It’s been almost a decade since The Avengers brought together this century’s most popular super team. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk all got their own movies before the team-up, but fans have fairly consistently pointed out how messed up it is that the only original female Avenger, one Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, didn’t get her own standalone film. (Hawkeye didn’t get a film either but let’s be real, nobody was collecting signatures to watch Jeremy Renner shoot CGI bullseyes for two and a half hours.)
Anyway, they’ve fixed all of that now. Black Widow is starring in her own movie! I mean, it’s a little weird that she only got it after her character died in Avengers: Endgame, but hey, better late than never, right?
To prepare for Black Widow, the first Marvel movie to come to theaters since 2019, here’s a handy guide on what you need to know about Natasha before watching her standalone. First up, the trailer:
And onto the Q&A.
What’s Black Widow’s whole deal and how did she become an Avenger?
Natasha Romanoff is a former Russian operative turned SHIELD agent who doesn’t need superpowers to be formidable. She was trained from childhood in the Red Room, a Russian spy factory that specialized in turning young girls into living weapons, but she defected from the Red Room with help from then-SHIELD agent Clint Barton/Hawkeye. She’s been a good guy ever since.
‘Black Widow’ is a welcome palate cleanser for Marvel
Natasha joined the Avengers after first appearing in a supporting role in Iron Man 2, and she considered the Avengers her family up until the events of Captain America: Civil War.
What happened there?
There’s a whole movie about it and it’s very good but the important thing is that the Avengers broke up. Natasha initially sided with Tony Stark on his side of the conflict, but she betrayed Team Iron Man during a critical battle at the Berlin airport to allow Captain America to escape. The rest of Team Cap was captured and thrown into prison (including Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Wanda Maximoff, and Falcon), but Natasha slipped away and just kind of disappeared after her betrayal.
She came back though, right?
Yeah, she joined up with Captain America and Falcon at some point and they did a whole vigilante thing for a few years, evidenced by their traveling together in Infinity War. Then Thanos happened and after a very long, complicated chain of events she, uh, died.
Okay, but is she Marvel dead or dead-dead?
Unlike Vision, Gamora, and Loki, Natasha is dead-dead in the MCU. She sacrificed her life to get the Soul Stone for the Avengers and there’s no coming back from that. Well, Gamora came back from that, but that’s because the Avengers created a time paradox. Black Widow does not get a paradox.
So this movie is about a dead Avenger.
Yes. It’s a mid-quel — a movie that takes place during or between the events of other movies. In this case, Black Widow takes place in the time between Natasha disappearing into exile in Civil War and her appearing with the remains of Team Cap in Infinity War.
So what did she do in that time?
From the promotional material for Black Widow, it seems like Natasha went back to her roots and met up with some familiar faces from her past for a new adventure. Those include fellow Red Room graduate and sort-of sister figure Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh); a Russian super-soldier called the Red Guardian (David Harbour) who has some fatherly connection to her; and her mother figure Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz). Going by Marvel’s standard patterns, it’s safe to assume they have to fight a bad guy.
Do we know about the bad guy?
We know about Taskmaster, an elite assassin with the unique skill of being able to replicate anyone’s physical movement just by watching them. This muscle memory makes Taskmaster one of the most dangerous human fighters in the MCU, since at any point in a fight ol’ Tasky can start using their opponent’s moves against them. From the trailer it looks like Taskmaster has been studying the Avengers fairly closely and will be using a lot of iconic Marvel hero moves against Black Widow. Yay cool fight choreography!
Even though we know how Natasha’s story ends, it’s pretty cool that we get to spend a little more time getting to know her better before this Black Widow takes her final bow in the MCU. Black Widow is the first of four Marvel movies slated to come out in 2021 though, and there will be plenty more questions to ask once Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, and Spider-Man: No Way Home approach their release dates. See you then.
Black Widow premieres in theaters and on Disney+ (with Premier Access) July 9.
