Scarlett Johansson’s 5 Greatest Marvel Motion pictures, Ranked

Scarlett Johansson’s Marvel run labored properly, and it did solely as a result of Natasha Romanoff by no means looks like a superpower supply system. She looks like an individual who selected competence as armor and was good at studying rooms sooner than everybody else, staying helpful when the gods and monsters present up, and nonetheless carrying the quiet weight of what she’s finished. That makes her MCU motion pictures hit in another way: you’re watching somebody survive on nerve, talent, and willpower, and that’s at all times extra satisfying than a random power-up. The latter is seldom satisfying and largely simply cringe and Madame Internet is an efficient instance.

This rating is about the place Johanasson was most important to MCU — the place the film makes use of her for greater than quips and funky poses. The entries beneath give Natasha actual stress, actual selections, and scenes that remind you why she turned one of many MCU’s emotional anchors.

5

‘Iron Man 2’ (2010)

Iron Man 2 is the scrappy starting of Natasha-as-a-problem-solver, and it’s enjoyable as a result of she arrives like a quiet improve the film doesn’t announce with neon lights. Natalie Rushman/Black Widow (Johansson) walks into Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) world and immediately begins controlling it, getting entry, studying threats, managing chaos, whereas Tony is spiraling below ego, sickness, and dangerous choices. The perfect Natasha moments right here aren’t “look how lethal she is” photographs; they’re the calm competence moments, the place she’s already three steps forward whereas everybody else is reacting.

Her hallway combat remains to be a calling card as a result of it establishes her fashion: environment friendly, exact, no wasted movement, no theatrics. She’s additionally the one who makes S.H.I.E.L.D.’s presence really feel actual as a substitute of ornamental as a result of she’s there to guage, to include, to guard the larger image. Iron Man 2 was her MCU hiyaand it immediately tells you: this character will matter.

4

‘The Avengers’ (2012)

The Avengers is the place Natasha turns into the glue that retains the workforce from collapsing into ego and brute drive. The film is full of big personalities, and Natasha threads by way of them like somebody who is aware of how one can steer a room with out proudly owning it. Her opening interrogation scene is iconic for a motive: she lets folks underestimate her, then flips the ability dynamic with one shift in tone. It’s an ideal that is who she is second — management by way of intelligence, not quantity.

Then you definitely get her mission work: manipulating info, transferring by way of enemy house, retaining the target clear whereas the workforce remains to be determining how one can be a workforce. Her dynamic with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) provides emotional weight as a result of it hints at a historical past constructed on belief. In a film filled with spectacle, she makes the stakes really feel private and operational on the similar time.

3

‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)

Avengers: Endgame provides Natasha her most quietly brutal model: the one who’s nonetheless standing when the world feels unfixable. Whereas everyone seems to be damaged in their very own approach, Natasha turns grief into construction. She retains the workforce related, retains missions transferring, retains a way of goal alive. You’re feeling how a lot she’s holding as a result of the film exhibits it in the way in which she speaks, the way in which she listens, the way in which she refuses to let the final thread snap.

Her scenes aren’t flashy, as at all times, they’re heavy. The check-ins, the war-table rhythm, the fixed try to preserve folks from drifting away eternally. Then Vormir arrives and the film turns right into a two-person tragedy: Natasha and Clint preventing over who will get to be the sacrifice. When she makes her transfer, it hits like a door slamming: last, decisive, and utterly in line with who she’s been since day one.

2

‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ (2014)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is peak Natasha as a result of the film lastly places her in her pure habitat: secrets and techniques, surveillance, shifting alliances, and ethical stress that doesn’t have a simple reply. She pairs with Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and the chemistry works as a result of they’re opposites in a satisfying approach — Steve is direct and principled, Natasha is pragmatic and skilled to reside inside grey areas. Watching her navigate S.H.I.E.L.D.’s unraveling is satisfying and looks like watching somebody dash throughout collapsing flooring with out dropping steadiness.

That is additionally the place she feels most layered. She jokes, she deflects, she stays helpful, then the masks slips simply sufficient so that you can really feel the price of the life she’s lived. Her “ledger” dialog has chew as a result of it frames her previous as one thing she will’t absolutely clear, solely confront. And when she chooses transparency on the finish, taking management of the narrative by releasing the reality, you are feeling why that is one among her finest. In The Winter SoldierNatasha doesn’t simply survive the spy sport, she alters its guidelines.

1

‘Black Widow’ (2021)

Black Widow earns the highest spot as a result of it lastly provides Natasha her personal emotional structure, her personal scars, her personal family-shaped wounds, her personal closure. The truth that it comes after her demise is a cue to how essential she was to the MCU. The movie follows Natasha on the run, and the film drops her right into a story that’s private from the primary punch: the Crimson Room’s management, the stolen childhood, the way in which survival skilled her to chop off elements of herself. Then Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) crashes in and instantly the film has electrical energy, sister power, resentment, loyalty, and the sort of banter that’s humorous as a result of it’s constructed on historical past.

The household reunion is the place it actually hits: Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour) are available in and so they’re difficult, broken individuals who formed Natasha’s life and nonetheless need to matter to her. The entire film performs in hindsight since you see her really feel issues she’s skilled herself to not really feelthen nonetheless select motion anyway. It’s cathartic as a result of it reframes her whole MCU presence: not as a aspect character, as a survivor who stored going, and saved others, whereas carrying her personal invisible warfare.