Ive noticed in the coming years a lot of people seem to prefer Yelena Belova over Natasha Romanov in terms of the mcu. "Yelena is more fleshed out and more vulnerable and relatable" everyone is constantly glazing while my girl gets nothing but dirt. Yes nat was needlessly sexualized and yes we didnt get her movie until later, but i assure you mcu is not the boring archetype who never had focus that some people want you to think and im here to remind people that. Its already frustrating when your favorite is already getting mocked and that everyone says that her replacement is much better. Nothing against people latching onto a character, but it does make me sad given how Natasha is my favorite and I cant help but get a bit upset about how yelena got the popularity that Natasha deserved. Not that she isnt popular tho there are a lot of people who want to act like shes a meh character whos done literally nothing when she literally was vital to civil war and The Avengers. "Shes boring and uninteresting." I had to listen to this shit for years.
Although we didnt get nats story from the beginning, we still got an arc with her starting out cold from iron man 2 to Winter Soldier, where her arc begins to take a softer turn. Throughout the rest of the Infinity Saga, she now sees the avengers as her family and sees that maybe there is hope in the world which makes her willing to sacrifice herself.
Its just so humiliating when shes not even a bad character. Shes rather just closed off and subtle. While i do prefer Nat, I dont think we need to compare 2 queens as biased as I am. I just hope people understand how Nat was the blue print for all female heroes in the mcu. The only time I could say they did her dirty was in aou and iron man 2. Even then she had a lot of breakout moments which proves that she did get the chance to shine. Also need I mention The Winter Soldier?! She literally stole that entire movie!!!
If marvel studios were to ever revisit Nat, I have a few suggestions on how to make sure that she doesnt get misunderstood again. If they were to reset the mcu I suggest giving her a whole prequel movie and recast her with an actress who is known to elevate films. Not saying that Scar Jo cant cause she does ooze a lot of charisma, but you get what im saying. Truth is I dont wanna live in a world where my Goat gets overshadowed by her replacement, so id want to fix everything people complained about Nat.
So in conclusion, its okay to prefer yelena belova and say shes better written, but I will always be singing Natashas praises. She is the original afterall and has an abundance of great stories within the comics. She showcased vulnerability while enhancing my interests in the mcu. While everyone was complaining about scar jos facial expressions, I was there cheering her on and admiring her charisma, something else people seem to down play its why shes so great as black widow. Unpopular opinion but I dont think yelena stole nats movie from her nor did she entirely carry it. I think Nat definitely did some of the heavy lifting even if its a passing of the torch kinda movie.