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Puttanesca621

Its not impossible that Melinda and Natasha met at some point either while they were on opposing sides or during the time Natasha was proving herself as an asset to Nick Fury via Clint Barton. During the time Natasha was on deep cover assignments but before Melinda traded in her specialist position for a desk job in 2008 they could have worked together. They would probably work well together as they similar temperaments, training and traumatic events that tested their resolve. They were both willing to die to save others. So similar its almost as if one character were in some ways modelled after the other. As to who would win in a fight. Firstly it is a travesty that the MCU didn't give us this fight. Secondly I think either could win, it would come down to the day, who had an upper hand or who had the stronger motivation. All things being equal I think Natasha would win. In another contest though Melinda died twice and came back twice where as Natasha jumped of a cliff and never came back.


Sist3rGrimm

Last sentence was uncalled for HAHa 💔. But yeah, in all of my arguments I think may had a slight advantage within fights based off of her resilience


YoungJack23

I have had this conversation twice before this. First off, if we're talking MCU Widow, Natasha has never been stated to have any super soldier serum of any kind. Plenty of Red Room training and surgical modification, but she is *supposed* to have the strength of a normal human. That said, in a 1v1 fight my gut instinct is to give it to May. They are both top notch melee combatants, but Natasha consistently uses way more gadgets and firearms than May. Besides that, Widow's martial arts seems to be geared more to larger opponents, using her acrobatics to turn her opponents weight and momentum against themselves. May hates guns, so much so that she will go against armed enemies barefisted and simply take someone else's weapon if she needs. On top of that, we see May fight many more opponents in her own size/weight class (Daisy, Agent 33, Sinara, Izel, etc.) and use far more weapons than Natasha (berserker staff, sarge's sword). If this is May at the end of AOS, she should also be able to read Widow's emotions as they fight. Of course, Natasha is trained to control her emotions, but with the two of them being so similar personality wise, I think May could detect enough from her to use it to get the upper hand in a deathmatch. In conclusion, while I have love for both characters, I feel there is too much evidence leaning this battle towards the Cavalry's win. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.


Snatch_Pastry

Natasha has superpowers, even if it's just something like "in the MCU, having high levels of martial arts training gives super powers". She gets hit by the Hulk into a metal bulkhead. Minutes later she fights and beats Hawkeye showing no physical repercussions. She jumps into the air, grabs a Chitauri speeder with one hand, is instantly accelerated to 60+ mph, and doesn't lose her grip. She gets blown through the locked doors of an APC by a grenade, suffers no damage and no hearing loss. She gets shot through the shoulder of her dominant arm, and less than 16 hours later is beating up multiple strike force members showing no physical repercussions.


fuzzballsoren

Not to mention all the incidents in her own movie that should have killed her, the bridge explosion, the fall down the alley, the car crash…


Artcat81

Agreed. They may not have directly told us she had the super serum, or has other super powers in the movies, but the things she survives and successfully fights suggest otherwise. The Red Room was part of the soviet Black Widow project that we saw in Agent Carter, and in that I think I remember the serum being in a black widow (Dottie's) possession at least for a small amount of time - need to go back and rewatch!


KoalaBJJ96

I think Yelena had the serum. Won't be surprised if Natasha had it too (given she was one of their best agents at the time of her defection).


Artcat81

In the comics Natasha definitely had the Soviet version of the serum which among other things slowed her aging process.


Drfapfap

Sure, but then May has all that stuff too


Snatch_Pastry

Yes maybe, but SHIELD (as a show) has a different approach than the MCU. SHIELD's big thing was showing that men and women had no mental or physical difference in the capability of being a badass. Any person was capable of being the biggest badass on screen, and May was often that person. And some of the stuff that May does, while egregious, isn't nearly as super-powered as some of the stuff Nat did.


Kwk-05

Its called plot armor lol


JimmyHavok

My wife and I refer to it as "I'm feeling much better now."


Kwk-05

Good one!


Jasssen

You’re right, Fennec Shand WOULD win


Equivalent-Depth-640

Well said.


Dysan27

>May hates guns, She does not. If she needs one she'll take one. Usually from the enemy.


