Fuck Yeah, Black Widow

A tumblog dedicated to the Marvel superhero Black Widow. Images! Scans! Analysis! Fictional ladyblogging!

[whereismyblackwidowmovie]

Do I or do I not look out for you, tumblr?

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

AVENGERS #27 JASON AARON (W) • ED MCGUINNESS (A/C) STARBRAND REBORN Part One: RIOT IN THE SPACE PRISON! Artist Ed McGuinness returns for an epic space adventure that takes the Avengers into an alien prison the size of a galaxy, where a mysterious new wielder of the all-powerful Starbrand has suddenly appeared, unleashing cosmic chaos. Good thing the Avengers brought along their newest member, the Black Widow.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

WEB OF BLACK WIDOW #3 (of 5) JODY HOUSER (W) • STEPHEN MOONEY (A) Cover by JUNGGEUN YOON · WIDOW UNDERWATER! · When her secretive enemy gets the best of her, Natasha calls the one person who understands just how tangled a widow’s web can get: Yelena Belova. But a fellow Black Widow can’t save Natasha from the chains of her past…

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

'Black Widow' Writer Jac Schaeffer Isn't Scared to Make the Fanboys Mad

"I’m not interested in the loud, sour-grapes voices.” Sorry, dudes.

[seriousfic]

having recently released Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson comedy The Hustle — a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels that credits Schaeffer alongside three other screenwriters

Oof.

[nineteenninetyonenostalgia]

Also

Schaeffer’s work for Marvel also includes contributing writing to 2019’s Captain Marvel

Oof, so she wrote one of the most poorly written MCU movies. Great resume.

“I wasn’t a huge superhero movie fan before starting to work [at Marvel], but now that I’m doing it, there’s just so much opportunity to make big, positive statements,” Schaeffer says. “Especially something like Captain Marvel and Black Widow, to have these female-centered stories — I just can’t not be involved in that.”

Regardless of your particular stance on any given social political issue…how is this a good thing? How is this not fucked up?

A major creative force on a superhero movie never gave a damn about superheroes before they were hired for the role and their main interest is how they can serve their particular social political values. 

That’s at best depressing and worst…just gross.

We are so far and beyond the point where people who don’t love the genre or these characters should be allowed to touch them it’s not even funny. History bares this out.

I’m not saying it’s never happened that a non-comic book fan hasn’t made a good movie or that a comic book fan hasn’t made a stinker, but more often than not we can see that the best results come from when comic book/superhero lovers get to actually work on comic book/superheor products.

Superman 1978. The Greatest Superman movie ever. Richard Donner genuinely liked Superman as a character and felt honoured when Big Blue’s creators gave him the stamp of approval.

Superman II. Half directed by Donner. Not as good but still pretty great.

Batman 1989. Fun movie, problematic Batman adaptation. It basically benefitted from having Nicholson who in playing himself automatically played the Joker but Keaton’s Batman was not the character. Burton wasn’t a comic book fan.

Batman Returns. A weird, weird, weird, style over substance movie that’s fun as a Tim Burton stylefest, but a terrible Batman movie. 

Mask of the Phantasm. 100% THE BEST Batman movie ever. Created by Batman megafanboys.

X-Men 2000 and X-Men 2. Solid-great X-Men movies for the time. Singer wasn’t a X-Men comic book fan to my knowledge, but he researched with the mostly faithful 1992 cartoon and did love Superman 1978.

Spider-Man 2002/Spider-Man 2: The best live action Spider-Man films to date, fantastic examples of the genre. Directed by a guy who was reading original Ditko Spider-Man in his younger days.

Batman Begins. The most faithful live action Batman movie to date. I do not recall if Nolan was a comic book guy himself but he was embracing the source material within the context of his more grounded approach. It borrows a lot from Year One which is arguably the best Batman story ever.

300: Fun action flick, pravctically identical to the comic book by a guy who adored that story.

Iron Man. Great movie. Favreau was a comic book lover. Feige was captain of the ship and was a comic book lover of old.

