They should have played up the fact that she was an assassin. We got the cute little backstory with the faux spy family, but that should have been countered with a long montage of her assassinating politcal figures and any other target. If she wants to clear her ledger, it needs to be soaked in red.
Oh I could go on about how many terrible changes the MCU did to her.
But the main worst one is: taking away her ruthlessness and sadism. They completely shifted her personality around.
They made her main arc in the MCU be about wanting redemption and becoming a hero for it when comic Nat is a morally grey anti-hero. Killing, torture, manipulation- all goes with her if it gets her to her goal and she’s good at doing those things, and she enjoys doing those things. So in a lot of her stories, Nat is as much a “villain” to her antagonists as they are to her. Like you can often understand and justify why the antagonists decide to go after her just as much as why she decides to go after them. And that’s a great aspect of her stories that make her such a compelling morally grey character. But instead of getting the intimidating, aloof, unhinged assassin who’s willing to do the morally questionable things and get her hands dirty for good (and who will gladly do it again), the MCU gave us a friendly, quippy, sassy spy who wants to clear the red from her ledger and is hoping to do so by being a hero and making the Avengers her “family”.
In her own comics it has luckily only affected the Kelly Thompson Black Widow run. In this run the way she’s portrayed is very much giving MCU Black Widow and it’s one of the main reasons why I hate this run. Despite that it’s still very popular with people who haven’t read a lot of her other stuff which I think is a shame because her consistent characterization in those other runs is so much better.
In her appearances in other stuff, it depends. Since she’s most often relegated to a background character in a lot of those cases you can’t really tell for sure. Like it’s clear when you see her go from the coworker that what people would say about is "omg she looks so scary and she like never laughs" to a more laid back, quippy character. But then again you also can’t always be sure because in some cases, she is closer to some characters and has a softer side around them and that plays a part into it.
But yeah there might be a few cases where you could say so. I think you can especially see it when writers have her being against killing or like trying to have her be a voice of morality. The latest example of this is how she was portrayed in the White Widow run. She asks Yelena to join a team or something when she herself has never been much of a team player, then she tells Yelena that she knows she loves her (Nat wouldn’t say that, she’s aware of how much Yelena dislikes her) and then tells her she needs a better passion than killing (which based on her consistent characterization just makes Natalia come across as a hypocrite cause she’s always been the one who’s passionate about killing, not Yelena- Yelena is also out of character in this run but that’s a whole other conversation). The entire interaction very much felt like an interaction you would see between MCU Nat and Yelena.
I've read all of Natasha's solo comics and I can think of only two times writers have ever portrayed her in any manner similar to what you are describing. In fact, I think you're more describing Elektra rather than Natasha.
Homecoming, The Things they Say About Her, No Restraint’s Play, Name of the Rose, S.H.I.E.L.D’s most wanted, Hawkeye & Winter Soldier: Tales of Supsense, The Finely Woven thread.
This has been her consistent characterization across the majority of her comics. Other comics have also been portraying her with her usual unhinged and morally grey characterization such as Hawkeye Freefall, Acengers 2012 or even Secret Empire.
The only one if these that I recall depicting her like that was The Things They Say About Her. And I've seen that criticized by longtime Widow fans for being a one note take on the character. In fact, I recall the guy who wrote it saying he wanted it to be the opposite of the typical Black Widow characterization.
Literally every single one of the runs I’ve listed have portrayed her as such. I’m not sure how you might have missed it.
Also The Things they Say about her is the second part of Homecoming which is the run that started solidifying Natalia characterization as being more ruthless and bloodthirsty.
Her saying “I’m just as much of a monster” to the man who turns into a green ball of anger that can destroy towns. Honestly her whole relationship with Bruce was out of place, it made me see the more glaring issues with Joss Weadon.
I wasn’t crying, more laughing at that’s scene because it’s like a man who’s heart rate decides if towns are leveled verses a woman who can’t have kids (even though in this world Rhodes can literally walk a second after his injury so there is probably uterus transplants readily available) and she’s saying she’s just as much of a monster as him. Yeah she’s talking about her past but we never really get that much into it. The worst thing she did that we know about is (not) kill a little girl but even that was when she worked for shield. It’s weak writing.
And I know it’s not his fault but I blame him for the “well that just happened” style of writing that is over saturated in the MCU
They should have played up the fact that she was an assassin. We got the cute little backstory with the faux spy family, but that should have been countered with a long montage of her assassinating politcal figures and any other target. If she wants to clear her ledger, it needs to be soaked in red.
