Since 2012, I have defended Natasha Romanoff from people (mostly men) who believed she had no place on the Avengers. I am still doing that in 2026. I will continue to do that as long as I live, because Natasha Romanoff kept that fucking team together for as long as she could and I will not let Marvel’s fucking up her character take away from that.
Natasha Romanoff outsmarted THE god of mischief in Avengers (2012). She was a SHIELD agent among super soldiers and gods, and SHE was the one to find out Loki’s plan.
Natasha Romanoff silently suffered in Age of Ultron (though not the only one to do so), ended up captured BY Ultron, and made it out fucking alive! Do you understand how much that took? The MCU never confirmed she is enhanced in any way (in the comics, she has the serum, and I do believe she’s enhanced in MCU but we were just not explicitly told), and she survived the battle in Sokovia.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War both show Natasha’s skill and ability VERY clearly. Keeping up in a fight with Bucky is NOT easy. The Winter Soldier is crazy fucking strong—the dude has a metal arm—and she did it! In fact, we learned that she survived an encounter with him years ago. In Civil War, she played both sides and fought the people she saw as her family. She is the reason y’all’s favorites made it out, btw, because it was her “betraying” Tony that helped Steve and Bucky escape that airport. Kept Black Panther back as best as she could, dealt with the fallout.
And people point out that she ran at Thanos with a taser. Yes, she did. SHE RAN AT THANOS WITH A FUCKING TASER!! She knew she had a chance of not leaving that battlefield alive. Probably expected it. She grabbed what she had and she ran towards her opponent.
And then she gave her life—and I am a believer that she was truly thinking her sacrifice left the world better off—so that Thanos could be stopped in the end. And what did she get? A little lakeside acknowledgment, a tattoo on Thor’s back, and references later by characters Marvel is actively or will fuck up (Yelena, please be careful). And then we learn that those stupid stones are paperweights in other universes! She gave her life for a paperweight because she knew it would save HER universe.
You’ll notice I didn’t mention her own movie. Her own movie that Marvel took years to make. I love that movie. Say what you will about the third act (Covid fucked with the CGI and stuff), but that movie was amazing and the intro was one of the best I’ve ever seen. She deserved more than that. She deserved for Marvel to show her character and develop her, to be put in the spotlight. She deserved for her story to be told, and I think it was, but there was so much more that could’ve been shown. Natasha truly suffered so much, yet she never let it take away from the sacrifices she made and the battles she gave herself to for the greater good.
If Natasha Romanoff doesn’t fit the bill of what makes an Avenger, if she doesn’t have the strength to be one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, then none of them do.
Put respect on her fucking name.
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