Natasha/Bruce works for me because I don’t want her to be Steve

SPOILERS ABOUND FOR ULTRON AND CIVIL WAR

 

I’ve been trying to articulate – other than their chemistry – why the recent Natasha/Bruce relationship in Avengers: Age of Ultron appeals to me so much. And I think a bit of it ultimately has to do with how boring I find Captain America. After four films – two of his own and two Avengers movies, all I know about Steve Rogers is that he’s a soldier and he can’t let go of the past. Or more importantly to me as a moviegoer, he’s never been allowed to be in the present.

Through four movies he’s literally done nothing but be a soldier and pine for Peggy and later Bucky. By the time I actually get to know him, I suspect Civil War will happen and that will be the end of Steve Rogers. It’s like he’s a placeholder for Bucky and his brooding angst schtick, because really: sleeping for 70 years can’t really hold a candle to torture and being a Hydra weapon.

Building relationships in the present though, that can. Why they didn’t do that with 13 in the second Cap movie, I’ll never know.

That’s why I like the Bruce/Natasha relationship. In the first couple of movies she’s been in, Natasha has always been the killer with red in her ledger; saving the day and bantering with Clint. If she’d been the same in Ultron, I’d have been furious and bored, and I think the movie would be accused of not developing her character and doing a disservice to her.

Which brings  me to the idea of romance: in a movie the size of Ultron, what else is there that they can do with her character – or with any other character? How do you show her evolve? There’s too much going on and too many characters to deal with for any other sort of change in Natasha to be given the attention such character development deserves. She’s not Tony or Bruce, and able to create Ultron (but she can get Vision’s body and later provide the location of Ultron’s base, despite being captured). Yes, she needs her own movie, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy a Natasha who wasn’t just an assassin and a spy, and Clint’s BFF. She evolved, predictably for a female character, but Bruce was an unpredictable choice.

Then there’s the issue of the very small world these characters inhabit – it kind of makes sense relationships with develop with each other, romantic or otherwise, because who else can understand them? Who else can understand what it is to be made into a monster (and no, I don’t think that line was about her inability to bear children)? Which brings me to Clint and his family – yes he and Natasha had serious chemistry every time they were onscreen together, but what I enjoyed about Clint and his family (which other character were they going to do this with?) was that it broadened the Avengers’ very small world – they can see they’re allowed to have something outside saving the world every time (and apparently a new Avengers facility in the middle of nowhere with minions).

I still enjoy the character development Tony Stark has got more than anything. We know he’s  got something and someone to lose, and why he’s so obsessed about building Ultron – the Iron Man movies did that very well. The Captain America movies pale in comparison to them when it comes to developing Steve for me. In Ultron, we discover that Clint has something to lose as well, and Natasha loses Bruce before they’ve even had a chance to figure themselves out (assuming the massive outcry that got doesn’t nix the idea completely in the following movies). To me at least, it’s one baby step to being more than just the spy/assassin muscle of the previous movies.

But, Steve has nothing. A search for an old friend just doesn’t do it for me. It mires him in the past even more that the pining for Peggy did. Sure, he’s supposed to pine, but four movies in I really wish I knew something different about him besides being a soldier and his longing for the past. I don’t much care what happens in the comics, because this is such a different medium and the characters need different elements to work as opposed to what’s in a comic.

The relationships in these movies ground these characters, which is what it’s done for Natasha and Bruce for me. Steve’s just Captain America. I have no idea who Steve Rogers is, but I do have an inkling of who Natasha and Bruce are, beyond Black Widow and the Hulk.

If they all could get movies and be properly developed, I would be ecstatic. But really, all I want is a Black Widow movie. And if Bruce happens to tag along for the ride, all the better.