I watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier last night. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it and I do love Steve Rogers, but last night it struck me just how awesome the Black Widow is. Let me explain: 
- She’s a female in a largely male dominated industry. As a child, the only female superhero I can remember is Wonder Woman (and yes I did pretend I had an invisible jet and a lasso of truth) but there wasn’t much choice. Black Widow shows girls they can be superheros too.
- She’s human and without any super powers. She has no magical hammer, no super serum, she can’t hulk up and doesn’t have some steel suit she can hide in – she’s just who she is and she kicks ass.
- She’s treated equally. Sure, sometimes she needs saving, but she saves the guys as much as they save her.
- She’s smart and street-wise. She’s often one step ahead of everyone else.
- She’s a realist, but we get to see a little of her vulnerability to remind us she is human and she isn’t as hard as she always appears.
I seriously love the fact that we are finally getting women in superhero movies who can hold their own. I was getting so tired of Mary Jane and Lois Lane being such useless sacks of potato. If an evil villain grabs you – fight back, damn it! Don’t wait for someone to come and save you because they just might not make it in time (as proven to Gwen Stacy in the last Spiderman movie!)
I can’t wait to see what Marvel does with her in the next Avengers movie which is out tomorrow. So who’s your favourite superhero?
Photo taken from Screencrush
