Almost exactly eight years ago I posted a rant essay lamenting the lack of a movie about Black Widow in the MCU. This brings to the front of my mind that not only have I been keeping this blog for a long-ass time, but that it’s taken a long-ass time to get a dang Black Widow movie.
Which I haven’t seen just yet, despite it coming out yesterday, but I do intend to soon (I have a bit of a busy, adventure-intensive weekend coming up, so carving out time to go to the theater is an endeavor into itself). Because, yeah, I do wanna see this in theaters. Because I can, and because I really do miss going to the cinema. I’m not good at sitting still, so watching movies at home is often difficult. Sitting in a dark room with a huge screen is much easier for me. And of course, there’s the whole fun of getting to watch something on a huge screen. Getting to go back after not being in a cinema for over a year is gonna be great.
But anyway, Black Widow. Finally. I will admit, I haven’t been following the development of it too closely, but then I don’t for most Marvel movies these days because I know I’m going to see them (I think I saw maybe one trailer?). I know it’s set between Civil War and Infinity War and I know it deals with Widow’s past. Which all sounds really cool, and naturally I’m happy to finally be getting one.
I’m just not exactly sitting at the edge of my seat for it, unlike, say Shang-Chi. I think it’s because it feels like too little too late. Not because I don’t think there should be a Black Widow movie, I do! It just seems like it’s happening way too late, especially given her rather anticlimactic death in Endgame. We’re finally getting a Black Widow movie, after over eight years of waiting and clamoring, after her story is effectively over.
Not to say that can’t work. Loki exists and takes place after the Loki we know got killed by Thanos in Infinity War. Yet the show’s found a lot of leeway and potential with a Loki from a different timeline who’s going on his own rascally adventures. Because time travel and alternate realities and other fun shenanigans are really just a way to do a deep dive into the psyche of the God of Mischief and tell a great mystery story about destiny and shadowy organizations along the way. Loki gets away with what it does for how it digs around into another side of the universe we haven’t known to exist just yet. A Time Variance Authority sounds super interesting when we have time travel in the mix, so character aside, there’s a big ol’ mystery to be revealed along the way.
Which, perhaps, is why I’m not chomping at the bit for Black Widow. Shang-Chi and The Eternals are giving us new characters and showing off new worlds, the upcoming Spider-Man and Doctor Strange movies have been teased to be getting really weird with new realities, and Black Widow is a flashback to some spy stuff. Maybe I’m selling the movie short, maybe there will be a big fun reveal that makes the MCU just a little bit bigger. Or maybe it’ll be a really dope action-spy movie that finally gives Natasha her due. Maybe we’ve had too many huge, world-shaking stories recently that a self-contained story seems a little unusual. Maybe it’s time for one of those again.
All that said, I am looking forward to finally going back to the cinema, to finally watching another Marvel movie, and to finally, finally get my dang Black Widow movie.
Essays, Not Rants! 