To get everyone on the same page, Marvel Studios recently announced at the San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that its Phase 4 comprises films like Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi & The Legend of the 10 Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor 4: Love and Thunder and Blade.
Here at Augustman, we took the liberty to create a mini-series to give our readers a better understanding of the movies in Marvel’s Phase 4. Don’t worry, we’re not giving out spoilers. So, let’s start with Black Widow.
AN ORIGINS STORY
After what happened to Natasha Romanoff (aka Black Widow) in Avengers: Endgame, this movie is by no means Black Widow’s way of coming back into the Marvel Universe. Unless of course, Marvel decides to play with the alternate timeline theory again.
Marvel’s Black Widow should provide us with a back story to the character and how Natasha derived her “powers” to become one of Marvel Universe’s deadliest assassins. More than that, this might actually set the stage for Marvel Studios and actress Scarlett Johansson to develop a more three-dimensional character.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
You would recall that in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Natasha revealed to Bruce Banner (aka Hulk) that she couldn’t have children because of the nature of her job as an assassin. Earlier in that movie, we were also presented with flashbacks of young Natasha being wheeled into an operating theatre (presumably a sterilisation procedure).
Are there parallels to draw between Marvel’s Black Widow and America’s recent criminalisation of abortion? Perhaps it points to how women’s beauty and sexuality are somehow controlled, defined and used as a weapon, and conversely how having any emotional attachment to family, children and motherhood is deemed as weakness.
Whichever message Marvel Studios and director Cate Shortland is conveying, it is safe to say that Marvel’s Black Widow is not looking to be the typical action film but one that will provoke thought among its viewers.
ANSWERS TO DETAILS
Throughout the Avengers series, we have been inundated with conversations that made us scratch our heads. Kevin Feige and co. played with subtle details that have evolved into a big pile of questions for us. Such as, what did Natasha mean when she said, “I’ve got a lot of red in my ledger“? Who and what does she owe?
From wondering what the God of Mischief Loki meant when he brought up Dreykov’s daughter, Sao Paulo and hospital fire in The Avengers, to Hawkeye’s “a long way from Budapest” when Black Widow and himself was flying an aircraft to retrieve the Soul Stone in Avengers: Endgame, this new movie should hopefully give the answers we’ve been dying to know.
Marvel’s Black Widow will be released on 1 May 2020.