By: Esmeralda Garcia-Cisneros

La Grange, N.C.

WHEN “Black Widow” was released on July 9, 2021, it quickly was hailed as one of the best movies in theaters in the past few months. “Black Widow” is a positive return to the movies for Marvel, after months of shuttered theaters, and fans are loving it. Many feel that the movie is long overdue, saying that the Black Widow character should have had a movie ages ago. But it’s safe to say better late than never. 

The movie starts with a family moment with Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow) and her little sister Yelena playing in the backyard, and it moves to a family dinner with their mom and dad. Then the dad says it is time—but time for what? Well, you then see a scene where the family is escaping from cops and getting into an airplane, which lands in Cuba. Soon, their family life is over, and the two sisters are separated.

Like all the other Marvel movies, “Black Widow” emphasizes family and adventure amid efforts to defeat the evil of the world. Natasha confronts the darker parts of her his-tory when she faces off with the cause of all her pain. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her broken relationships from long before she became an Avenger. 

This movie offers more understanding of how this character—popularized in previous Marvel films—got to be who she was. The character of Black Widow is mysterious and exciting, and this movie really summarized her perfectly.