Is ‘Black Widow’ Set To Be the Greatest Female-Led Superhero Movie of All Time?
Annlyel James 
Annlyel explores Black Widow‘s place in the landscape of female-led superheroes movies
Black Widow. She’s been a part of the MCU since 2010 when she stepped into Tony Stark’s home and taught Happy Hogan quite a painful lesson in the boxing ring. Since then, she’s fought aliens, fallen in love with Bruce Banner (that didn’t work out), found a family worth caring about and sticking onto, seen half the world turn to brown powder, and redeemed her legacy by sacrificing herself to stop Thanos. But apparently, in between all of this, she also saved the world from a new threat named Taskmaster. (Who’s that guy?)
Before COVID-19 shut the world down and halted the movie industry in its tracks we were given plenty of promotional material to gawk over about Black Widow. There were issues in magazines, riveting trailers, and tv spots, and all of this marketing material only helped build my otherwise dim excitement back in December about the film to a roaring tempest of anticipation in early March. After the final trailer was released it became very clear that Black Widow could very possibly become the greatest female-led superhero movie of all time.
I’ve seen Elektra, a surprisingly entertaining 2005 Marvel film starring Jennifer Garner as the title hero. I saw Wonder Woman for my birthday back in 2016 and I wasn’t a fan. Yes, I love Wonder Woman, and yeah I got teary during the No Man’s Land sequence, but the audacity to have Steve Trevors’ storyline equal to hers and to make it seem like she became “Wonder Woman” because of a man (remember, she got powerful and realized it was better to love than to hate after he died) was near-sickening. And Captain Marvel is fun to watch but in truth, it is a very mediocre superhero film.
With all of that being said, Black Widow which very well could be the next Captain America: The Winter Soldier-type superhero film, if done right, could finally become that female-led superhero movie that I have always wanted to see. A movie that treats its female lead like a male lead and features Natasha Romanoff saving the day in a truly powerful and jaw-dropping fashion without any poignant pointers stating that this is a movie about a female superhero.
In short, I’m excited about this movie. What about you?
The Future of the Force. The future of pop culture writing.
Annlyel James is a prolific Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. She is passionate about Star Wars and Marvel but loves a wide variety of movie genres. Aside from her role with Future of the Force she also writes for her own blog: annlyelonline. Follow her on Twitter @annlyeljames where she channels the Force frequently!
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely that of the author and do reflect the overall opinion of thefutureoftheforce.com, it’s writers, or affiliates.
Annlyel James is a Senior Correspondent of The Future of the Force. She is passionate about Star Wars and Marvel but loves a wide variety of movie genres. Aside from her role with Future of the Force she also writes for her blog: annlyelonline. Follow her on Twitter where she channels the Force frequently!
