Marvel Comics today aren’t sexy.
This is a conscious attempt on part of the company. Marvel NOW! kicked in in tandem with and response to an increasing online call for better representation in comics in the 2010s. It de-emphasized sexuality and put an increased focus on “strong female characterization” as a comics brand. Heroes like Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel led the charge, and bold experiments like A-Force were pushed through. She-Hulk even got a run that didn’t feel like a horny Spider-Man fanboy wrote it, and Elektra got a tremendous solo series. It was hard – as a socially aware liberal college lad – to find much to fault with the trajectory of the company.
You have to remember that at the time, “sex = right-wing” and “sensible clothes = left-wing.” It feels impossible to explain now, but essentially, the long-standing rampant sexualization and eroticization of female characters in comics came home to roost in virtually every online comics circle. A lot of readers were tired of their only heroines being in skintight bodysuits and posed at improbable angles. It was a fair response, but also one Marvel was entirely too eager to meet in hopes of garnering new readership and (most importantly) synergizing with the cuddly positivity of the Disney brand. It’s led to a company that feels downright puratanical at times next to the brazen horny queerness found in DC.
What does this have to with Natasha ? Everything.
