When rumors began to circulate that Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova was going to be in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it seemed a bit odd. It seemed even more odd when those rumors suggested that she and Peter were going to see each other naked or topless in some way.
Well, that panned out, mostly.
Rumored characters Hulk and Punisher were confirmed by being front and center in Brand New Day trailers, but Pugh’s Yelena never showed up. We now know that’s because she’s in two brief scenes, the main one in her “office” where she does appear to be lacking clothes, but under cloudy water. She makes Peter Parker strip down to his boxers and mask to have a chat. It’s all played for laughs, rather than anything remotely steamy. And it’s very funny (“womp womp”).
It is yet another example of Florence Pugh being an asset to anything she’s been in during her time in the MCU, which has now extended to four different appearances: Black Widow, Hawkeye, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and the film she led, Thunderbolts. She will reportedly have a big role in Avengers: Doomsday this winter, as well.
Brand New Day is the first time we’ve heard her called Black Widow officially (by Ned over Zoom), which would mark the fact that she has finally, fully replaced her sister Natasha, something we didn’t even see in Thunderbolts. At this point, I think you could argue that she is one of the best characters in the MCU, combining charisma, comedy and of course, fighting skills (though of course she didn’t use those in Brand New Day for such a small potatoes crisis).
I’d put Pugh in the tier of Tom Holland and…honestly I’m not even sure who else at this point. I guess we’ll see how Downey’s Doom goes. Chris Hemsworth is obviously key as Thor and good when he’s…not being written the way he was in Love and Thunder. I’m just not sure anyone else is on her level besides maybe Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel, played by Iman Velani. Though the MCU seems to have banished her with no second season of her show, and her being unfortunately attached to the MCU’s biggest bomb, The Marvels.
It seems pretty clear by this point that Pugh’s Yelena is a better Black Widow than Scarlett Johansson’s was, a character who was pulled around in poor directions by the MCU, a side character in almost all her appearances, forced into a bizarre relationship with Bruce Banner and only getting her own (not great) solo movie after her character died, released during the COVID era. And her death was arguably her character’s best moment, though of course it’s not ideal that she was sacrificed as the only core Avengers member to not survive outside of Tony’s final snap, an all-time great MCU moment.
But despite that, I just don’t think Johansson is a more compelling Widow. She was outshined in her own movie by Pugh’s Yelena, and Thunderbolts was a better film than Black Widow by quite a wide margin.
The MCU has not done a terribly good job with “mantle-passing.” It didn’t pull the trigger on Jane Foster taking over for Thor (she dies, instead). It badly mishandled the transition from Steve Rogers to Sam Wilson to the point where it is actually bringing Chris Evans back for Doomsday. Tom Holland keeps talking about passing the Spidey baton to a potential Miles Morales, like he’ll ever actually stop playing Peter, even if it’s alongside a second Spider-Man.
I would view Yelena taking over for Natasha as the single best example of this actually working. A real baton pass saving a moniker that is important to the MCU, and turning into a better character. We are going to see this tested when David Jonsson becomes the new Black Panther soon, though there are no guarantees there yet.
Pugh is one of the MCU’s biggest assets. Her character might not be a box office draw by herself, but every one of her appearances so far has added value to whatever project they put her in. Hopefully she stays around past Doomsday.
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