Incredible Hulk. Decent-good as a Hulk movie. Again Feige was guiding the ship.

Dark Knight. Great movie, good batman movie. A different but solid take on the Joker and a strong understanding of the Joker/Batman dynamic and of Two-Face. More realistic but ultimately respectful of the comics.

Justice League New Frontier: Great movie about a great comic. done by comic book lovers.

Under the Red Hood: The best animated Batman movie besides Phantasm. Very faithful to the comic done by comic book guys.

Kick Ass. Fun gore fest movie, respectful of the comic for the most part. Done by a comic book lover.

X-Men: First Class. Not exactly a strict adaptation of any specific story but it got the gist of the X-Men and of the Xavier/Magneto friendship. Done by a comic book lover with oversight from people who’d seen a lot of the 1992 cartoon.

Thor: The best Thor movie adaptation to date. Written by a guy who wrote actual Thor comics.

First Avenger: The perfect Cap origin. Done by comic book lovers again.

Avengers: God tier Marvel movie. Made by a guy who came up on comic books, did stuff inspired by them, then wrote them. Feels like a comic book in live action.

Man of Steel: Shite, done by a guy who loves comics but actively comes from a cynical Randian misunderstanding of superheroes.

Winter Soldier. God tier. Made by non-Cap fans but by huge comic fans nevertheless.

Guardians of the Galaxy. God tier. Made by comic book lovers.

Age of Ultron. Fun. Made by the same comic book fan as the first one.

Civil War: Beyond God tier. Made by the same huge comic book fans as Winter Soldier.

Dawn of Justice. Hot trash again made by the guy who doesn’t believe in the values superheroes represent.

Deadpool: God tier. Made by Deadpool comic book fans.

Wonder Woman: Bad ass. Directed by someone who loves Wonder Woman, loves superheroes, was influenced heavily by Superman 1978.

Logan: God tier. Made by Wolverine comic books fans including the main actor himself.

Black Panther: A movie that represents diversity, and is seemingly in line with the moral/political values of the director. Also a rightfully beloved superhero movie that is 90% respectful of the comics made BY a comic book fan.

Infinity War: Fun movie made by the Civil War guys. Borrows a lot from the original comics even in regards to the stuff it changes.

Deadpool 2: See above for Deadpool 1.

Into the Spider-Verse: God tier. A comic book come to life. Made by comic book lovers with INSANE deep cuts to canon.

Endgame: A colossal feat made by the Infinity War guys.

See there is no point gambling on the people who don’t show up with an in built love for the characters/genre/medium and who don’t prioritize the creative side of bringing them to life above personal politics. 

It’s rarely ever worked out doing it that way but doing it the other way has a much more reliable track record for success.

Also…

…We’re doing a movie about a superhero who hasn’t got any super powers at all and who’s costume amounts to a black body suit with a red hour glass, but we’re going to not glamourize her weapons. Like there is a reason Batman has batarangs and gadgets and a stylish Bat suit.

We’re not going to have 100% evil villains. Not bad in theory buuuuuuut…Joker, Norman Osborn, Ra’s Al Ghul, Lex Luthor, Doc Ock and any number of characters are clearly unsympathetic and 100% evil and they’re rightfully regarded among the greatest comic book villains of all time.

We’re going to violate the canon because of one person’s value systems. She gets when it comes to the MCU she’s not an auteur she’s in the service industry right? Like Natasha has an established character even within the MCU.

Gotta love the toxic narrative and fanboy bashing starting up early.

Honestly at this point I’m convinced riling people up like this is the intentional marketing strategy or something.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

Okay, but what about this "violates" the canon? You're talking about Batman, Spider-Man, and Superman villains but do you know anything about Alexi Shostakov and Yelena Belova, the villains to be featured in this film? They weren't plucked from thin air, there are multiple comic stories about each, and their moral ambiguity is a major part of how they serve as foils to Natasha, who is morally ambiguous herself. A 100% evil Yelena Belova would be a huge misinterpretation, and a 100% evil Alexi is the most boring version of the character. (See, I can do that thing where I treat other opinions about what parts of canon are good as invalid too, nevermind that fans all have different opinions about what parts of canon are good.)

