The past few days have consumed the comic book movie internet with thinkpieces on Black Widow’s role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the recently released Avengers – Age of Ultron. Her depiction in the film has raised a lot of hackles, and as as close to an expert as you can be on superhero movies, I thought I’d add my two cents.
SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS – AGE OF ULTRON AHEAD!
In Age of Ultron, Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk, and Natasha Romanov, aka Black Widow, have begun a flirtatious relationship. In a scene about two thirds of the way through the movie, Banner reveals that he cannot have children, followed by Black Widow doing the same. As part of her graduation from the Red Room, the facility where she was trained, Widow was sterilized. This is not controversial. What is controversial is what she says next.
Banner compares himself to a monster because, well, he is. After the reveal that she cannot have children, some people have interpreted Widow’s comment afterwards to indicate that she feels that because she cannot have children herself, she is also a monster. I can see why some people would be offended by that, but when taken in context that’s not what she’s saying. What she is saying is that her training, including the forced sterilization, made her a monster.
Joss Whedon, the director of Age of Ultron is well regarded as one of the most feminist directors in Hollywood. His films and movies feature strong female protagonists, and he does a great job of avoiding typical damsel-in-distress type tropes. What is confusing to me is how a director so well regarded can be accused of basically boiling Black Widow down into a baby crazy mess. Is the goodwill he’s earned not worth the benefit of the doubt here?
The problem with the Black Widow controversy is that it’s become a “gateway controversy” to discuss the larger role of female superheroes, not just in the MCU but in comic book movies in general. The question here is simple: why aren’t there any female-lead superhero movies?
The reason for this is that, like it or not, a female-led superhero movie is seen as a risky investment. Elektra and Catwoman are the only “modern” female-lead superhero films, and both were financial and critical disasters. Hollywood is notoriously risk averse, and both female-lead superhero movies have failed. Sure, there have been plenty of male-lead superhero movies that have failed too, but when you have a 100% failure rate vs a 50% failure rate, you’re gonna go with the 50% failure rate. That means that until you’re confident you can turn out a product that will meet the high standards that your previous films have set, you stick with what you know.
When asked for comment whether Whedon had been chased off Twitter by Social Justice Warriors, Whedon replied: “Believe me, I have been attacked by militant feminists since I got on Twitter. That’s something I’m used to. Every breed of feminism is attacking every other breed, and every subsection of liberalism is always busy attacking another subsection of liberalism, because god forbid they should all band together and actually fight for the cause.” and in this, he gets to the heart of the controversy.
Namely, there is no controversy. A handful of individuals took offense to a scene in an action movie and dialed up their outrage to 11, causing a director that is a well known progressive and feminist voice to quit Twitter and waste time addressing a non-story. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’d rather see Whedon creating the exciting films and TV shows he’s known for rather than addressing a big ball of nothing drummed up by a few overzealous keyboard jockeys.
