10 Worst Moments In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Black Widow seemed to have a thing during Phase One and Two of flirting with one hero in each movie before moving onto the next. She rubbed elbows with Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, showed a strong bond with Hawkeye in The Avengers, and teased Captain America about his love life during The Winter Soldier. And so in Age of Ultron, Natasha Romanoff finally seems to settle into a more substantial relationship with Bruce Banner/Hulk, and it doesn't go down so well.

This development kind of comes out of nowhere. Bruce and Natasha shared that little moment in The Avengers where she tried to stop him from hulking out, but to suddenly jump from that to a full-on relationship seems like something that should have had more build-up. It does result in some cute moments, especially how Black Widow is able to bring Hulk down with a lullaby, but by the end of the film it doesn't add much to the overall plot other than an extra reason to be sad when Hulk leaves.

But the main problem with this is that it seriously damages Black Widow as a character. Through three previous movies she's proven herself a cunning and independent badass, and now her major subplot is a romance?

On top of being held hostage by Ultron in the finale and her major character moment amounting to "I can't have babies and that makes me a monster", nothing that came out of this storyline benefitted Natasha as a character in any way.