Fuck Yeah, Black Widow

Schaeffer’s work for Marvel also includes contributing writing to 2019’s Captain Marvel

Oof, so she wrote one of the most poorly written MCU movies. Great resume.

“I wasn’t a huge superhero movie fan before starting to work [at Marvel], but now that I’m doing it, there’s just so much opportunity to make big, positive statements,” Schaeffer says. “Especially something like Captain Marvel and Black Widow, to have these female-centered stories — I just can’t not be involved in that.”

Regardless of your particular stance on any given social political issue…how is this a good thing? How is this not fucked up?

A major creative force on a superhero movie never gave a damn about superheroes before they were hired for the role and their main interest is how they can serve their particular social political values. 

That’s at best depressing and worst…just gross.

We are so far and beyond the point where people who don’t love the genre or these characters should be allowed to touch them it’s not even funny. History bares this out.

I’m not saying it’s never happened that a non-comic book fan hasn’t made a good movie or that a comic book fan hasn’t made a stinker, but more often than not we can see that the best results come from when comic book/superhero lovers get to actually work on comic book/superheor products.

Superman 1978. The Greatest Superman movie ever. Richard Donner genuinely liked Superman as a character and felt honoured when Big Blue’s creators gave him the stamp of approval.

Superman II. Half directed by Donner. Not as good but still pretty great.

Batman 1989. Fun movie, problematic Batman adaptation. It basically benefitted from having Nicholson who in playing himself automatically played the Joker but Keaton’s Batman was not the character. Burton wasn’t a comic book fan.

Batman Returns. A weird, weird, weird, style over substance movie that’s fun as a Tim Burton stylefest, but a terrible Batman movie. 

Mask of the Phantasm. 100% THE BEST Batman movie ever. Created by Batman megafanboys.

X-Men 2000 and X-Men 2. Solid-great X-Men movies for the time. Singer wasn’t a X-Men comic book fan to my knowledge, but he researched with the mostly faithful 1992 cartoon and did love Superman 1978.

Spider-Man 2002/Spider-Man 2: The best live action Spider-Man films to date, fantastic examples of the genre. Directed by a guy who was reading original Ditko Spider-Man in his younger days.

Batman Begins. The most faithful live action Batman movie to date. I do not recall if Nolan was a comic book guy himself but he was embracing the source material within the context of his more grounded approach. It borrows a lot from Year One which is arguably the best Batman story ever.

300: Fun action flick, pravctically identical to the comic book by a guy who adored that story.

Iron Man. Great movie. Favreau was a comic book lover. Feige was captain of the ship and was a comic book lover of old.

Incredible Hulk. Decent-good as a Hulk movie. Again Feige was guiding the ship.

Dark Knight. Great movie, good batman movie. A different but solid take on the Joker and a strong understanding of the Joker/Batman dynamic and of Two-Face. More realistic but ultimately respectful of the comics.

Justice League New Frontier: Great movie about a great comic. done by comic book lovers.

Under the Red Hood: The best animated Batman movie besides Phantasm. Very faithful to the comic done by comic book guys.

Kick Ass. Fun gore fest movie, respectful of the comic for the most part. Done by a comic book lover.

X-Men: First Class. Not exactly a strict adaptation of any specific story but it got the gist of the X-Men and of the Xavier/Magneto friendship. Done by a comic book lover with oversight from people who’d seen a lot of the 1992 cartoon.

Thor: The best Thor movie adaptation to date. Written by a guy who wrote actual Thor comics.

First Avenger: The perfect Cap origin. Done by comic book lovers again.

Avengers: God tier Marvel movie. Made by a guy who came up on comic books, did stuff inspired by them, then wrote them. Feels like a comic book in live action.

Man of Steel: Shite, done by a guy who loves comics but actively comes from a cynical Randian misunderstanding of superheroes.

Winter Soldier. God tier. Made by non-Cap fans but by huge comic fans nevertheless.

