Black Widow Didn’t Show Natasha’s True Endgame Tribute

Warning: This post contains Black Widow spoilers.

Black Widow was meant to give Natasha Romanoff the tribute she deserved in Avengers: Endgame, but the latest Marvel Studios opted to not show it on the screen. Nat’s death in Vormir in exchange for the Soul Stone remains to be a divisive creative choice from directors Joe and Anthony Russo. So, there’s hope that the Cate Shortland-directed flick will somehow rectify that. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite do that.

The main events of Black Widow take place on the heels of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America’s (Chris Evans) fallout in Captain America: Civil War and just before Steve Rogers bust out Team Cap from the Raft. This allowed Marvel Studios to work around the fact that in the present MCU timeline, Nat is already dead. Despite its prequel nature, the film jumps several years into the future through its post-credits scene. In the tag, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) visits Nat’s grave in an unknown location. It’s uncertain when exactly this falls in the franchise’s timeline but giving Black Widow her own tombstone was important since she didn’t get any funeral whatsoever in Endgame.

However, while this is a good way to honor Nat’s legacy, Black Widow‘s post-credits scene actually fails to show the MCU’s real tribute to the character. When Yelena visited Nat’s tombstone, there are noticeably a lot of flowers and stuffed toys around it, which means that it’s either a public known site or the burial just happened. If her final resting place is openly available, people may have regularly come to visit and left those trinkets. Meanwhile, if there was a service, those items may have been brought by people who attended it. Regardless, there was some sort of a gathering that celebrated Nat’s life that wasn’t shown in the movie. Instead, Marvel Studios opted to do it off-screen.

Whether it’s due to time constraints or other factors, it’s still disappointing that until the very end, Nat didn’t get a proper send-off. Granted that there was an attempt to do it in Black Widow, it’s not nearly the same as what Iron Man got. While Tony Stark was the poster character of the MCU throughout the Infinity Saga, it’s worth noting that Johansson’s Nat is the second Avenger to be introduced (bar Hulk who was recast from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo). She had already been cast aside for the most part of her time in the MCU, essentially being relegated to a supporting character when she’s supposed to be a main one which was bad. If anything, this and Black Widow’s controversial Endgame death should’ve been a motivation for Marvel Studios to give her the swan song that she deserves. 

Late as it may be, Black Widow was a chance for Marvel Studios to make up for the way Nat’s story in Avengers: Endgame wrapped. With the continued buzz online regarding this issue, they should’ve ensured that the new film delivers on that particular aspect. Considering what it’s in the movie, the half-hearted attempt to honor Nat might even be insulting to some.