Moreover, as an individual, she has always valued the Avengers as a family even though they did not reciprocate this movie tells us why she’s built that way, and why she stood by Captain America in “Infinity War.” It gives Black Widow’s parents who loved her even though they couldn’t save her, and a sister she can be there for despite failing in the past. She was the only one to act like an adult in “Captain America: Civil War,” and she was the only one on Earth to continue leading the Avengers after the blip, a feat which “Black Widow” contextualizes with further insight. Director Cate Shortland and screenwriter Eric Pearson were handed a shoddy patchwork of character moments and created a unified, coherent character - treatment which Black Widow has rarely seen. So, after a long, long wait, the “Black Widow” movie is here. Whatever your thoughts on Scarlett Johanssen, this lawsuit is important for actors everywhere because if Disney will allegedly screw over the actress who topped Forbes’ 2019 list of highest paid actresses, then how will they treat members of the cast and crew who haven’t built names for themselves yet? The depiction of Black Widow’s romantic history on screen ranges from mildly incompetent to outright offensive, and the lack of care put into this aspect of her character matches her inconsistent characterization.įans have been campaigning for a Black Widow movie since her debut in “Iron Man 2,” and yet when it finally happened, the lead actress was allegedly underpaid for it. This as an adaptational choice is fine, but it’s interesting that Bucky and Natasha have parallel backgrounds - they were trained in the same place - yet “Captain America: Civil War” makes clear that the Winter Soldier is bad because of what he did whereas the Black Widow is bad because of who she is. This relationship is mentioned in a couple of movies before being dropped in “Infinity War.” Also in the comics, Black Widow had a relationship with the Winter Soldier, but this is only hinted at in the movies. After this, Natasha uses him, then he leaves. So Black Widow naturally starts a relationship with the Hulk, the guy whose destructive alter-ego is paralleled with Natasha’s infertility. Speaking of romance, one is hinted at between Black Widow and Hawkeye in “The Avengers” (and this is a relationship that happens in the comics), but in “Age of Ultron” it’s revealed he suddenly has a secret family. It would be one thing for a character to believe untrue negative things about themselves, but the narrative very clearly reinforces this view as correct.
The film explicitly uses this to call her a “monster” - and her supposed love interest agrees with her. According to “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” her greatest flaw is not that she’s hurt or killed innocent people - it’s that she can’t have children. We never saw any details of her past and were also told very little about it. While the MCU is leagues better at consistently characterizing their heroes than the DCEU, the various writers who have worked on Black Widow’s character have struggled to come to a satisfying consensus about who she really is.įor example, it’s been hammered home that Natasha Romanoff, the woman behind the moniker, has a checkered past where she did awful things, but for a while it remained unclear what actually makes her a bad person. Other times, she is sensitive and dorky with a wicked sense of humor. On other occasions, she has been taciturn but still sexualized. Over the course of eight Marvel movies, Black Widow has been written as flirty, morally ambiguous, and selfless.
Portrayed by controversial actress Scarlett Johansson, she was the only female Avenger in the MCU’s first 11 movies, and her motley appearances are best characterized as incohesive.
Since her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2010, Black Widow has been through quite a complicated journey.