On Black Widow and Marvel's Gaps (or, Why We Need a Black Widow Movie)

On the recent Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) episode of The Skiffy and Fanty Show, I argued that part of what bothered me about the Black Widow scene wherein she reveals having been sterilized in the Red Room is that it clarified what was an obvious gap in Marvel's Cinematic Universe.  We need a Black Widow movie, I said -- more so now than ever.  This is a somewhat complicated position, and I'd like to explore that in-depth here.

For those that don't know, I'll spoil the bit everyone is talking about:

Dear DC: Little Girls Play Board Games, Too

The folks on Sword and Laser recently had a brief discussion about the Justice League:  Axis of Villains board game, which apparently includes no women.  Peter V. Brett has a post about it here.  In short, his daughter didn't want to play the game because it didn't even have Wonder Woman.

WONDER WOMAN.  The single most important female superhero in the entire DC canon is not in a fucking board game meant to be played by children.

I cannot express how angry and disappointed I am in DC over this.  Every single time I hear something about DC, it's shit like this.  DC saying something dumb about women.  DC releasing creepy suicide PSAs w/ Harley Quinn practically nude in a bathtub.  DC not including women.  DC bad.  DC bad.