so i was thinking more about the advantages and disadvantages of having Hawkeye die, story-wise.
advantages:
- to show how the ultimate universe is more dangerous than the 616 one, especially for a normal human. beast is dead, spider-man has been shot numerous times, hank pym almost died, iceman got broken. and these were all super-powered beings. hawkeye is extremely competent, but, as millar has shown by having him fear for his life at times, hawkeye is also only human.
- millar likes highly dramatic things like killing off characters. it fits his style, especially killing someone as likable as clint.
disadvantages:
- the promo said hawkeye's life would be ruined in the worst way possible. i think that lends itself more to hawkeye being alive and without his family rather than being in heaven with them. the fact that the killer says that his son is up in heaven with his mother, and not something to the extent of "you'll see him soon." means something, as well... this leads to my next point...
- hawkeye hasn't gotten to be an angry angry guy yet, and i think millar wants to make him that way. killing his family is a great reason to make him as argumentative as he was in 616, all the while adding a new spin to the character. to alter a quote by Beast in Avengers Finale:
Cap: "I like turkey."
Hawkeye: "Turkey is terrible, and what do you know, you couldn't save my family!"
- hawkeye isn't deaf, and this might deafen him slash scar him slash somehow make him more awesome than he already is.
- now that i think about it, millar hasn't killed off all that many people in the ultimate books... all the killing has been done by Bendis, really. millar had iceman, beast, cyclops, hank, and jan all recover from their serious injuries. bendis killed beast and gwen, and ellis killed annihilus.
so, while i don't know what happened to hawkeye (i believe the quicksilver theory, but there is no way to be sure), i definitely do think it would be a better business venture to keep him alive.