Natalia “Natasha” Romanova/Black Widow first appeared in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964) as a femme-fatale Soviet spy/assassin and villain for Iron Man. This was not ideal.Ī year after its release, separated from the apparent disappointment in its lateness, how does Black Widow hold up as a film on its own terms? Does it tell a compelling story, or does it play like an obligation? And finally, how did its fumbled, pandemic-impacted release affect its success? Read on and see. So, upon its release, Black Widow had the inescapable feeling of a ‘too little too late’ mishandling of the most important female character in the expansive, hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. This had the effect of making this 2021 film seem like it should have been released sometime in 2017.
It also did not help that the film is set between the character’s appearances in Captain America: Civil War (Russo Brothers, 2016) and Avengers: Infinity War (Russo Brothers, 2018). It did not help that Black Widow was originally scheduled to release in May 2020 but was delayed 14 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. After all, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Ant-Man all received multiple solo films during that time period. Over the course of those seven supporting appearances in nine years, the producers of the MCU and Johansson herself paid lip service to the idea of a solo Black Widow film. All the while, Black Widow remained very popular, appearing in seven MCU films and dying in Avengers: Endgame (Russo Brothers, 2019). Since then, there have been various female heroes in Black Panther (Coogler, 2018), The Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp (Reed, 2018), and finally, a female lead with Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel (Boden & Fleck, 2019). She was the only female superhero in the MCU until Gamora (Zoe Saldana) was introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014) and Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) was introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron (Whedon, 2015). When Cate Shortland‘s Black Widow was released in July 2021, one of the most pervasive questions the film faced was: What took so long? Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) was the first female superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), introduced in Iron Man 2 (Favreau, 2010).
0 kommentar(er)