Guardians of the Galaxy. God tier. Made by comic book lovers.

Age of Ultron. Fun. Made by the same comic book fan as the first one.

Civil War: Beyond God tier. Made by the same huge comic book fans as Winter Soldier.

Dawn of Justice. Hot trash again made by the guy who doesn’t believe in the values superheroes represent.

Deadpool: God tier. Made by Deadpool comic book fans.

Wonder Woman: Bad ass. Directed by someone who loves Wonder Woman, loves superheroes, was influenced heavily by Superman 1978.

Logan: God tier. Made by Wolverine comic books fans including the main actor himself.

Black Panther: A movie that represents diversity, and is seemingly in line with the moral/political values of the director. Also a rightfully beloved superhero movie that is 90% respectful of the comics made BY a comic book fan.

Infinity War: Fun movie made by the Civil War guys. Borrows a lot from the original comics even in regards to the stuff it changes.

Deadpool 2: See above for Deadpool 1.

Into the Spider-Verse: God tier. A comic book come to life. Made by comic book lovers with INSANE deep cuts to canon.

Endgame: A colossal feat made by the Infinity War guys.

See there is no point gambling on the people who don’t show up with an in built love for the characters/genre/medium and who don’t prioritize the creative side of bringing them to life above personal politics. 

It’s rarely ever worked out doing it that way but doing it the other way has a much more reliable track record for success.

Also…

…We’re doing a movie about a superhero who hasn’t got any super powers at all and who’s costume amounts to a black body suit with a red hour glass, but we’re going to not glamourize her weapons. Like there is a reason Batman has batarangs and gadgets and a stylish Bat suit.

We’re not going to have 100% evil villains. Not bad in theory buuuuuuut…Joker, Norman Osborn, Ra’s Al Ghul, Lex Luthor, Doc Ock and any number of characters are clearly unsympathetic and 100% evil and they’re rightfully regarded among the greatest comic book villains of all time.

We’re going to violate the canon because of one person’s value systems. She gets when it comes to the MCU she’s not an auteur she’s in the service industry right? Like Natasha has an established character even within the MCU.

Gotta love the toxic narrative and fanboy bashing starting up early.

It's because Natasha isn't super-powered that violence in her stories is often treated with a veneer of realism. Look at the Edmondson/Noto run, or the Morgan stories which inspired a lot of her MCU background. Batman would never kill someone with a sniper rifle, but Natasha obviously would, and so of course her sometimes her violence is going to come with less glamourous consequences and a harder edge. This is entirely in keeping with her comic book mythology and the character we've seen previously on screen.

Even the auteur approach seems consistent with what I'd expect of a Black Widow project— her solo stuff generally reads more Daredevil than Avengers or Iron Man.

Destined to be the most talked about super-villain of the year!

Alexi Shostakov aka Red Guardian aka Ronin (…) might be the most important love interest Natasha has, but he absolutely is the most inconsistently written and confusing. In the world of comics, nothing changes quite like the past. As a perpetual flashback and perpetual seemingly dead guy, Marvel has generally felt free to expand upon his Silver Age origins as a tragic Captain America analogue who fought with a belt buckle in any plot device-y way they see fit. They have also felt free to saddle him with many questionable mustaches.

Honestly, though, belt buckle aside, Shostakov was probably at his best in his very first appearances. He was introduced in the penultimate chapter of the ongoing Silver Age Black Widow plot, and the power of his concept is an obvious one— Soviet Captain America! Considering how many versions of himself Captain America has had to punch over the years, I’d say the broad idea had a ton of sticking power. Indeed, the Red Guardian concept and codename would be reused bunches and bunches of times over the years, as the USSR developed a full compliment of spandex heroes that became known as the Winter Guard.

Fresh off her Oscar nomination for “The Favourite,” Rachel Weisz has set her sights on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as she is in early talks join Scarlett Johansson in Marvel’s “Black Widow” standalone movie.