Jon Favreau’s Iron Man franchise not only ushered in a new era in cinema, but introduced audiences to characters that could stand on their own without a call to assemble. One such character was Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson. Her introduction into the MCU was as epic as the film she was introduced in. Iron Man 2 was the no-turning-back point of the franchise; audiences needed to be less concerned about corporate espionage and traitorous mentors and more about greater, super-powered threats to the world. For Black Widow to be part of this shift in cinematic tone shows how pivotal her role is to the MCU. She is more than she appears in many ways.
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Clearly, Black Widow is the most badass Avenger. Her skill set in battle is like chess for her. Yet, she was often made into a cheap interpretation of a real woman by being sequestered to the role of love interest. Similarly, her character is cheapened when she is written as “the mother” in Avengers: Endgame, keeping everyone together as she struggles herself to feel complete. Of course, the biggest disservice to her character is the release of her solo movie after she died in Avengers: Endgame. As such, here’s how Black Widow became a footnote in the MCU at large.
The Most Badass Avenger
Walt Disney Studios
While Thor and the Hulk are among the top contenders for strongest original Avenger in the MCU, Black Widow has the broadest fighting style of her (all-male) peers. Trained as an assassin for the Russians, Natasha Romanoff spent her childhood learning to do one thing: kill the target. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Natasha’s hallucination via Wanda Maximoff is about her training in the Red Room and the surgery she had to undergo to graduate. Throughout the many iterations of assassins, the fighting style is like a signature. Nothing is truer for Black Widow’s fighting style. Whether she is taking on Happy or fighting aliens in a subway, Natasha is an unexpected force on the battlefield.
More Than a Love Interest
Marvel Studios
Considering her impressive battle skills, it’s a wonder that her character arc stopped after the first Avengers film. Such a formidable force, yet the next time she appears on-screen, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, she is kissing Steve Rogers in an attempt to distract Hydra members. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the will-they-won’t-they subplot thickens, though this time with Bruce Banner/The Hulk. Although it is implied, some fans think Natasha and Steve Rogers are a couple in Avengers: Infinity War, according to Fan Bolt. Another fan theory from Marvel Nerds even suggests that Steve and Natasha are married in an alternate universe in Avengers: Endgame. Of the women superheroes in the MCU, no character is more sexualized than Black Widow. As significant as she is to the Avengers, her first footnote is to be in a love triangle with Captain America and The Hulk. Whether its comic book canon, the studio should have utilized Black Widow the way they utilized Gwenyth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts in the Iron Man saga or Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Keeping Up with Black Widow
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Another cheap character development tactic used with women in Hollywood is to make them maternal, even when a character explicitly says they never felt the need to be a mother. In the case of Black Widow, she reveals to Bruce Banner that she’s the real monster on the team after a forced hysterectomy in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The implication in this scene is that women or people with uteruses who can’t have children or don’t want children see themselves in the same way. Yet the opposite is true: when women are written as instinctively maternal, it feeds more into the societal narrative that all women want is to be a mother. This is another stark difference between Black Widow and other women characters in the MCU. While audiences do not see other warrioresses like Captain Marvel or Gamora discuss being a mother, they aren’t forced into that role either. Black Widow is made into the mother during Avengers: Endgame when she has an open line for the Avengers across the galaxy. She is, assumedly, the only original team member who is living at the Avengers compound, where Steve Rogers comes by to do laundry. That whole scene is quite collegiate in that Steve is coming home to mom for a home-cooked meal and to rest, while Natasha is carrying the world on her shoulders.
A Little Too Late
While Johansson said that she was thankful to make the Black Widow solo film when they did, in an interview with SyFy, for many MCU fans, the films comes as an afterthought. Fans know Black Widow dies in Avengers: Endgame. While she chooses to sacrifice herself in place of Clint Barton’s Hawkeye, so he can return home, the first woman superhero of the MCU should have had her solo film much sooner. According to Time, a series of leaked emails from Marvel executives revealed that a Black Widow solo film was not marketable. Johansson stayed with the role despite studio executives not believing in her ability to carry an action-packed film. In the same article from Time, Johansson reveals that as executive producer of the film, she was able to tell the story of Black Widow that she really wanted to tell. While the MCU backed Johansson, the film fell short of fans expectations. Especially the events in Budapest that were first referred to in Marvel’s The Avengers. Regardless of the forward motion to make the lead actress the executive producer as well, it was unfortunate that it took practically a decade for the film to happen, well after Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America had each completed their own trilogies of films. By having the solo film occur after the character had died, it was like the period at the end of the sentence was replaced by a semicolon followed by a fragment.
