The Tragedy of Black Widow
This story contains spoilers for Black Widow.
Black Widow may be billed as a superhero film, but Black Widow is no typical superhero. Natasha Romanoff, the spy turned Avenger played by Scarlett Johansson, is singular when it comes to comic-book heroines: She has no special powers, just a self-reliance and compassion developed from having escaped an oppressive program that tried to turn her into a machine. She’s not a straightforwardly inspirational character like Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman, nor is she the gender-flipped version of a popular male character like Supergirl or Batwoman. And she has waited patiently for her turn to star in a standalone film—so patiently that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline, she’s now dead.
Marvel Studios’ first film to be released in theaters in moreworks as both a prequel and a swan song for Natasha, given her death in . Set after the events of , the movie follows Natasha as she reunites with her adopted sister of sorts, Yelena (played by Florence Pugh). The two embark on a mission to destroy the Red Room, a Russian program that brainwashes women into becoming assassins—and one that Natasha thought she had dismantled years ago, before becoming an Avenger. To finish this unfinished business, they reunite with their “parents,” Russian spies who had raised them as children in America as part of a sleeper cell.
