MCU: 10 Things You Learn Rewatching Captain America: The Winter Soldier
9. It's Every Bit As Much Black Widow's Film
Marvel Studios
Since Scarlett Johansson burst onto the superhero scene as one of the few redeemable features of Iron Man 2 as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Black Widow fans have been desperate to see the character in her own film. It could finally - finally - be coming within the next few years, and while it'll be great to see regardless of how long it's overdue, it's worth remembering how integral Natasha Romanoff was to The Winter Soldier's narrative.
Johansson, who also turns in her best performance as the character in the film, features predominantly throughout the story as both an ally and as a leading character. She, like Steve, undergoes a massive journey too, as writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely divulge more of the character's backstory in an effort to provide depth to a hero that had been played fairly one-dimensionally up until that point.
We learn more about her past as a Soviet spy, her encounters with the mythic Winter Soldier as well as her motivations for joining S.H.I.E.L.D., and it remains the most complete study of the character to date.
There's absolutely nothing not to love about this performance, and while the film packs a star-studded cast, Johansson steals pretty much every scene she's in.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
