Fan's Reaction on Black Widow Trailer
Marvel Studios has done it again... stoked the ire of some
fans on the internet, that is. While reactions to the first trailer for the
upcoming Black Widow were largely positive, a certain subset of fans took issue
with what they perceived as the fat-shaming of the Red Guardian, portrayed by Stranger
Things' David Harbour.
The Guardian, real name Alexei Shostkov, appears at a couple
of different moments in the trailer. Russia's answer to Captain America is
portrayed as being perhaps a decade or two past his prime, and suffice to say
that Harbour — never the trimmest of actors — didn't exactly get jacked for the
role.
This is obviously by design, as we first see Shostakov
flexing his admittedly considerable muscles in a mirror, then attempting to
squeeze into his old suit. He does, then proudly announces to his
"family" — Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff, Florence Pugh's
Yelena Belova, and Rachel Weisz's Melina Vostokoff — that it still fits.
"Ahahahahaha! Still fits."
That's when Vostokoff says:
"You got fat."
Black Widow Trailer
However, in the spot's very next scene, we see that the
Guardian's added heft doesn't seem to be slowing him down much, as he
single-handedly takes on the villainous Taskmaster. The response from some fans
online was highly reminiscent of the "Fat Thor" controversy after the
release of Avengers: Endgame. Many were incredulous that Marvel appeared not to
have learned anything from said controversy, including Twitter user @The_GothDaddy,
who wrote:
"The Black Widow trailer looks pretty good I'd like it more if
Marvel learned their lesson with Thor and maybe considered leaving out yet... A
n o t h e r... Dig at fat people."
User @Artists_Al agreed, writing:
"So I watched the Black Widow trailer. Is Marvel just gonna do
wall to wall fat-phobic jokes in all their movies now or....? Yeah that's gonna
be a no from me."
There were a wealth of similar tweets to be found in the
trailer's immediate wake, and while everybody is obviously entitled to their
opinion, ours is that — as with the Endgame controversy — the approach to
Harbour's character is being wildly misinterpreted.
User @MediocreJedi contributed another critical tweet
that touched on our reasoning:
"Imma watch the hell out of #BlackWidow but did Marvel learn
ANYTHING from their Endgame Thor fat joke backlash? Most women I know find
David Harbour hot. So, another fat joke? Signed, guy who can barely fit into
his 21-year-old dress uniform but can still kick ass."
While one could certainly make the argument that Marvel
didn't exactly think through the potential ramifications before committing to
their portrayal of Red Guardian, we submit that those accusing the studio of
fat-phobia would do well to take a look at the broader context of the spot.
Sure, the fact that Shostakov is old and out of shape, squeezing into his superhero
costume only for his "family" to poke good-natured fun at him, is
played for a laugh. Does this make the Red Guardian a buffoon, a punchline,
like some in the Twitter-verse are asserting?
Respectfully, we don't agree that it does. Again, in the
very next scene, we see the Guardian in all his overweight glory engaging
one-on-one with one of the deadliest villains in the Marvel universe — and
everything about his appearance in this sequence, regardless of how many extra
pounds he may be packing, screams "utter badass."
Those raking Marvel over the coals on Twitter obviously took
away something different, and that's unfortunate — but we certainly didn't see
Marvel encouraging audiences to point and laugh at the hapless fat guy. What we
saw was much more along the lines of;
"Hey, Alexei may be past his prime; he has to
struggle to get into his old suit, and his family ribs him about it. He may not
have the body of Captain America, but he can damn sure throw down like
him."
To us, this is the exact opposite of fat-shaming, and we
took a similar position in defense of Fat Thor — AKA "Bro Thor." Yes,
it was a shock to the system to see the God of Thunder having packed on the
pounds, swilling beer and playing video games, and Chris Hemsworth leaned into
the comedic aspects of his first onscreen appearance in that state. Yes, Tony Stark
made fun of him; Stark made fun of everybody, every chance he got.
But Thor's extra pounds, and the profound depression of
which they were a symptom, were not treated as a joke. In contrast, Odinson's
descent into depression in the wake of his failure to stop Thanos in Avengers:
Infinity War was treated with a great deal of sensitivity, and the entire arc
was one which we would never have expected for the character.
With Red Guardian and Bro Thor alike, Marvel seems to be
pretty darn consistent in its message, which is a timeless one: don't judge a
book by its cover. You might be old, you might be chubby, you might be
depressed; you can be any or all of these things, and you can still be a hero.
That is a message anyone should be able to get behind.
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