The Avengers… now with more ass!

This will be a short post since I’ve thrown my neck out or something. But I had to take a moment to register my irritation with the promo material for the upcoming Marvel Studios film The Avengers.

First, there’s this gem:

Let’s see… can you spot the issue here? All the dudes are looking all dudely and superheroish, and Black Widow is giving us an ass shot. Because it doesn’t matter that Natasha is a highly trained assassin who could give any of the other Avengers a run for their money. It matters that Scarlett Johansson has a nice backside.

And she does. I’ll give credit where credit is due. She has a great ass. But why is hers the only nice ass featured in these promo pieces? I mean, Jeremy Renner has a gorgeous ass. So do Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey, Jr, and Chris Evans. I’ve never seen Mark Ruffalo’s ass, but I’m sure it’s pretty tasty, too.

My point in all this ass ranting is that Marvel is catering to the lowest common denominator here. Oh look! There’s a chick in this movie! Quick, put her in a skintight suit and show off her ass! What, is she going to scare off the 13-30 year old males in the audience otherwise? Can’t have a tough heroine without making her into wank bank material?

To be clear, I have no problem with female characters being sexy. It’s when things take a turn for the exploitative that I get annoyed. C’mon, Marvel. Either present Black Widow as a member of the team who doesn’t have to show off her ass to be a valuable character, or show off everyone’s asses.

This little gem is “Avengers Booty Ass-emble” by kevinbolk on DeviantArt. If we can’t trust Marvel to not exploit the lovely asses of its female characters, at least we can make fun of them with fan art.