Who is Kate Bishop? What's her origin in Marvel?

Last week the new television show from Marvel Studios released as Hawkeye became the latest spin-off to drop on the Disney+ online platform.

The show follows in the footsteps of other Marvel TV releases this year, after the success of Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and What If…?. The new TV series sees a new face take over the role of Hawkeye from Clint Barton, who was played by Jeremy Renner in the film series.

In the new iteration, Kate Bishop (played by Hailee Steinfeld) is a privileged, rule-breaking martial arts expert who turns her back on her morally dubious step-father, Derek. Kate becomes caught up in the dangerous world of New York criminals and comes into contact with Clint in the opening episode.

What is Kate Barton’s origin story?

The young protagonist of the latest Marvel TV show came from a privileged background but rejected that wealthy lifestyle to take up the mantle from Clint, the previous Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The events of the new show take place roughly two years after the ending of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, after which Clint is presumed dead.

However Kate’s heroic instincts were first alighted in her youth, when she followed Derek to a meeting with a low-level villain known as El Matador after witnessing him beat up a man in their home. Kate was discovered and captured by El Matador but she was aided in her escape by the Avengers, where she first came into contact with Clint’s Hawkeye.

While all other members of the Avengers had super powers Hawkeye did not, something that inspired Kate and she dedicated herself to archery, sword fighting, and combat training after being attacked while running in Central Park.

She then witnessed the Young Avengers attempt to save a group of wedding guests from a robbery and sprung to their side to help them. From there she and Cassie Lang teamed up and joined the Young Avengers.

She, like Barton’s Hawkeye, has no super powers but is a master of various combat styles and incredibly skilled at archer, her signature discipline.

This back story was covered in the Young Avengers series which proceeds the Disney+ show, and Hailee Steinfeld revealed in a recent interview with Elle that the devotion Marvel fans have for the character of Kate Bishop was one of the things that attracted her to the role.

“It was actually wild, everything that I was seeing online,” Steinfeld said of the character’s huge popularity. “The minute I started to dig into a little Kate Bishop research, I instantly could understand why people have been very excited to see this character on the big screen for a while.”