Lady Nagant was able to severely injury Deku, the only caveat was that Deku was using blackwhip and danger sense to dodge, but wasn’t able to get out of the way fully (he was also very tired). I take this as meaning Hawkeye is capable of getting through Deku’s durability, though Deku is also capable of reacting and dodging. Agreed?
Faster, stronger, NOT better reaction time. Hawkeye has dodged lasers which are light speed. Deku has dodged the radio wave attack which is also light speed. The only question is who gets the first hit. Ever seen the Myth-busters episode where they test bringing a knife to a gun fight?
Thats what I was talking about with the Myth-busters episode. They found that a knife (melee) CAN be better than a gun assuming you are at a close enough distance. The only deciding factors are how fast the gap can be closed and how fast the gun can be drawn. Let’s say Hawkeye can track and knock a target in 0.5 seconds. How far Deku can travel from a standing position and how far apart the two start determines who wins.
When death battles begin, the characters are facing each other and understand they are going to fight. So Deku knows both that he is in danger, and where it’s coming from, more info than danger sense gives him so he won’t have much use for it in the first 0.5 seconds. From what I can tell, gear shift requires the motion to activate so if he starts with that he’s dead cause it takes longer than 0.5 seconds.
I do think Deku wins, but by using smoke screen (no set up needed), then dodges behind cover to study his opponent as that suits his talents. Hawkeye would likely use his own smoke screen and hide as well, likely being first to track down his opponent, thats when danger sense gives Deku the edge. Now it’s a game of cat and mouse, does Deku find Hawkeye before Hawkeye lands a hit. Basically Lady Nagant round 2.
Danger sense only tells him he is in danger. Death Battle starts with the characters facing each other so Deku can see he is in danger AND where the danger is coming from. I may be wrong on this part, I remember float being slow on its own without blackwhip or gearshift already going. Float+blackwhip is probably how he gets to cover?
It’s similar to the spider sense. It activates when he is in danger. For example, when fighting Lady Nagant it would activate when she had the intent to shoot, not when she shot. So he will probably have time, he just won’t necessarily know where to dodge or what the danger specifically is. So if he goes to dodge an arrow, he won’t know if it’s a normal arrow or a 30 megaton bomb.