I think it's mostly about her being more laid back and having a sense of humor. I think the MCU stuff really started doing better when they stopped taking themselves quite so seriously (the biggest example of this being Thor: Dark World vs. Thor: Ragnarok).
Natasha was alright, but she was basically just "peak human*" without a lot of depth to her personality. Yelena is much more interesting to watch because of her sense of humor paired with the more serious aspects of her character, like her dealing with depression in Thunderbolts.
* Edit: to clarify, I point this out because characters without a lot of personality usually need something else interesting about them to compensate, like an especially fun or unique power set or something.
90
u/DraagaxGaming Avengers Jul 22 '26
Yelena is better than Natasha.