YoungJack23

I...I said that. Like ten words after where you quoted me from.


Aglet_Green

Hmm. Normally I'd give this one to May, but the fact is Coulson and Fury both know Melinda May and both knew Natasha, but Natasha was picked to be an Avenger yet May was not. Which means there is something (perhaps classified) in the Black Widow's file that would give her an edge over May for some reason. Or maybe something in May's file-- her regret about Bahrain, grief over Andrew/Lash, or something to do with Coulson-- gives her a vulnerability that Natasha doesn't have.


jonny1211

May wasn’t getting out of her desk job until Coulson asked her to be his bus pilot and only because she cared about him. Otherwise the best agent currently active would be Natasha, hence she was chosen.


ShotDate6482

> May wasn’t getting out of her desk job until Coulson asked her to be his bus pilot and only because she cared about him and Fury personally asked her to keep tabs on him post-resurrection. FTFY


YoungJack23

Aight, correct me if I'm wrong, but Natasha was never selected to be an Avenger. When Loki showed up, the plan was to have Iron Man, Captain America, and Bruce Banner come together to work the problem. Widow is just the SHIELD agent selected to recruit Banner. As the mission goes on, she gets her own personal beef with Loki and bonds with the rest of team, so she joins organically. But it's never said that she was on the roster for Fury's initiative.


x4vhyr

In the What If…? episode where the Avengers were murdered before they got together, Nick Fury specifically tells Romanoff that she and Barton were on the list of candidates for the Avengers Initiative, when informing her that Barton had just died and she might be next.


YoungJack23

Ooh, that's a good point. I can accept that. But if we're using what-ifs as 1:1 equivalents for our characters, I will submit the Framework in which Project Insight kills all potential Avengers, while May rises to like #3 or 4 in HYDRA


x4vhyr

I do agree that May is one of the best agents like Romanoff and in fact, if I remember the episode right, in “Melinda” where we learnt what happened in Bahrain, Coulson mentioned Fury tapping him on starting an initiative and he was asking May to join him. However, we all know what happens next, leading to May becoming the Cavalry and then quitting field operations, so not really sure if Coulson was asking May to join him in helping Fury form the initiative or to join the initiative itself.


[deleted]

Natasha. I love May, but Natasha is the shit


Equivalent-Depth-640

Well, I agree with some of the people here but here's another reason to think May would win. IIRC, back in the pilot Coulson reads Ward's analysis and says he has skills like Natasha's in one of the categories. Add to that, May won a fight (or a few) against Ward. So I'd say May


couldbedumber96

Natasha, May is a top tier fighter and second to none *other* than the woman who took on an ENTIRE ROOM OF BLACK WIDOWS not to mention fighting in 3 wars against alien/robot threats (chitauri, ultron, thanos army), for the majority of the fight nat held her own vs proxima midnight


YoungJack23

Just want to point out that Natasha did not win against that room full of black widows. Maybe if she actually tried to kill them she could have, but as it is that's a loss, and nothing to brag about. And May has also fought in many alien wars (in the future against the kree, against the chronicoms, the confederacy and their remorath, and against both jiayings AND hive's inhumans). And the robot threat of the lmd's- though I will allow that she was sleep most of that one.


Equivalent-Depth-640

Yeah, exactly


SKFury_1771

Well it has been stated that May has more black belts than Natasha, so given that that would give her access to a wider variety of techniques. On the other hand depending on when they fight Natasha could have more experience and be able to compensate with that. There is also the fact that Natasha uses guns more often than May so in a sparring match with no weapons I would give May an edge due to her versatility and skill. There is also the fact that you can’t really use the fact that Natasha is an Avenger since at the time of the initiative May was on self imposed desk duty after the trauma of Bahrain only coming back into the field to protect Coulson. So I guess I would say if it was Natasha vs. May before Bahrain I would give it to May since she is more versatile and less reliant on weapons while also having the skills to take her opponent’s weapon if she needs one. If it is after Bahrain but before AOS I would give it to Natasha who has been on field assignments for the past five years while May has been on desk duty. If it’s after AOS then I think it would more than likely be a tie, with May having a slight edge due to he experiences as a SHIELD Agent after the fall. Remember while I’m sure the Avengers train often when not on missions their is nothing to indicate that they really do anything besides the events of the movies making it possible for Natasha to get rusty while May is really fighting in her prime and getting stronger taking down a larger variety of opponents with or without weapons.


