This 2024 MCU Movie Can Give Black Widow The Farewell The Avengers Failed At

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Summary

Marvel Studios has failed to do justice to Black Widow's character throughout her MCU career, with limited exploration of her backstory and inappropriate moments.
The opportunity to honor Black Widow's legacy now falls on Phase 5's Thunderbolts, which will feature characters close to Romanoff and can pay a real tribute to her.
Thunderbolts has the chance to provide a deeper understanding of Black Widow's character and bring closure to her death, which has been overshadowed by other heroes' losses in previous MCU projects.

Despite Marvel Studios continuously failing the MCU's Black Widow, Phase 5's Thunderbolts can finally honor the original Avenger. Marvel Studios has regularly come under scrutiny for not doing justice to Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff, even though she was one of the MCU's original female superheroes and a founding member of the Avengers. Over her eleven-year-long MCU career, Black Widow's character was never truly fleshed out; she became the subject of several inappropriate moments, and her single solo film in the MCU's Phase 4 doesn't actually explore what makes Romanoff's backstory so interesting, but Marvel Studios has the perfect opportunity to fix these problems.
Johansson last appeared in 2021's retrospective Black Widow, which explored Romanoff's activities between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. While this was the best place to pay homage to the Avenger, who sacrificed herself for the Soul Stone in Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios failed to honor Black Widow's legacy. It could have been assumed that an Avengers-level crossover event in Phases 4 or 5 could have fixed this issue, but since the Avengers won't team up again until 2026's Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, this onus now falls on Phase 5's only crossover film. Luckily, Thunderbolts will star several characters who can pay a real tribute to Black Widow.
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Thunderbolts Can Finally Do Justice To Black Widow's Death

Black Widow only provided a brief moment of memoriam for Natasha Romanoff, which was unceremoniously interrupted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina anyway, but Thunderbolts has the opportunity to do better. Several characters close to Romanoff will be included in the Phase 5 film, including two members of her surrogate family: Yelena Belova and Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a. Red Guardian. Antonia Dreykov's Taskmaster is also taking her place as a member of the Thunderbolts team, and all three of these antiheroes can help to continue Black Widow's powerful legacy, particularly since previous MCU projects have focused more on the losses of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.
By bringing Yelena and Alexei together again, Romanoff can be discussed in much more detail, with her loss being felt on a more personal level by members of her own family. Romanoff's last interaction with Antonia saw her freeing her former villain from her father's mind control, which not only means that Taskmaster can now be better developed as a character but that she can also pay tribute to the woman who saved her. Thunderbolts won't focus completely on Black Widow, as its own story needs to unfold, but Marvel Studios has the perfect chance to put Natasha Romanoff's death front-and-center for the first time since Phase 4's Hawkeye.
How The MCU Never Did Justice To Natasha Romanoff

Even though Johansson did receive a solo MCU film, the fact that this only came after her character's death proved just how little Marvel Studios appreciated her while she was alive. Black Widow was also the butt of several crude jokes, including her underwear modeling in Iron Man 2 and some risqué moments with Bruce Banner in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which the majority of the MCU's male heroes never had to worry about. While Hawkeye delivered several tender moments of memorial for Black Widow, most of the MCU's moments of remembrance have been overshadowed by "bigger" heroes' losses, but hopefully, Thunderbolts will finally give Black Widow some real closure.
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