the right thematic moment for a Black Widow solo movie is right after Winter Soldier. She’s blown all her covers and is counting on time to figure out a new one. She’s not joining Fury to go root out the remains of Hydra, she’s not joining Steve and Sam on their quest to save Bucky, she’s going on a selfish journey of self discovery, right after she loses more than maybe anyone else (except Fury maybe?) in the movie, leaking her whole history to the world
What needs to come next, obviously, is a story where Natasha can square this movie with her future. CA:TWS ends on a very similar note as The Avengers, with them going their separate ways but with the promise that when they’re needed, they’ll be back. How does she get to that, though? “When I joined SHIELD, I thought I was goin’ straight… but I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra”
This is where a solo project slots in! Natasha on her own, trying to define who she is apart from these Organizations that have shaped her. Natasha’s past finally public. We needed a nemesis here, someone she’d wronged who could only come after her now because of the file dump, someone to make her question who she is and what she should do next—something like the Edmonson/Noto run would stun here—where the end of the story is, of course, her independence from spycraft and decision to commit to the Avengers full time
