Dasvidaniya Natasha

Tony Stark’s now infamous snap was received as a selfless, heroic act to be celebrated in the fictional world as well as the real world. It says something when an article discussing the Sony/Disney disagreement over Spiderman is titled “Tony Stark did not die for Peter Parker to disappear again.” How far a carefree Playboy can come. The same can not be said by everyone of the other sacrifice made in the movie.

In the months following the film’s release, my newsfeed made sure to show me more than one article disappointed or downright hating on Natasha Romanoff’s demise. I didn’t click into all of them but the ones I did read called the sacrifice cheap and shallow. A death for the sake of sexism and patriarchy. I had filed these away, trying not to think about them. With her stand-alone movie gearing up, they cropped up in my thoughts. And a bit on my feed too. So, here we are with two characters who choose to make the same sacrifice but are treated differently.

Tony’s motives are not exactly pure and selfless. His conditional return to The Avengers sets some limitations on how they can restore the balance. These restrictions are put into place to persevere his own interests. His actions only become noble post mortem because of the whitewashing that occurs thanks to the result of his final effort. In his declaration “I am Iron Man,” he brings us back to his beginning where he was implored to do good. With the snap, he wipes the battlefield clean and removes Thanos as a threat.

And the scene was badass. I don’t know about you, but there was clapping and quiet whoops in my theater. It was a fitting end to a flawed hero that didn’t always get it right but who wanted better for the world. And, we loved Tony for making that sacrifice. In fact, we love him 3000.

That send-off wouldn’t have been possible if they didn’t reclaim the Infinity Stones. Enter the mixed bag of feelings on Romanoff’s long goodbye.

Of all the Avengers, she lived in a very gray, nebulous world. This is due directly to her nefarious past. It disqualified her in many facets of the larger story arc. The noble hero was not a mantle she was going to bear. Her path was one of flaws and reparation. It might seem a feminine parallel to Stark, but that isn’t exactly true. The bulk of what Tony was sorry for was willful ignorance. Natasha, on the other hand, was an active agent in her story.

While not one of my particular favorites, Age of Ultron delved into Black Widow’s past. Specifically, of her training and another sacrifice she chose to make. The price of the Black Widow film was sterility. One of the articles I read from Esquire seemed annoyed the deadly spy was “obsessed with her inability to have children.”

Oh no! The horror! No woman ever gets wrapped up in the pressure to have children. To give someone more than you had. To fit in with the norms, every mother tells you you must participate in. And it’s not like if women don’t succumb to said pressure, they’re labeled defective. Or worse, monstrous.

Oh, wait. That happens. All. The. Time.

Her sacrifice at the beginnings of her history is a physical symptom of how removed from normalcy she allowed herself to become. This excludes her from another avenue of paying back her debt to the world. Sure, raising children doesn’t sound like a grand gesture, when compared to things like vanquishing an invading army with a snap. But her efforts and the care she dedicated to her children would give the world better examples to look up to. They would be worthy of the noble hero mantle she could never fully take on.

From an audience standpoint, or maybe just for me, it was incredibly humanizing to see this capable, successful woman being just as vulnerable to social pressures as the rest of us. This dive into her character made her finale in Endgame harder to watch.

The same article called her death a refrigerator death. I can’t get behind that. This term was coined to describe senseless female deaths in comics to motivate the male character(s) into action. Her death wasn’t meaningless. On the point of motivation, there is a bit of wiggle room there. While the Avengers were already motivated, Clint Barton was going to require added motivation for his redemption story. However, I don’t think there’s enough road to get up to 88 on that.

Out of curiosity, are senseless male deaths called Uncle Ben deaths? Asking for a friend.

A death had to pay for the soul stone. That was the deal. Given the decimation of the Avengers pool, few couples would fit the bill. Stark and Rhody. Banner and Natasha. Barton and Natasha. Cap and Natasha. Things weren’t looking good for Black Widow no matter what way it was sliced.

Unless fans really wanted to see Scott Lang throw himself off the precipice with his teenage daughter watching on? I think we’ll say that is a hard no. Along the same vein, we can also agree than Natasha opting to punt Clint off of that cliff a la Garfield would also be a cheap solution to this conundrum.

Some might argue she had such a high percentage of being in the Soul Stone lottery because she is a woman. True. She is the only female member of the Avengers involved in the time heist. But, she has been the character who consistently cultivates relationships.

That, too, could be brought against this argument. Women being viewed only as love interests. With the handle of Black Widow, I feel like she’s handicapped in the romance department. Wouldn’t you say? Yes, Banner was game, but he had his own issues to work out and never stepped up to the plate.

The moniker of Black Widow is apt for Natasha. Yes, she is lethal, but she’s also adept at spinning webs. In the case of the Avengers, she spun lifelines for the rest of the team to use when they don’t know how to bring themselves back home.

When all is said and done, Natasha called her fate in the first Avengers movie. It was in that scene where she was interrogating Loki and bartering for Clint. Black Widow notes red in her ledger and a desire to erase said debt. Loki obliged audiences by illustrating how far in hock she is to the world. Not just to Hawkeye. The world in total.

To say her motivation in Endgame was hollow and in the name of male advancement is, well, hollow. Yes, Clint was there with her in the end. But to suggest her only thought was of Clint and his family makes her the woman in the refrigerator. Not her actions in that scene. It flattens out a character who only two hours earlier was ready to fight an earthquake for the sake of all human life.

Natasha Romanoff’s sacrifice was equal to Tony’s Thanos ending snap. She had an objective to complete. As any true leader would do, she threw herself on the grenade to preserve the team and mission. Steve Rogers became Captain America for that very same move. He was applauded for heroism and selflessness.

To the turn and judge, an equal effort as stuffing herself in a fridge doesn’t make sense. If there is ever to be female superheroes in the mainstream, tearing down their actions and motives isn’t going to get them there. We shouldn’t be thrusting asterisk on their accomplishments based on the proximity of a male character. Sacrifice is sacrifice.

So, I say let’s raise a glass to Natasha Romanoff. You were the boss we all want to be. You were the sister we related to. And the hero we needed. We love you 3000.