Episode 6: The Black Widow

This is a slight diverge from my Blog but rather an argument response to a friend of mine, feel free to read or ignore.
I recently watched the Marvel film, The Avengers and one of the first things that struck me was why Black Widow is a member of the Avengers? Upon wondering this I brought it up with one of my good friends who is quite a big fan of the movie and she claims that she is a very important character and that it would be laughable had she not been present in the Superhero squad. I however claim that she has no place on the squad as she herself possess no superpowers and hence not a superhero.
Her listed abilities include many higher order skills; The Black Widow is a world class athlete, gymnast, acrobat, aerialist capable of numerous complex manoeuvres and feats, expert martial artist (including karate, judo, ninjutsu, aikido, savate, various styles of kung fu, and boxing), marksman, and weapons specialist as well as having extensive espionage training. She is also an accomplished ballerina. Yes a Ballerina…(no offense to Ballerinas)
HOWEVER, these are qualities possessed by the majority of KGB, MI6 and other secret service agents, they are not superpowers. It is for this reason that she should not be a member of the Avengers Squad.
Now this is where you all go what about her “genetic enhancements”? Natasha has received the Red Room's variant of the Super-Soldier Serum. As a result, her physical and mental abilities had been enhanced much like Captain America. This is the equivalent of steroid with a fancy name and yes with that line of argument it also suggests that Captain America should also not be an Avenger, this is true however this is not a dispute about him.
The Black Widow has been enhanced by “biotechnology” that makes her body resistant to aging and disease and heals at an above human rate (this is a dressed up equivalent of immunisations and anti-aging methods such as caffeinated creams and Botox, nothing inaccessible to everyone) as well as psychological conditioning that suppresses her memory of true events as opposed to implanted ones of the past without the aid of specially designed system suppressant drugs (everyone’s brains already do this, they are referred to as defence mechanisms that were extensively explored by Freud and this is done without adding artificial substances to the body). Not to mention that all of these experiments undertaken by the soviets have rendered her body infertile.
Due to the Super-Soldier Serum, the white blood cells in her body are efficient enough to fight off any microbe, foreign body and others from her body, keeping her healthy and immune to most, if not all infections, diseases and disorders (I admit that this is a positive to the experiments that is difficult to replicate in reality but similar drugs can be found in most hospitals ICU’s). Also, it takes quite a bit for Natasha to become intoxicated (Awesome, so I won’t be starting a drinking contest with her sometime soon.)

Now you say that “even if Natasha was not genetically enhanced, she wouldn’t be the only Avenger without superpowers. For example, Sharon Carter, daughter of Peggy Carter is a member of the Avengers. However her skills are based on training, not test tubes and gamma radiation. Keeping her company is Clint Barton, a.k.a Hawkeye who “has no superhuman powers (with the exception of the period when using Pym particles to become Goliath), he is at the very peak of human conditioning; he is an exceptional fencer, acrobat and a grandmaster marksman, having been trained from childhood in the circus and by the criminals Trick Shot and Swordsman. This includes considerable strength, as a supervillain found out when he tried to use the superhero’s 250 pounds-force (1,100 newtons) draw weight bow and found that he could not draw back the string to launch an arrow. Hawkeye has also been thoroughly trained by Captain America in tactics, martial arts, and hand-to-hand combat. Hawkeye excels in the use of ranged weapons, especially the bow and arrow, and carries a quiver containing a number of customized “trick arrows”.” My dear this only strengthens my argument and a reminder that we are debating Black Widows membership to the Avenger superhero squad.

“Hawkeye has no powers, and neither does Sharon Carter. Both are fully-fledged members of the Avengers despite this. This means that even if Natasha had no powers, there would be no grounds to refute her membership based on her lack of powers, since it would also mean denying membership to two other major characters in the Marvel comicverse. (I’m sorry what?) Not including any other Avengers without superpowers that I may have missed.” I am not sure what you were trying to suggest here but my dear what you have presented is no argument to her membership but rather an attempt to justify her presence on the squad with other members. Other members that should also be scrutinised, if the “Avengers Superhero Squad” claims to be a superhero squad it should be a squad of superheros if not it should not claim to be.