to do mind control is far out of any civilian's skillset. Hawkeye, even if SHIELD made no intervention whatsoever, would be tried by military court. If he was following orders to the best of his ability, which he was, then he would be fully acquitted. If the prosecutors could prove that it was a war, which it was, he would be acquitted. Unless he showed significant mental instability, he'd be free to go. The only way he'd do jail time is if SHIELD intentionally made sure that he did, which, if his fate is decided after Redford takes over, could possibly happen.
I personally would prefer a self imposed exile due to his guilt and frustration. If he had become a criminal in the depths of his depression and self loathing, that could be interesting as well.
It still strikes me as largely a "house that jack built" justification for the a priori goal of "Hawkeye not being part of SHIELD."
The Avengers don't belong to SHIELD. They are opposed to SHIELD.
If he's interested, maybe perhaps we'll see Jeremy Renner in the Defenders for Netflix?
We see in the film that Selvig has been driven mad as a result of Loki’s mind control. Can we expect to see Clint Barton going through the same thing the next time we see Hawkeye?
Well, I think we saw that in The Avengers already. We saw the scene where he is with Widow, and he’s coming out of that, and he’s dealing with the repercussions of that. That was sort of it for Hawkeye. Selvig was held in that Loki trance a little bit longer and only popped out at the very, very end, so I think his repercussions [are more significant]. And also, Hawkeye is a field operative of SHIELD. Selvig is a university professor. [Laughs] So they deal with it in different ways.
It's interesting that Hawkeye will still be a SHIELD agent come AoU - especially given the likely outcome of TWS. Not my preferred direction but I can live with it.
Except that none of those examples fit her whatsoever. Getting drunk is a choice, and so you are liable for the consequences since you put yourself in that situation willingly. Hawkeye didn't choose to be mind-controlled by a god wielding a cosmic rod of power. It's not even remotely close to being even vaguely comparable, sorry.Hawkeye's situation has nothing to do with Black Widow's at all. Widow is a Russian, possibly dating back to the Soviet era, spy. Intel agencies try to recruit the opposition all the time, it's part of the spy game. OTOH, having your own agent, in a moment of mental weakness, suddenly try to kill large numbers of your agency en masse does not speak well for that agent's future with the company.
*Edit: and who said anything about "drunk driving," anyway? Christ, you're a terrible reader. I was talking about people who commit homicide when they're not in complete control of their faculties. Going out and murdering a ****load of people while you're on a bender isn't the same thing as crashing your car into a tree because you had one too many at the pub.
Him being off on a mission still makes more sense them some bullcrap trial scenario. I'd rather the writing be lazy than it be stupid and nonsensical.Pretty sure that everything in the CATWS trailer and set pics indicate that Fury loses a LOT of control in that movie. It's pretty evident that the main thrust of the story there involves a massive shakeup in SHIELD's power structure, with Fury being literally under the gun, and it probably directly relates to his "insubordination" during The Battle of New York.
In any event, I'm just trying to come up with a simple, logical excuse for Hawkeye's complete absence in the Phase II movies (every other Avenger, and practically every other major character from that movie, rates at least a cameo in a Phase II movie, but not Hawkeye....?), and an excuse that provides for a pretty cinematic reintroduction to Clint in Avengers 2, featuring the Avengers leading a jailbreak to bust him out for a shot at redemption.
What would *you* guys prefer? That they just say, "oh, he's been off on a mission somewhere" and leave it all offscreen? That's sweeping Hawkeye under the rug. That's lazy writing. And that's boring as hell.
"And also, Hawkeye is a field operative of SHIELD."
Feige has spoken.
That settles it. Close the thread. And for God's sake, no more bizarre fantasies about Hawkeye going on trial for acts committed while under Loki's control, because that was never going to happen.
Him being off on a mission still makes more sense them some bullcrap trial scenario. I'd rather the writing be lazy than it be stupid and nonsensical.
Nothing about TWS prevents heroes from being SHIELD agents. Unless, of course, you think Cap is going to *fail* to save the day and stop the villains.
So if you were Hawkeye and your close friends had been royally screwed over by the organisation you work for, and/or you discover that [BLACKOUT]said organisation has been infiltrated by that little terrorist group called HYDRA[/BLACKOUT], you would still want to work for that organisation?