Let’s get this out of the way early: this isn’t a hit piece on Scarlett Johansson. Her portrayal of Natasha Romanoff helped anchor the MCU for over a decade. She had iconic moments, real gravitas, and undeniable chemistry with nearly every Avenger she stood beside. But after Thunderbolts, it’s time to acknowledge something fans have been quietly realizing—Yelena Belova is the better Black Widow.
Not just more fun. Not just more layered. But closer to the character’s comic book DNA and more in step with what audiences expect from complex, modern heroes.
Florence Pugh didn’t just inherit the legacy—she transformed it. (Extremely Minor Thunderbolts Spoilers)
Natasha Romanoff - The Off-Screen Opperative
In the comics, Natasha is a study in contradictions: a former villain, a KGB-trained operative, a woman built on deception and betrayal. She's the epitome of the Russian femme fatale—a trope that only works when audiences are shown the full depth of that duplicity.
But in the MCU, Natasha never fully got that treatment.
We’re told she has a “red ledger.” That Budapest was messy. That she has blood on her hands. But we’re never truly shown the horrors she’s haunted by. Her darkest moments are usually referenced in past tense, and her motivations are more whispered than explored. When you stack that against her comic counterpart—who’s morally murky and deeply manipulative—it becomes clear the films played it safe.
And by the time her solo movie arrived, she had already died. Her arc was retroactive instead of proactive, robbing her story of weight it could have carried from the beginning.
Meet The New Black Widow
Now enter Yelena. Florence Pugh's introduction in Black Widow was a mission statement. Yelena is pragmatic, efficient, sarcastic, and deadly—immediately more morally ambiguous than Natasha was allowed to be across multiple films. She murders in her very first scene. She jokes about mind control with haunting realism. She calls out Natasha’s “posing,” mocking the performative elements that always seemed to linger around the original Widow.
But it’s in Thunderbolts that Yelena truly evolves. She becomes both the emotional core and the tactical spine of the group. She pulls a broken teammate from the brink, but by the end of the movie, it’s clear that she’s also playing her own chess game. Valentina—one of the MCU’s most composed manipulators—looks legitimately afraid of what Yelena might do next. That’s a power dynamic shift we never saw Natasha pull off.
Yelena Isn’t A Plot Device - She’s The Plot
What sets Yelena apart isn’t just her skill—it’s her agency. She’s not a sidekick, a love interest, or the token woman rounding out the team. She’s her own person, with her own goals, trauma, and decisions.
When Natasha was on screen, she often existed in orbit around male characters. Tony flirted with her. Steve respected her. Bruce broke her heart. Clint knew her past. But rarely did Natasha define the story itself.
Yelena, on the other hand, is the story. Her trauma isn’t just window dressing—it’s a living part of how she moves through the world. Her redemption arc is compelling because we saw the depths she came from. Her humor is sharp, awkward, and distinctly her own. She feels real. And more than anything, she feels free.
Renovating A Legacy
And maybe that’s the real win here—Yelena represents a shift in how women are written in superhero films.
The “sexy spy with a tragic past” isn’t a dead trope. It can still work—when we’re shown the full weight of that past. When we see the darkness, the conflict, the scars. With Natasha, most of that was off-screen. With Yelena, we’re in the trenches with her. We feel the damage, and the humor she uses to survive it.
She’s still stylish, still cool, but she’s also awkward, combative, deeply emotional, and sometimes messy. That’s what makes her relatable. That’s what makes her modern. And that’s why fans aren’t just admiring her—they’re rooting for her. She is without a doubt, one of the best, if not the best, MCU legacy characters in the franchise.
Reddit threads, YouTube breakdowns, and TikTok edits are all filled with fans who see Florence Pugh’s Yelena as the character Black Widow was always meant to be. That’s not a slight on Scarlett—it’s a testament to how far storytelling has come.
A New Widow For A New Generation
This isn’t about disrespecting Natasha Romanoff. It's about recognizing that her successor has done something rare: she’s taken a legacy character and made it more grounded, more dimensional, and—frankly—more interesting. Yelena Belova isn’t a replacement. She’s a revelation. And if Marvel’s smart, she’s also the future.
The truth is, we don’t have to choose one or the other. Natasha Romanoff walked so Yelena Belova could run—and now, Yelena is sprinting toward a future where complex, powerful women lead their own stories unapologetically. It’s exciting to imagine where her journey will go next. If Thunderbolts was any indication, we’re just scratching the surface of what this new Black Widow can be. And for fans who’ve been waiting for a Widow with grit, charm, and real narrative weight?
The best is yet to come.