MCU's 'Hawkeye' solves mystery surrounding first Avenger to join Nick Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D.

The third episode of MCU's mini-series, Hawkeye answered one of the fans most asked questions that who was the first Avenger to join forces with Nick Fury's SHIELD. The series starring Jeremy Renner as the skilled archer Clint Barton/Hawkeye revealed the exact time Hawkeye joined Fury's Avengers initiative and it is way before Iron Man joined the team.

Over the years, Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man/Tony Stark is considered as the flag bearer of the Avengers initiative. However, after the 2019 movie Captain Marvel, it was clear that Fury has been planning the Avengers Initiative since 1995 after he teamed up with Carol Danvers to fight the aliens Kree and Skrulls. The Hawkeye series set a clear timeline over when Hawkeye joined hands with Nick Fury.

Who was the first real Avenger?

As shown in the 2019 movie Captain Marvel, in the year 1995 S.H.I.E.L.D. was involved in the conflict with the alien species Kree and the Skrulls, and Nick Fury the future head of the program teamed up with Carol Danvers to save the Skrulls from the Kree and retrieve the Tesseract. Having witnessed firsthand how humanity is not capable of dealing with intergalactic threats but also witnessing how someone with superpowers could be Earth's protectors, Fury became determined to protect the Earth from future intergalactic threats like the Kree.

Since the movie showed that Danvers had left Earth and wouldn't be available until the next threat arrives, Fury tried to find individuals with superpowers and abilities just like Danvers in hopes of bringing them together as a team to fight as Earth's protectors.

Episode three of Hawkeye shed some light upon Barton's history with Fury. During the episode, Bishop and Barton address the sacrifices that it takes to be a superhero. In response to one of Kate Bishop's remarks, Hawkeye says, "Uh, you realize that my job for the last twenty years was to be not recognizable, right?" With the line, the series reveals when Hawkeye joined Fury and SHIELD, showing he was likely the first Avenger.

The episode confirmed that Hawkeye was part of Fury's plans before any other Avenger. Hawkeye's declaration that he's been doing his job for twenty years means he joined SHIELD around 2004 and Fury didn't recruit Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) until 2008's Iron Man. Also, it should be noted that Barton was the one who recruited Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) to SHIELD who in turn was sent to examine whether Iron Man was fit to join the Avengers Initiative.

Although the episode doesn't directly confirm that Hawkeye joined Avengers before Iron Man, the timeline hinted clearly shows that Hawkeye was one of the first superheroes to join the Avengers Initiative laid down by Nick Fury. 

Image: Instagram/@official_nickfury/@hawkeyeofficial