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In MCU, contrary to the others, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff are mere humans with good training and combat abilities.

Other members like Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Ant Man have at least some kind of superhuman abilities. With his armour Iron Man (and possibly Falcon) has the ability to achieve much more than ordinary human can do.

My question is, with a team of members with superhuman abilities like that, why do they need Hawkeye and Widow?

I know they are both master combatants and the widow is an amazing spy. I am aware that in comics, they were Avengers, even Hawkeye was earliest member of team. But not all founding/earliest members were in the Avengers movie duology (yet).

I wonder why did they use Barton and Natasha in the movies, with other guys who each had superhuman ability(s).

What is the significance of using them in MCU?

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    This is sort of like asking why they allowed a woman or a black man on the team. Having superpowers or cool toys was never a requirement.
    – J Doe
    Commented Nov 11, 2017 at 5:10
  • @JDoe I didn't mean like that at all. but what you were saying is like asking Can anybody join avengers and be a permanent member?
    – Vishwa
    Commented Nov 13, 2017 at 6:10

1 Answer 1

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They are very skilled and were already part of shield

I agree with this source:

Those heroes' normality is their greatest strength.

You pointed out this in your question:

Hawkeye and Black Widow in particular deserve to be Avengers because of their awesome skills. Hawkeye is a master bowman, Widow the finest spy in the world. In comparison to their allies they might just be human, but that's the point: they're essentially the audience surrogates in ideal form, the best a human being can be.

Some more details:

To us normal folks watching and reading the comics and movies, these non-powered people are our gateway into this weird and intense world of gods and heroes. They're humans at the peak of their potential, standing as equals with the superpowered. And that's something to look up to: the fact that at our best, we can stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Thor or Captain America.

And way fewer people ever bring up these questions when it comes to the ultimate manifestation of the 'badass normal': Batman. Part of Batman's whole mystique is that he is so finely honed, so well trained (and so well endowed with wonderful gadgets and toys) is that he can stand tall alongside aliens and people who are basically walking gods.

If Batman is so talented, so amazing that he can take down foes powered and unpowered alike, it magnifies the abilities of the likes of Wonder Woman or Superman to the awe-inspiring levels that we should be seeing them at. Without an extraordinary human alongside them, superheroes risk becoming sort of ho-hum and aloof, because they become the new normal. Standing alongside a regular human being grounds them in such a way that their superpowers stand out more.

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