It's because Natasha isn't super-powered that violence in her stories is often treated with a veneer of realism. Look at the Edmondson/Noto run, or the Morgan stories which inspired a lot of her MCU background. Batman would never kill someone with a sniper rifle, but Natasha obviously would, and so of course her sometimes her violence is going to come with less glamourous consequences and a harder edge. This is entirely in keeping with her comic book mythology and the character we've seen previously on screen.

Even the auteur approach seems consistent with what I'd expect of a Black Widow project— her solo stuff generally reads more Daredevil than Avengers or Iron Man.

For all this post claims to be about comics fanboyism, none of the examples have anything to do with the precedent set by Natasha's comics, which makes me think the real problem is that a female screenwriter expressed excitement about writing female characters and apathy for the segment of fandom that hates that.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

'Black Widow' Writer Jac Schaeffer Isn't Scared to Make the Fanboys Mad

"I’m not interested in the loud, sour-grapes voices.” Sorry, dudes.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

THE WEB OF BLACK WIDOW #2 (OF 5) JODY HOUSER (W) STEPHEN MOONEY (A) Cover by JUNGGEUN YOON Variant Cover by STEPHANIE HANS

· SOLDIERS. ASSASSINS. LOVERS. THE WIDOW AND THE WINTER REUNITE!

· Natasha Romanoff and Bucky Barnes have a history as long as war, companions since the Widow’s earliest days in the Red Room when both were trapped in service to the wrong side. It’s one of the greatest — and most tragic — love stories of the Marvel Universe. Now the world will try to get between them once again. And with the Widow missing memories, she may find herself losing the only person who would have forgiven her for what she has to do next.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

SAVAGE AVENGERS ANNUAL #1 GERRY DUGGAN (W) RON GARNEY (A) Cover MIKE DEODATO

A barbarian walks into a brothel and thus begins another adventure in the life of Conan of Cimmeria. Human traffickers finally meet an immovable human. Black Widow is drawn into the intrigue by following the trail of bodies left by Kulan Gath’s henchman, and a last prayer from one of the trafficked women summons an unexpected angel, the Son Of Satan himself, Daimon Hellstrom. It’s the Marvel team-up you didn’t know you needed until now. Pre-order Savage Avengers Annual # 1 or go to hell.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

Boyfriend Files: That Wacky Alexi!

Destined to be the most talked about super-villain of the year!

Alexi Shostakov aka Red Guardian aka Ronin (…) might be the most important love interest Natasha has, but he absolutely is the most inconsistently written and confusing. In the world of comics, nothing changes quite like the past. As a perpetual flashback and perpetual seemingly dead guy, Marvel has generally felt free to expand upon his Silver Age origins as a tragic Captain America analogue who fought with a belt buckle in any plot device-y way they see fit. They have also felt free to saddle him with many questionable mustaches.

Honestly, though, belt buckle aside, Shostakov was probably at his best in his very first appearances. He was introduced in the penultimate chapter of the ongoing Silver Age Black Widow plot, and the power of his concept is an obvious one— Soviet Captain America! Considering how many versions of himself Captain America has had to punch over the years, I’d say the broad idea had a ton of sticking power. Indeed, the Red Guardian concept and codename would be reused bunches and bunches of times over the years, as the USSR developed a full compliment of spandex heroes that became known as the Winter Guard.

Keep reading

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

I guess I'm bringing this back because the CBR explainer article is wrong.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

...Am I a bad person if I feel it’s too little too late though?

Hi friend, I will not argue that this was the optimal way to get from point A to point B.  I worry that Endgame will kill any illusion of forward momentum this movie might’ve had.  Five years ago a Black Widow film could’ve been trailblazing and relevant, but now it’ll have to fight against feeling like a relic of a dead phase, the parts of the generation of stories we’re supposed to be learning to let go of.  You saw the rest of the announcements they made today, and most of them promise something new and buzzy.  Excelsior is the eternal motto, and it isn’t 2012 anymore.  Fandom liked Scarlett Johansson in 2012!!

