So I got The Avengers on Blu-Ray as a birthday present and a few days ago I sat down and watched it again. On second viewing, it was just as awesome as it was when I saw it in the theatres, only this time I think the complexities and subtleties of the characters were even more noticeable than the first time around and the deleted scenes only gave further proof of that- as we see a moody and melancholy Captain America struggling as a man out of time and Bruce Banner's encounter with the security guard in the empty warehouse fleshing out the struggle between Banner and the Hulk just a little further than we saw in the theatrical release.
But to me, the most interesting characters were the ones that we knew the least about and that was the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Both characters have made appearances in prior movies leading up to The Avengers- the Black Widow showing up in Iron Man 2 and Hawkeye briefly popping up in Thor but The Avengers was the first time we'd seen them together and gotten hints at their respective backstories. They're an unusual pair for The Avengers- a super-spy/assassin and a super-marksman/archer- they're not slathered in various super powers like the other members of the team and the viewer is left without a full explanation of their backstories during the movie- and I don't know about anybody else but that made me curious as hell. I was left wanting to know more about these two.
I don't want to get bogged down in the long storied comic book history of the Black Widow and Hawkeye as storylines tend to shift and change and people can wander in and out of various storylines but a peruse through Wikipedia reveals that these two have what I would consider to be a fairly compelling story to tell- as they've both been bad guys at one point for various reasons and it seems that as they fell in love (at least in the comics) that's what brought them back to the good guys- an interesting evolution. (Hawkeye is called Hawkeye for exactly the reason you think, fellow Iowegians- he was born in Waverly, Iowa.)
Complex story, complex characters and a relationship that's left somewhat mysterious on the silver screen- do they love each other? Does the Black Widow, as she says, 'have red in ledger?' It's never exactly made clear what there motivations are- and I think Johansson and Renner were perfectly cast. I like the fact that Johansson doesn't even bother to try a Russian accent. She's a super spy. She doesn't need to and it's nice to see a female super hero that's not afraid to go toe to toe with her male counterparts and be totally unapologetic about it. (If we can get to a point where a female super hero doesn't need to highlight her cleavage quite so much, that might be considered tangible progress as well.) And Renner brings a subtle sense of humor to his role that made him a lot of fun to watch and, most importantly- the two had chemistry. They bounced off of each other nicely.
In a perfect world, these two would get their own movies. They've each got the acting chops to do it I think and if we're going to have to sit through movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine why not take a chance on these two- or at the very least the Black Widow. I mean, they tried Elektra (fail) and a new Wonder Woman movie doesn't seem to be forthcoming anytime soon, so when are the ladies going to get their turn at the superhero thing?
As an aspiring author, one of the many things I love about telling stories is that sometimes you find the most interesting characters in the most unexpected of places. I've done that recently in my own turgid attempt at a novel (still ongoing, of course) and I've got to say that the Black Widow and Hawkeye were the two best characters in The Avengers. You didn't know a lot about them coming in and you were left wanting to know more after it ended.