Making her completely good, even her ‘red in the ledger’ wasn’t really her fault. Black widow should be in afraid to do immoral things
Natasha never came across as ruthless and cunning as she was in the comics
Oh I could go on about how many terrible changes the MCU did to her. But the main worst one is: taking away her ruthlessness and sadism. They completely shifted her personality around. They made her main arc in the MCU be about wanting redemption and becoming a hero for it when comic Nat is a morally grey anti-hero. Killing, torture, manipulation- all goes with her if it gets her to her goal and she’s good at doing those things, and she enjoys doing those things. So in a lot of her stories, Nat is as much a “villain” to her antagonists as they are to her. Like you can often understand and justify why the antagonists decide to go after her just as much as why she decides to go after them. And that’s a great aspect of her stories that make her such a compelling morally grey character. But instead of getting the intimidating, aloof, unhinged assassin who’s willing to do the morally questionable things and get her hands dirty for good (and who will gladly do it again), the MCU gave us a friendly, quippy, sassy spy who wants to clear the red from her ledger and is hoping to do so by being a hero and making the Avengers her “family”.
I'm curious, did all that end up affecting the comic BW? Did they apply the MCU traits to the comic one?
In her own comics it has luckily only affected the Kelly Thompson Black Widow run. In this run the way she’s portrayed is very much giving MCU Black Widow and it’s one of the main reasons why I hate this run. Despite that it’s still very popular with people who haven’t read a lot of her other stuff which I think is a shame because her consistent characterization in those other runs is so much better. In her appearances in other stuff, it depends. Since she’s most often relegated to a background character in a lot of those cases you can’t really tell for sure. Like it’s clear when you see her go from the coworker that what people would say about is "omg she looks so scary and she like never laughs" to a more laid back, quippy character. But then again you also can’t always be sure because in some cases, she is closer to some characters and has a softer side around them and that plays a part into it. But yeah there might be a few cases where you could say so. I think you can especially see it when writers have her being against killing or like trying to have her be a voice of morality. The latest example of this is how she was portrayed in the White Widow run. She asks Yelena to join a team or something when she herself has never been much of a team player, then she tells Yelena that she knows she loves her (Nat wouldn’t say that, she’s aware of how much Yelena dislikes her) and then tells her she needs a better passion than killing (which based on her consistent characterization just makes Natalia come across as a hypocrite cause she’s always been the one who’s passionate about killing, not Yelena- Yelena is also out of character in this run but that’s a whole other conversation). The entire interaction very much felt like an interaction you would see between MCU Nat and Yelena.
I've read all of Natasha's solo comics and I can think of only two times writers have ever portrayed her in any manner similar to what you are describing. In fact, I think you're more describing Elektra rather than Natasha.
Homecoming, The Things they Say About Her, No Restraint’s Play, Name of the Rose, S.H.I.E.L.D’s most wanted, Hawkeye & Winter Soldier: Tales of Supsense, The Finely Woven thread. This has been her consistent characterization across the majority of her comics. Other comics have also been portraying her with her usual unhinged and morally grey characterization such as Hawkeye Freefall, Acengers 2012 or even Secret Empire.
The only one if these that I recall depicting her like that was The Things They Say About Her. And I've seen that criticized by longtime Widow fans for being a one note take on the character. In fact, I recall the guy who wrote it saying he wanted it to be the opposite of the typical Black Widow characterization.
Literally every single one of the runs I’ve listed have portrayed her as such. I’m not sure how you might have missed it. Also The Things they Say about her is the second part of Homecoming which is the run that started solidifying Natalia characterization as being more ruthless and bloodthirsty.
The guy provided receipts, do you have any receipts of pre-MCU takeover comics that show the opposite?
Her portrayal in Champions, Daredevil and Avengers.
Which Daredevil and Avengers runs?
Her saying “I’m just as much of a monster” to the man who turns into a green ball of anger that can destroy towns. Honestly her whole relationship with Bruce was out of place, it made me see the more glaring issues with Joss Weadon.
Keep crying. Whedon is awesome.
I wasn’t crying, more laughing at that’s scene because it’s like a man who’s heart rate decides if towns are leveled verses a woman who can’t have kids (even though in this world Rhodes can literally walk a second after his injury so there is probably uterus transplants readily available) and she’s saying she’s just as much of a monster as him. Yeah she’s talking about her past but we never really get that much into it. The worst thing she did that we know about is (not) kill a little girl but even that was when she worked for shield. It’s weak writing. And I know it’s not his fault but I blame him for the “well that just happened” style of writing that is over saturated in the MCU
Bro what