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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
I have a string of issues with Bruce/Natasha: He is nearly old enough to be her father, he can't have sex and she was freaking terrified of him in the Avengers. Plus, it really felt that they gave her the "calm down Hulk" role for one reason alone and that was because she was the only member of the team who happened to have a vagina. From a logical point of view, this role should have fallen to Thor from the get go because he is the only one of the Avengers who can easily take a punch from the Hulk. (and honestly, I loved that he tried it in Ragnarök, even though it didn't work, because why the hell shouldn't he?). And if not him, than Steve would have taken the risk personally instead of relegating it to the weakest member (physically, not in terms of fighting abilities) of the team.
All this said, though, it is part of canon now, and I trust Marcus and Mc Feely to end this stupid plot line in a way which works. God knows that they have had their work cut out retroactively fixing elements in Age of Ultron already.
So bit of a Thread Hop here, but I figured I might as well share. I've gotten super behind on the MCU movies (I watched up through I think Iron Man 3, plus Guardians of the Galaxy, but nothing else) so I decided to go back and watch the whole thing in order from the beginning. I'm not particularly fussed about spoilers for stuff I haven't seen yet, so don't worry about tagging stuff if you don't want to.
So far I've rewatched Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 2.
Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr pretty much carries the movie single-handedly, despite the fact that the cast includes a bunch of other A-listers. I was sort of surprised at how poorly the revelation about Stane being the bad guy came off on a repeat viewing, as I remember that working really well on my first watch. Bonus points for having a pretty good depiction of the military — the whole scene with the command center during Iron Man's first appearance, followed by the fight with the F-22s, is very well done. Stan Lee count: 1 (Tony mistakes him for Hugh Hefner at a party. Or maybe he's supposed to be playing Hefner, I'm not entirely sure.)
The Incredible Hulk: The Bruce Banner stuff was largely good, but the Hulk stuff was largely terrible. Watching Banner try to control his anger while also staying under the radar (and occasionally flipping out, like when he accidentally cut himself and thought he'd dropped some blood into a soda bottle) and generally trying to solve his problems without hulking out was actually pretty compelling. Whenever he goes Hulk, though, things pretty much stop being interesting (though the action scenes aren't bad as action scenes). Bonus points for having hilariously bad continuity during fights. The big one at the Generic Northeastern University is by far the worst offender: the quad of a college campus in town turns into a vast meadow surrounded by woods in order to provide space for Hulk to throw down, but still has bystanders running up to take cell phone video and the like. Additional bonus points for making the military look like complete idiots (repeatedly Shooting the Hulk, and in crowded urban areas to boot). Stan Lee count: 2 (dies? after drinking a bottle of soda contaminated with Hulk blood).
Iron Man 2: AKA "being an alcoholic playboy douchebag has consequences". I like how it illustrates the fact that Tony Stark is basically an asshole in addition to being a genius, and doesn't blow it off like the first Iron Man did. Tony is very hard to live with. This one is also better about letting the rest of the cast shine instead of making Robert Downey Jr do all the heavy lifting. First movie in the MCU to do the "save the budget for the last half hour, then pull out all the stops" thing, which I first actually noticed with The Avengers, though I think it works better here since the first three quarters of Iron Man 2 are actually good, whereas The Avengers I thought relied on plot-induced stupidity among the protagonist to keep them from wrapping things up 45 minutes in. Stan Lee count: still 2? (I didn't notice him, but I could have missed something.)
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.Okay but Black Widow doesn't have powers either and she was called the weakest.
I'm just saying that between the two of them, she won the fight.
Although the real weakest is Tony Stark outside his suit without a box of scraps.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersWell, yeah, that's the point. It was brought into a movie with no foundation laid for it and poorly handled. That is a believable complaint.
We're talking about the movie version not the comic version.
edited 14th Mar '18 8:07:43 AM by windleopard
We're talking the movies though.
I mean I'm pretty sure we are. I was responding to a post about the Bruce/Natasha romance in Age of Ultron.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersHonestly, I specifically I clarified that Black Widow is the weakest in the sense of physically being the least able to withstand a punch from the Hulk, not in the sense of how much of a fighter she is. She is the smallest and her fighting ability is based on agility, not muscle mass, and she doesn't wear any kind of armour. Granted, now that Wanda is also part of the team, she is the second less able to withstand a Hulk punch, unless Wanda is able to use her abilities to protect herself.
On a totally different note, a really interesting article why Marvel picked Ironman as the first movie:
edited 14th Mar '18 8:04:40 AM by Swanpride
Most normal non-enchanced people wouldn't survive a punch from the Hulk.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersI don't disagree there.
It nearly worked on Sakaar.
But alas. The glare of the spotlight. The roar of the crowds. Hulk just wants to be loved.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersMmm. Debatable.
She seemed at least as physically strong as Thor and Thor can go punchies with Hulk. And she seemed to have some kind of healing factor so she'd win by attrition.
Unless he just literally threw her off Asgard. Which they really should have tried.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersShe tried to kill people with a giant wolf but that's basically killing someone with a bunch of knives on a hinge.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers

Overall I just feel indifferent to the Bruce/Natasha romance. No need to overreact.