In her first standalone film, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) juggles an internship at Fashion Weekly magazine and a complicated relationship with boyfriend Ultron.
Spoilers for Avengers: Age of Ultron ahead.
Black Widow has been used to service the storylines of FOUR Avengers- Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, Hawkeye in The Avengers, Steve Rogers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and now Bruce Banner in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. There are to date no plans for a Black Widow film which makes this brilliantly satirical Saturday Night Live skit so spot on. The big irony is Scarlett Johansson is the only Avenger that can open a non-franchise blockbuster on her own (see: Luc Bessons’ LUCY).
The cringeworthy part of an otherwise stellar Avengers: Age Of Ultron (here’s a link to my review), was Black Widow’s story arc featuring Bruce and Natasha’s plot device er, relationship: the questionably handled Red Room “graduation” reveal, plus being captured and being rescued by her boyfriend. Twice. Director Joss Whedon has taken heat for it, fair and not. Marvel & DC/Warner Bros.’ current super heroine drought is not Whedon’s fault. The fact of the matter is both Hollywood and the mainstream comic book industry have been cis white male dominated for 100 years. A perfect of example of the current climate was recent Black Widow slut shaming by sniggering male co-stars. If you’ve been reading All Things Geek you know I’ve written about the lack of diversity and sexism in mainstream comics & comic book movies for a while now (read “The Fierce Urgency Of Wonder Woman”). Wherever you stand on the current dustup in the wake of “Batasha”, Scarlett Johansson has been a good solider and #BlackWidowMovie is way overdue!
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all art – SNL – NBC/Universal
