Black Widow Deserves Better Than This

I think we've reached the point where I can officially call this ridiculous. In fact, I think we reached this point several years ago, perhaps even several decades. I would like to petition the Hollywood gods to please cut the bull crap. Because sure, Marvel boss Kevin Feige didn't nix the idea of a Black Widow or other female-led superhero movie completely, but his comments are enough to make us want to Hulk out in his general direction, as well as for us to wish that "flip-flopper" were as big of an insult to Hollywood bigwigs as it is to major political candidates. Because Kevin Feige is being a flip-flopper, and we do not like it.

Last we checked in, Feige was saying some vaguely hopeful things about the prospect of a solo Black Widow movie. For contrast, here's what Feige said in an interview this past week with Badass Digest:

Frankly if we do a Black Widow movie after Age of Ultron, when she’s been central in three or four movies I don’t think we’d get the quote unquote credit for it. People would say ‘She’s already a big giant superhero!’ But if we had a great idea, we’d do it. But if we had a great idea, we’d do it...

I think [Black Widow] has a central leading role in [Captain America: The Winter Soldier]. What people are really saying is ‘When are you doing a standalone female superhero movie?’ The answer is: I don’t know. We only do two a year, we know more or less what’s coming up through ‘16/’17. With Widow what’s great is the interaction with all the team members, and the question is whether we want to pluck her out of that. I’m very proud of the way the Marvel movies handle the female characters who are in all the movies we are making, as opposed to feeling the pressure of ‘When are you doing a female movie?’ We’re exploring a lot of Widow, and that’s going to continue with Age of Ultron in a big way.

Why you gotta play us like this, Feige? Why you gotta hurt us in this way?

A number of things come to mind here immediately:

1. The exact reason a Black Widow movie would work so well is because she's already so huge and featured. Given they've already set a release date for a third Captain America movie, it's kind of a glaringly misogynistic double standard that, other than Hawkeye (who is a more sidelined character), Black Widow's probably set to remain the only part of that main ensemble without a solo film. We don't just want Black Widow around (though we certainly want that), we want her in a film where she is not tethered to the perceived marketability of her male counterparts.
2. Scheduling is not an excuse, Kevin Feige, when you are the one in charge of the scheduling. Be the change you wish to see in the world. The same goes for great ideas: You have the entire creative world at your disposal, find a great idea.
3. It seems obvious that Feige has not been paying attention to the fact that female-led films brought in more money than male-led films this year. Combine that with the Marvel powerhouse? C'mon dude, get on it. There are no more excuses we will accept.

There was, however, one shining beacon of hope in that interview, and it was this:

I like the idea if we’re going to do a [female lead] do a new one. Do a wholly new character, do an origin story... We’ve talked a lot about [Captain Marvel]. I think that would be very cool. "

We just expect to be croaking around in a retirement home by the time they get around it. Maybe by the time we're dead, they'll finally get around to Kamala Khan.