Against my better judgment I bought the Disney+ Premier access on Friday night so I could watch Black Widow. Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It functions very well as a standalone film, but also fits nicely into the canon of the main MCU timeline.
At one point they mention the Crimson Dynamo, which was (is?) the Soviet version of Iron Man. That might have been an easter egg in itself, but I suppose we won’t know for a while. However, if you’re in the comic speculation market, look for bumps in the value for Tales of Suspense #49.
The backstory and family dynamic portrayed by Natasha, Yelena, Melina, and Alexei is fantastic. The MCU developed Yelena’s character incredibly well and, in effect, set her up nicely to fill the void left by Natasha after her Endgame sacrifice. Alexei is easily one of my favorite characters in the film. He fills the “goofy dad” archetype, while having tangible depth in his own right.
The only part that left me wanting was the lack of development of the Taskmaster. I won’t reveal who’s in the suit (yet), but Taskmaster had more depth in the PS4 Spider-Man game than in this movie. The character deserved a much more rounded origin and emotional depth. I hope that’s explored more in future installments.
(BLACK WIDOW CUT SCENE SPOILERS)
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In the cut-scene we see Yelena visiting Natasha’s grave, and Val crashes the scene. She tells Yelena about her next mission, reasonably implying that Val has already recruited her just like she did John Walker at the end of Falcon and Winter Soldier. Yelena’s next mission is to track down Clint Barton (Hawkeye). Val casually adds the cherry on top that he’s “responsible” for Natasha’s death.
It seems likely that this is just one more nod toward the ground work being done for the Thunderbolts or the Dark Avengers. They’ll be doing the dirty work in the shadows that the actual Avengers can’t/won’t do. However, I theorize that Clint killed someone important to Val’s plans (whatever her plans may be), during his stint as Ronin after his family got dusted a la Thanos snap.
With Zemo and Taskmaster in the Raft facility, it makes me wonder if we’ll see the original Thunderbolts led by Zemo; villains (or at best, anti-heroes) masquerading as heroes, while doing the dirty work behind the scenes. Using SWORD from WandaVision to frame Wanda as a danger to society could possibly be another angle, as well. I also think that the appearance of White Vision is setting up Hawkeye to start, and lead, the West Coast Avengers.
As always, let me know what you think in the comments!