Hawkeye’s Kazimierz Kazimierczak Origins Revealed

Disney+ is poised to launch a galaxy’s worth of new content, including 10 Star Wars series spinoffs and a handful of Marvel series. And one of the Marvel series to make its debut on the platform is Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. And the show is already introducing some of Marvel Comics’ most iconic villains.

But while Hawkeye is drawing a lot of inspiration from the seminal Matt Fraction and David Aja comics run, it’s also making some big innovations to the source material. And one of those innovations involves the character Kazimierz “Kazi” Kazimierczak, aka the Clown.

While the Hawkeye TV series has already introduced a number of characters from the Tracksuit Mafia and their ties to Echo (Alaqua Cox), it’s also been building up an origin story for one of those mafia jobbers, Kazimierz “Kazi” — or as he’s better known, the clown-faced freelance assassin known as the Clown. And it sounds like the character may be back for more.

On the TV show, Kazi is second in command of the Tracksuit Mafia and a longtime close friend of Maya Lopez. They bonded as kids at the Brooklyn karate studio where we saw them in Episode 4. But Kazi isn’t just loyal to Echo and the mafia, he has his own vendetta against Ronin Barton (aka Hawkeye) that is driving him down a dark path.

This is a major difference from his comics counterpart, who’s a much more demented character with a painted face. Whether or not the TV show is exploring that madness remains to be seen, but it certainly seems like the character has some depth to explore in his relationship with Maya and her conflicted loyalty to both the mafia and the Tracksuits.

In the most recent episodes of Hawkeye, Kazi attempts to talk Maya out of her revenge path by telling her that her father’s death was a set-up. She’s not convinced and he orchestrates an attack on the apartment building where she and Clint live, with the Tracksuit Draculas and tenets coming out in full force to take over the building. But Kazi and his henchmen get the upper hand before Kate and Hawkeye can incapacitate them.

ROHAN: While the TV show has certainly brought a darker edge to Kazi, it’s not clear how far the writers will go in terms of bringing his comics persona to life. But there’s no denying that the addition of this character is an exciting development for the Marvel TV universe. And if it’s the same character as the comics, the MCU could be in for some very entertaining villainy going forward.