Thunderdome

Why Black Widow is Disney’s Best Female Character

“I’m Always Picking Up After You Boys…”

Thunderdome is a FanFare series where our writers good-naturedly debate some matter of pop culture and then leave it to the readers to decide. Read each post and vote at the bottom!

When this week’s Thunderdome topic was announced, my first response was that I really didn’t know enough about the various Disney female leads to pick one; I was, for whatever reason, confining my thinking only to animated characters. Then the amazing Jessie Waddell pointed out that since Disney owns Marvel, Black Widow is a Disney female lead, and all was right with the world again. I’ll take any excuse to write about Marvel, and Black Widow in particular.

Since this smackdown is based on the character specifically, I will refrain from wading into the disgraceful way Disney is currently treating Scarlet Johansson following the release of Black Widow (but you can still read it here). I will say, however, that Scarlett Johansson is absolutely fabulous in the role.

The list of incredible female leads in Disney films is a long one: from Mary Poppins to Moana to Rey in the Star Wars sequels to Jessie in Toy Story 2. However, none of them can compare to Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. Over 11 years she has been a mainstay of the MCU and in myriad ways established herself as the best, and most complete, female character in the history of Disney. Please note that there will be spoilers ahead; if you have not seen the Marvel films, stop reading this and go watch them now. I’m not kidding…go right now.

We might as well start with the elephant in the room: for all the emphasis on the Disney princesses over the decades, the vast majority have always needed a man to save them at some point. It hasn’t always happened at a climactic moment, but it happens nonetheless. There have been exceptions, certainly, but the need for a stupid prince to show up and save the day is far more prevalent than it should be. The House of Mouse tends to fall somewhere between paternal and patriarchal.

Not so with Black Widow. In her first MCU appearance (2010’s Iron Man 2), she unleashed a can of whoop-ass on a hallway full of goons that would have had Bond or Bourne transfixed with admiration. Just before the fighting starts, Happy Hogan insists on going in with her; she’s just a girl, after all (he apparently forgot how easily she took him down earlier in the film). Her reply shows she is no damsel in distress: “You want to help? Keep the car running.” In The Avengers, she takes out three guys while tied to a chair. No waiting for the prince to arrive and save her. The list is endless, and as someone with daughters, I appreciate that.

If her character’s attributes ended there, she would be the epitome of the anti-princess, which would at least be an interesting change for Disney. Thankfully, they don’t. Many times in the series, she takes on, to use another Disney trope, the role of fairy godmother to a group of what is essentially unruly boys. She’s the one who watches over a despondent Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, plays Sundance to Steve Rogers’ Butch Cassidy in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and is the glue that holds the team together in Avengers: Endgame. Post-snap, Thor got drunk and fat, Tony retreated into married life, and Clint went a little nuts as Ronin. Natasha, however, stepped up; it was an unexpected role for one who had operated solo almost her entire life, but she saw the need and filled it. The lengths to which she went to hold her only real family together is summed up hilariously with this one line: “I get e-mails from a raccoon. Nothing sounds crazy anymore.”

Unlike the typical fairy godmother, however, she made the ultimate sacrifice while retrieving the soul stone in Avengers: Endgame. I am still livid at Disney for allowing this to happen, but the fact that Black Widow didn’t get to live happily ever after is simply further proof that she was the best character. Fully formed characters don’t always get the fairy tale ending, as much as we may want them to.

Over the course of eight Marvel films and a post-credit scene in a ninth, Natasha Romanoff grows as a character in ways second only to the arc given to Tony Stark (that she did not have more standalone films is an outrage on the level of editing Star Wars to have Greedo shoot first). She goes from a spy who, in the words of Nick Fury, “is comfortable with everything,” to someone who struggles with the moral implications of which side to take in Captain America: Civil War. She makes a choice but then, as often happens in real life, alters that decision based on new developments. In the end, she chose the right path, even at great personal cost. Watching her navigate the gray areas is far more satisfying than the clear black and white choices we find in typical Disney fare.

Sometimes it was the little things that made her stand out, like showing up at Peggy’s funeral because she didn’t want Steve to be alone, telling Clint that she doesn’t judge people by their worst mistakes, being “Aunt Nat” to Clint’s kids, or meshing perfectly with her long-lost sister Yelena. She is exactly the type of friend we all wish we had. As cool as Mary Poppins is at times, I never once thought that about her.

Looking back over what I’ve written so far, something stuck me. I know we love to have debates like this (best hero, best villain, best talking dog) because they’re fun. We even break the Oscars into Best Actor and Best Actress, which is perfectly fine. As bad as the Oscar choices usually are, at least it spreads the awards around to more people.

That said, calling Black Widow a great female Disney character is like saying Joan Jett is a great female guitarist; just shut up. She’s a great character, one of Disney’s best ever, period; no “female” qualifier required. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Baron von Strucker made the mistake of calling Black Widow one of the “weak ones.” She was many things, but never, ever, that. She is easily (and with the qualifier only added for this Thunderdome) the best Disney female character ever.

What say you?

Based only on the arguments presented (you have read all of them, haven’t you?) and not on personal preference: who wins this bout? Voting closes on August 19 at 7:59 AM.

The other entries:

• Mary Poppins
• Merida
• Mulan