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
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.