There really should be a Black Widow movie

So it looks like the rumors about the possible Black Widow movie keep spreading and growing and as far as I’m concerned, that’s just fabulous.

Yes, the whole gorgeous woman in leather one-suit is a spy has been done and done again at least since Sean Connery was still the reigning Bond. And yes, Black Widow in the comics has sometimes been done in various problematic ways. I still think the possibility of a Black Widow movie is utterly squeeworthy. Unless Joss Whedon suffers a tragic accident between now and production, in which case I’m cautiously optimistic. But that’s a whole other blog post.

Black Widow by marvelousRoland on Flickr

The Black Widow in the recent set of movies however is an incredible female character the like of which we rarely get to see. Okay, maybe not in Iron Man 2 but I for one would like to pretend that movie never happened. She is a master manipulator who could run circles around Frank Underwood, fiercely loyal to the people she chooses to be loyal to and yet she’s just human in a world of gods and superheroes and science experiments gone terribly, terribly wrong. She gets vulnerable and scared but still she gets up and keeps going.

And it is that last trait that makes her utterly solo-movie worthy. Marvel has relaunched the Black Widow comics since the movies (for those not familiar with Marvel or DC, they do this every few years anyway, relaunch old series to give new people a jumping in point every once in a while without a huge learning curve) and so far that new run is pretty cool with lots of movie-worthy material.

The thing about Black Widow is that you can’t play out a movie about her like a typical superhero feature. If anything, that awful Elektra movie taught us that. Black Widow is a morally ambiguous character at best and to try and turn her into the simplified hero most superhero movies demand would be a horrible mistake.

Which brings me to the last point: after all the Jason Bournes and Ethan Hunts there should really be a movie about an awesome female assassin out for redemption.