Maybe it’s because of the contemporary media environment that we can get a female director and a female scriptwriter.  Maybe because of that a 2020 Black Widow movie has a hope of being better than the 2015 version would have been.  But let’s be honest: there was no good reason we couldn’t have had those things in 2015.

So, like, I get it.  I don’t care, but I get it.  It doesn’t feel fresh or particularly relevant to do a Black Widow film right now, and that’s a moment missed and an opportunity squandered.  We can’t go back and fix it because time cubes aren’t real.

But one of the myths about women’s stories that we still have to slay is that they need to blaze trails, to move us forward.  Stories are old. They’ve always been old. They can still be worth telling.

And at least for today I’m not going to be the person who throws away a birthday present just because it came a couple months late.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

David Harbor playing Alexi???? Do you think this means Nat's older than she looks in the mcu??? bc it would be kinda gross to have a man his playing Nat's ex if she was born in 1984!

Maybe, or they could be going for a different niche for him in the MCU. In Natasha’s mythology it’s true that Alexei is her great necessarily lost love, but he also represents her ties to her old life, however they endure.  There’s a lot of space for him to occupy that isn’t necessarily romantic, especially if they want to move the character away from romantic entanglements as a driving force.  In Margaret Stohl’s novels Alexei was Natasha’s brother, even.

I also feel like the age difference is not that great in Hollywood Years.  They teased Natasha/Tony back in Iron Man 2.

If they were going to try to make the “Natasha is secretly 94 or whatever” story happen though I guess this would be the film to do it.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

do y'all understand how long I've been waiting for this?

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

FUCKING FINALLY

[theavengers]

‘Black Widow’: Rachel Weisz Circling Key Role in Marvel’s Standalone Film (EXCLUSIVE)

Fresh off her Oscar nomination for “The Favourite,” Rachel Weisz has set her sights on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as she is in early talks join Scarlett Johansson in Marvel’s “Black Widow” standalone movie.

Though a deal has not yet been completed, sources tell Variety that talks are headed in that direction, with strong interest from both sides of negotiations.

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

'Stranger Things' Star David Harbour Joins Scarlett Johansson in Marvel's 'Black Widow' (Exclusive)

Florence Pugh is already suiting up for the spy action thriller.

[fyeahnatasharomanoff]

NEW poster for Avengers: Endgame #AvengeTheFallen

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

This is a link to my self-hosed backup of all the posts here. You know, in case tumblr were to do anything strange...

[fuckyeahblackwidow]

I've just read your "Name Game" post and from what I've learned, Alianovna/Алиановна can also (uncommonly) mean "aliased" in Russian. Could this mean something? Is Natalia Alianovna Romanova even her real name?

So, apparently Chrome will translate Алиановна as aliased which I just discovered by googling to this page. But looking at the actual website, it looks like a table of forms of the name Aлиан—  Alian / Alianovich / Alianovna, and then plurals and declensions, not alternate meanings. So I don’t think it actually does mean aliased, and that google translate is handling that strangely because English doesn’t have patronymics, or grammatical gender. (If I’m wrong about this lmk, my Russian is very basic.)  Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if Claremont tried to give her a name that meant “unknown” or “alien” or something clever and thematic.

N.B. that if someone lacks an obvious patronymic for whatever reason— an unknown father, for example, standard practice is to invent one rather than do without.  Since we really don’t know anything about Natasha’s family, except that she was separated from them at a very young age, it’s possible that Alianovna is a made-up surname. She could have plausibly been born with a different name altogether, though her connection to the Romanov dynasty is attested to by comic book mysticism.

Even if she was born Nadia Lupova, though, I’d argue that Natasha Romanov— however you want to spell it— is her real name. That is the name she knows herself by, which matters more to her story, than whether it was the name she was given.