Black Widow Is Our Hero Of The Week

by Ryan Rigley

Earlier this week, we got our first official clip from the highly anticipated "Avengers" movie, featuring Natasha Romanoff herself. Black Widow, along with Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye and the Hulk, will be facing off against Loki, the god of mischief, and an army of as-of-yet unknown alien beings in a little less than a month. Which has fanboys all across the country drooling with excitement.

Although Black Widow may not be the hero that most people are looking forward to seeing up on the big screen, this clip proves that in the hands of Joss Whedon everyone is a wise-cracking, three-dimensional, and awesome action star. Running a little over 40 seconds and cutting off just as it's getting to the good part, the "Avengers" clip of Black Widow has us begging for more!

In the aforementioned clip, we see Black Widow tied down to a chair being interrogated by three villainous men in what appears to be some sort of warehouse. However, she doesn't ever appear to be in any real danger as she casually chats on the phone with Agent Coulson and then subsequently breaks free of the chair she's been strapped to with ease.

This isn't the first badass action sequence we've seen of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. Those of you who have seen "Iron Man 2" will recall a certain hallway fight scene in which Ms. Johansson single handedly takes down a faction of security guards utilizing electric shock discs, a tripwire, smoke pellets, pepper spray, and her own two fists. It's truly a sight to behold.

What makes Black Widow such an interesting character is that she has no real superpowers. Like Hawkeye, Natasha doesn't have super soldier serum coursing through her veins, high-tech armor, a hammer forged from Asgardian metal, or the ability to turn into a huge, green monster. She's just an exceptionally gifted athlete, gymnast, martial artist, marksman and weapons specialist. Kind of like a female Batman!

With that said, we are really looking forward to seeing Black Widow in "The Avengers," in theaters everywhere May 4th. If this one 42 second clip teaches us anything, it's that Black Widow deserves more credit than she's given and that "The Avengers" is going to rock our collective socks off.

Welcome to Hero of the Week, our weekly salute to the heroes keeping the comic book, movie and television scene something to look forward to day in and day out. From actual superheroes to the actors and filmmakers who bring them to life, you can tell us who your heroes are in the comments and on Twitter!