#10: black widow is back
and so is bloopers and breadcrumbs!
So… it’s been a while! Thanks all for sticking around— bloopers and breadcrumbs will be returning to your inboxes (semi)regularly once more!
Spoilers for Black Widow ahead.
In one of the MCU’s most infamous scenes, Natasha Romanoff - better known as Black Widow - reveals a deeply held secret: she can’t have children. We learn that the Red Room, the Russian intelligence program that made Natasha a spy, imposes hysterectomies on all of its young, female assassins. Forced sterilizations are a matter of convenience— kids represent the risk of attachment or life outside the Red Room, so they simply remove the risk altogether. After this horrifying revelation, Natasha asks the Hulk, “You still think you’re the only monster on the team?”.
It’s heavy stuff, especially in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but the backlash stemmed not from the content but the tone. This was the MCU’s first time reckoning with the darker details of Natasha’s backstory but instead of developing her character, the scene was used to drive a romantic plot. Age of Ultron has Natasha divulge this personal secret to commiserate with Bruce Banner, who feels he cannot have a romantic relationship due to his “monstrous” powers. The final line in the scene makes the comparison explicit: Natasha’s inability to have children is made equivalent to Bruce Banner’s inability to control the Hulk, and the film never refutes the idea that infertility is monstrous.
Many suspected at the time - and now know - that Joss Whedon, the writer and director of that scene, was not particularly sensitive to female characters and how they should or shouldn’t be portrayed. It’s worth acknowledging that Natasha’s struggle with guilt over her past is understandable, and even powerful. Any MCU film, however, needs to know how to frame those emotions, so there’s a distinction between what Natasha feels and what the film presents as a message for its audience.
Unfortunately, the Age of Ultron scene is only the symptom of a larger problem. Natasha’s role in the MCU stretches back over a decade, and it’s always been complicated. Since her first appearance in Iron Man 2, she’s been an “assistant”, a spy, a Captain America sidekick, a love interest, and an Avenger— often while being the only woman in the room. In retrospect, it seems the MCU was never quite certain how to handle Natasha’s character. Every other (male) Avenger has a backstory tinged with tragedy, but all retain a level of agency in their origins. Cap chose to take the super-soldier serum. Tony created Iron Man. The Hulk experimented on himself with gamma radiation, and while the effects were unintended, they were self-imposed. Natasha, on the other hand, was kidnapped as a child, forced to train as an assassin in the Red Room, and stripped of any autonomy, including her choice to have children or not.
The lack of agency marks a fundamental difference in Natasha’s backstory and therefore requires different treatment, which the MCU has never had the time nor inclination to provide. References to Natasha’s past often describe her “red ledger”, filled with blood from her time as a brainwashed Red Room assassin. The few windows we have into Natasha’s character are centered on guilt, which is used to inform Natasha’s attachment to the Avengers. While Natasha’s experience as a literal assassin certainly makes that guilt understandable, the fact that she was brainwashed and abused means that guilt needs to be understood through a specific lens, not merely presented at face value. The story of Black Widow has long been one of atonement. But what is it, exactly, that Natasha should be atoning for? Forcing Natasha’s character motivation into a redemption arc ignores the abuse and control she’s suffered.
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Now, ten years later, Natasha Romanoff finally gets her own film. Black Widow has plenty of pressure on its shoulders, but it understands the weight it bears. The film is not only in conversation with Natasha’s backstory, fleshing out gaps in her history and character— it’s also very consciously in conversation with the films that have come before it.
Take a scene in which Natasha and her adopted(ish) sister Yelena, reunite with Alexei, their adopted(ish) father. The reunion is a sour one, and it gets worse when he asks Yelena if “it’s her time of the month”. Yelena dryly responds, “I don’t get my period, dipshit. I don’t have a uterus. That’s what happens when the Red Room gives you an involuntary hysterectomy.” It’s dark and played for laughs, but it works, especially when compared side-by-side with Age of Ultron. After years of male screenwriters and directors mining Black Widow’s origins for cheap emotional points, a scene like this is a rebuttal. It’s not undermining the severity of the abuse— it simply takes the narrative of that abuse out of Alexei’s hands and reiterates that it should be controlled by Natasha and Yelena, by the victims, by women.
Even the basic plot of the film reiterates that point; Black Widow sees Natasha seek out the Red Room in order to destroy it once and for all. This set up immediately hands Natasha the reins to her own backstory. We do not see extended Red Room flashbacks. We don’t relive Natasha’s childhood within the Red Room. We don’t view Natasha’s trauma on-screen. Instead, it is Natasha’s choice to seek revenge on her own terms, ensuring that our real introduction to the Red Room is Natasha’s destruction of it. This isn’t an origin story of atonement— it’s one of reclamation.
We’ve had a long decade of Marvel’s confusion when it came to Natasha. The brilliance of Black Widow is that it’s finally confronted her backstory head-on, unafraid to dig deep. If past Marvel films failed Natasha because they couldn’t address her past with any emotion except guilt— then it’s here that Black Widow succeeds, because it understands, first and foremost, that the trauma Natasha suffers is not her fault. And the good she’s experienced - her abilities, her morals, her friends - is hers and hers alone.
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I know the opinions on Black Widow are mixed. For some, the plot is a brave story for the current era; for others, it’s hashtag feminism. I’ll admit my strong positive bias, having anticipated this film for a long time. However, one of the great curses and great blessings of watching movies is that two people can have completely different reactions to a film— and both can be right.
I recently learned about the concept of “narrative pluralism”. In media, this means that there are many versions of a narrative, which prevents a single film from becoming the sole source of representation. For instance, prior to Black Widow, Captain Marvel was the only MCU film with a female lead. And unlike Thor or Captain America or Iron Man, Captain Marvel was put under a tremendous amount of pressure to not only be a good film but to also be a good female superhero film. Because there are so few of them, each one becomes a yardstick for that “type” of movie. Meanwhile, if Iron Man 2 were a flop, it would simply be a flop. Practically speaking, this means quantity can be just as important as quality. If representation is truly good, we can afford to have bad movies, because there will be so many good ones it won’t matter.
Some people will never be able to see Black Widow as anything but the latest product in Disney’s money-making Marvel machine. Some, like me, will see Black Widow and argue its intentions and results are sincere. All of us, regardless of whether the film resonated or not, should be grateful Black Widow - directed by women, produced by women, and starring women - exists. Narrative pluralism suggests that even if we don’t like hamburgers, we can get hot dogs. And if we don’t like hot dogs, we can choose anything from a menu that’s so vast, we’ll never run out of choices. Black Widow is an item on a menu that’s expanding day-by-day. For me, it hit the spot— and it turns out I’m hungry for more.
Culture Crumbs
Shout out to the woman in my theater who yelled “Get his ass!” when Yelena was offered the chance to assassinate Hawkeye in the post-credits scene
My friend Maddy has started an amazing horror zine called Scuro! It’s beautifully designed and features essays, reviews, recipes, and more. You can find the inaugural copy on Etsy, including a piece by yours truly
Look how lovely it is!! I’m calling it now: The Green Knight will be the most beautiful movie you’ll see all year
For all you Selling Sunset fans: it’s confirmed! Chrishell Stause and Jason Oppenheim are dating
The Netflix and Formula One bond gets ever stronger with a confirmed documentary on famed driver Michael Schumacher in the works
And last but certainly not least, Adam Driver did what he does best and dropped a Burberry ad that shook me (and many others) to our absolute cores… to my friends who still aren’t on this train: do you see the error of your ways?
On the great question of whether Adam Driver is attractive, you’ll either be on the right side of history or the wrong one. Choose wisely.
