Scarlett Johansson’s icy Marvel assassin has many hard acts to follow, from Greta Garbo’s riveting Mata Hari to Charlize Theron’s MI6 hotshot
![Streaming: Black Widow and cinema’s best female spies](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b9d1cf73b2a6540ac22bbc014ca8dc218fd4f21a/0_0_2992_1795/master/2992.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=e1d3224851dfe64241646aac9aeeb497)
Taken as a whole, the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe feels like an oppressive, endlessly self-regenerating cultural monolith. Regarded individually, the films become more palatable, as they spin out into different, taste-dependent genres: the goofy bro-comedy of the last Thor film; the martial arts spectacle of the recently released Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; the odd meta-sitcom of TV’s WandaVision.
Black Widow is Marvel’s attempt at an all-out spy thriller, belatedly following the storytelling direction for which the character Natasha Romanoff was always intended, and that never really gelled with the Avengers derring-do. In her solo vehicle – out Monday on DVD and Blu-ray, having recently hit premium VOD services after an initially exclusive Disney+ run – Scarlett Johansson is in full female Bond mode: running, fighting, scowling with an icy sense of purpose, while negotiating a nonsense plot involving an evil
Russian general (Ray Winstone) who controls the minds and bodies, Stepford-style, of a sexless harem of female assassins.