I was never much of a fan of Scarlett Johansson. She always somehow managed to be just a bit annoying in every movie I saw her in, whether weirdly wooing Bill Murray in Lost In Translation or being the girl we love to hate, envy and pity at the same time in He’s Just Not That Into You. And don’t even get me started on Match Point.

But she’s not without talent. She just wasn’t well suited for the sexy girl-next-door role. She was meant for more than that. And it took the team at Marvel to see that.

There’s a reason she doesn’t play the sweet but sexy girl very well – it’s too obvious. We already all hate her for being more gorgeous than us. But then if she plays someone nicer or more beloved too? Well then why would we root for her?

But since Marvel turned her into the Black Widow, and then Luc Besson turned her into Lucy, we’ve been given a reason to root for Scarlett.

Now she doesn’t just look sexy, she kicks ass while doing it. She shows us the kind of woman we want to be, and the kind of woman we want her to be too.

What’s more, she faces real struggle while doing so. She stares down big scary challenges, and fights alongside men as their equal, and doesn’t just rely on her looks and sultry voice (and yes it is very sultry) to make her way. In these new roles, Johansson proves that she does have the acting chops, as well as the karate chops, to own the big screen and carry a major film as an action star.

We haven’t had many women who could do that. There have been a few women who paved the way, but even those are sadly few. We’ve all seen Angelina Jolie and Milla Jovovich; and I’d also count Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton; then Michelle Yeoh did some fairly big stuff in the Asian market; and who could forget the one and only Lucy Lawless. But most of those ladies have since hung up their capes and skin-tight leather pants. So the world has been waiting and watching (for myself, extremely impatiently) for someone new to take to the ring.

Who knew Johansson would be our girl, and that she’d dominate at it?

I mean wow. She had a secret powerhouse of badassery hidden inside her all along. And now that she’s unleashed it, the world has fallen in love with it, particularly us women. Did you know that 50% of Lucy’s opening weekend audience was female, which is an extraordinary rarity for the male-oriented Action genre?

So now we want more!

And we’ll get more. Because rumors are flying high that the Black Widow will finally be getting her own solo movie in the Marvel lineup. About time!

Look out world, coz here comes Scarlett Johansson – ultimate Tough Cookie and the new face of female ferocity. And it looks gooood.

Source: Variety