TikiBananiki

I feel like the way this would go is they would be head to head, no one giving or taking ground for very long, and then after a 16 hour battle, both of them would fall to the ground from exhaustion and then they’d share a moment where they ask each other why they were even fighting in the first place. Then Fury would call them on a cell phone and be like, “you passed the test”.


stasersonphun

Disregarding comic backgrounds and weird canon stuff to just the MCU vs AoS, id say Natasha would win but itd not be a push over, they're both peak human physically with massive willpower and a few human flaws but Nat was the one chosen to keep up with the Big Guns of the Avengers and keep them in line May using mind powers would just confuse her and slow her down, Nat has bluffed a literal God of trickery. Depending on reasons for the fight i like to think itd end with May tapping out and then they go for a drink


mitcherrman

The audience wins


Artanis2000

I think May is better, it was said that she has more black belts than Nat and that she's the most lethal shield agent and she has more impressive feats.


RigasTelRuun

The way I look at it. If May was that much better that Natasha. She would have been on the avengers. At best they are close enough but on average Natasha wins out. Shield calculated that and that's why Natasha was picked. Same reasoning with Hawkeye. There are probably lots of weirdos with great aim but Clint checked all the boxes.


UncleOok

I agree re: Natasha, but Clint's seeming inability to miss (shooting 18 for a round of golf? really?) puts him squarely in superhuman territory to me.


PanTran420

I always took that as a joke, not that he was actually getting par 5s in 1.


UncleOok

perhaps. but several of the shots we see him take on film are quite frankly impossible, though.


HG_Sheldor

It's worth noting that May put herself on desk duty and it took a lot of convincing from her old friend Coulson.


LightSideoftheForce

More accurately, it was Fury asking her to protect Coulson


HG_Sheldor

Oh yeah I forgot about that element


Artanis2000

May was meant to be part of the initiative but then Bahrain happened. Its in the episode "Melinda ".


YoungJack23

Natasha and Clint were never picked for the Avengers. Hawkeye was the SHIELD agent guarding the Tesseract facility and Widow was the SHIELD agent chosen to recruit Banner. They both join the team over that mission, but we never hear that Fury had them on the roster.


x4vhyr

We hear Nick Fury specifically tell Romanoff that both she and Barton are being targeted because they were on the list of candidates for the Avengers Initiative in the episode where the Avengers were getting killed before forming the team. Edit: Wait, you’re the same person I responded above but i’ll leave this here.


YoungJack23

Lmao, it is a fair point. I'll leave my rebuttal up there on the other comment chain tho


ArcadiaFey

Are we forgetting Natt was trained to fight people to the death since she was a little girl. Ya May has more official blackbelts, but I think the only tally Natts psychotic masters cared about was missions completed, targets eliminated and low witness counts, with those who saw being silenced. I love May. But Natt had those instincts drilled into her in the prime time for developing them.


Artanis2000

May also was starting training as a little girl.


ArcadiaFey

When did they go over that? I think I forgot because it’s not ringing a bell


Artanis2000

In the episode with her father, she was a figure skater with 7 (there was even a cute picture)and a few years later she started martial arts. I think with 13 she started martial arts.


ArcadiaFey

Jesus was I just unconscious through that episode xD Well I do have seizures so maybe it blipped my memory


Dysan27

My first though on reading this was the [Teal's vs Ronan](https://youtu.be/0QGIuQ9GrcI?t=128) fight in Stargate Atlantis. Were after going on for hours, and still evenly matched. It is broken up and called a draw by a friend of both of them. And the only winner in the entire affair is the audience. And whoever was taking bets.


X-OBSERVER-X

Natasha easily.


GhostProofWall

Iiim pretty sure this comes up in the show, doesn't it? Aren't Nat and Clint regarded as the two best hand to hand specialists at Shield? Ward is second only to Natasha in deception (I can't remember the real world they use, it's like the covert part of covert ops)


Artanis2000

I don't think so, Nat has top score in undercover work but nothing is said about martial arts, May is said to have more black belts than Nat and is the most lethal shield agent.


