You can be flawed, and vulnerable and wibble and cry and still kick ass.

Then why not give that moment to one of the guys?

It's not in character for the Black Widow that I've read, and I find the oversight of her character generally more sloppy than the rest (not Hawkeye, but he's barely in the movie). And that gets up my nose.

Yes, I don't want the only wibbly character on the team to be the woman. Not yet. Give me a few years of parity and call me back, and in the meanwhile, get better stunt doubles or spend more time CGIing her face in (oh, actually, the CGI of Tony's face into the helmet or the helmet onto his face was also awkward--the rest was pretty tight).

Then why not give that moment to one of the guys?

Boys don't cry, Jessica. The Cure told me so.

Maybe he wanted to make that point specifically about women. Maybe that was his take on her character, what with the control-needing.

I think one of the things I really loved was Natasha's fear. Even in the hut with Bruce and those soldiers outside: fear. Chased by the Hulk? It did make him scarier for me, instead of just a big CGI dude with anger issues. It made me not take the Hulk for granted. Maybe she could have sucked it up a little sooner, but I appreciated her reactions to him. Consistent or no.

Say, I've been reading some comics and some fic, and what's the deal with how sometimes Natasha is called Natalia?

I don't know about in canon, but my Aunt Natasha was sometimes called Natalya just because. Russian names are kind of fluid like that.

See, in the hut with Bruce I got a totally steely but understanding response to a potential threat way outside of her capability to stop. She didn't strike me as the sort of woman who needed to see the Hulk in action before she understood it. I thought she clearly already did, and she had looked the potential in the eye and pulled a gun anyway.

Not the lip wobbling though. Didn't like it at all.

When she was running from Hulk on the helicarrier and hid, I thought it was more that she was in really bad pain and the wibble came more from that than fear. Her leg had been nearly crushed and I know I would have been crying like a weenie. When she went to confront Hawkeye, she was still limping pretty badly.

Show me one guy who got hurt enough to sadface, and I'll be a little less tetchy. I think Cap poked his side once, and Tony did all that grunting to get his servos working, but she had enough of an adrenaline dump to run with no favouring of the leg, so I'm not in love with that explanation either.

Still on the Avengers tip, but not whining about anything, this article: [link] has some nice (but too small) images from the displays on the helicarrier, as well as Tony's HUD. I'd love to see some better views of those--they're beautiful.

Via Atrios, I found this list of top 200 grossers in real (probably 2012) dollars interesting.

[link]

Note that the Avengers is 45th, but that has to be partly because it has been playing a comparatively short time. I'll bet by year end it will be at least in all time top 20.