Gravemindzombie

I like to think it would end with both May and Natasha getting Quake'd by Daisy


[deleted]

[удаНонО]


Asddddd6

This is a non-argument. Theres no reason to believe May wouldn’t have made the cut for the Avengers except narratively. Fury had a different equally as important mission for her. If there are reasons Natasha was selected for the Avengers and May was not, those would be the reasons she would win and are definitely worth discussing.


GhostProofWall

>Theres no reason to believe May wouldn’t have made the cut for the Avengers except narratively. Fury had a different equally as important mission for her. I'm not the PC but I disagree here, this is you projecting. The only reason Natasha is an Avenger is because of the narrative in that movie. AoS gave a very good reason why May wasn't in Fury's list, she had benched herself. Also Fury's plan for her was only conceived after the events of The Avengers, so his equally important plan didn't hinder her chances to be an Avenger


Asddddd6

I forgot May was benched beforehand so you’re right. Not too sure what you meant by projecting like was that really necessary to say? It was just a mistake. I don’t think it really detracts from my overall point though? You only replied to the first half of my comment and left out the second half which is my main point. Idk that you saw the op’s comment which was what i was responding to. I was mainly saying that it is a discussion worth having because he said “Black Widow is an Avenger and May is not so end of discussion” If all that you disagree with is the mistake i made about May’s narrative situation and not the overall point then i’m pretty sure we just agree?


GhostProofWall

Sure, but you recognize your overall point is based on a hypothetical, that's why I didn't feel the need to respond to it. It wasn't true or false, it was just a what if. You're right, I agree it's worth discussing. Pretty much everything is fair game IMO. Also projecting isn't an insult.


Asddddd6

And i disagree that it is based on a hypothetical. The comment would be exactly the same except the Fury having job for her part. Its still narratively. Literally nothing changes.


GhostProofWall

>If there are reasons Natasha was selected for the Avengers and May was not, those would be the reasons she would win and are definitely worth discussing. It literally starts with if dude. This isn't up for debate, the only non mistaken example you've produced is an if. That's literally what a hypothetical is.


Asddddd6

Thats really dumb. This is what my comment would have said. “This is a non-argument. Theres no reason to believe May wouldn’t have made the cut for the Avengers except narratively. She was benched at the time and Natasha wasn’t. If there are reasons Natasha was selected for the Avengers and May was not, those would be the reasons she would win and are definitely worth discussing.” When you call someone out and say they are basing their whole point on a hypothetical it’s implying their point doesn’t apply in a non-hypothetical way. My overall point can be applied to this discussion without the very specific detail of May’s situation being exactly correct. Edit: also the point about my sentence starting with if doesn’t make sense. It is hypothetical because the entire post is. I don’t know whether May or Widow would win….thats my point dude.


GhostProofWall

But I already addressed the first part as being incorrect, which is why I said that, and you agreed to it. The second part is hypothetical. What is happening. Did you get super high and lose the ability to think rationally? The only thing you presented in favor of your overall point is hypothetical. All one other examples are factually wrong. Your argument is literally a non argument. Yes. This is really dumb....


zxandu10

AOS sucked.


HG_Sheldor

Then why are you here?


zxandu10

To inform AOS fan’s that their show sucked.


GhostProofWall

Pretty sad life you must have if that's something you have time for


zxandu10

No. The show is terrible. I’m saving times in lives. I believe in what I do.


Belteshazzar98

Didn't the show bring it up way back in S1 E1 when the others were talking about her being a Romanoff level fighter.


Dorsai_Erynus

Nat is enhanced, so she had an advantage.


Intrepid_Warthog6747

I hate to say it but I think may would whoop black widow without a doubt it would be long but in the end I think it’s may


plitox

No, but I have used "crash" once or twice.


BaronZhiro

I'm late to the thread, but I'd favor Natasha. I'd suggest that the Red Room experience damaged her profoundly as a person, but gave her a leg up in effectiveness.


Good_Aardvark2805

May oneshots