MarvelIt's barely been a week since Avengers: Age of Ultron hit theaters, but already its filmmakers have been on the receiving end of some controversy.
It started with some backlash surrounding the flick's portrayal of Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow character—Natasha Romanoff, as she's otherwise known, is given a love story this time around (no spoiler alerts, though!). It seems some fans are upset by it and believe that she was treated differently than the male Avengers, and that the arc resorted to old school stereotypes. Of course, these are feelings by just a small contingent, but a contingent nonetheless.
On Monday Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon quit Twitter and the rumor mill started buzzing with the belief that he was distraught over harsh words from the fans. There's no definitive proof for this theory, but it does add some fuel to the controversy fire. Today, though, Mark Ruffalo (AKA The Hulk) decided to weigh in.
The actor was in the middle of a Reddit AMA about the issue of water defense when he was asked about the recent outburst of criticism against Whedon.
"I think it's sad," Ruffalo said bluntly. "Because I know how Joss feels about women, and I know that he's made it a point to create strong female characters."
Mark went on to explain that he believes part of the problem lies in the shortage of female characters in superhero movies—fewer characters means fewer storylines, and that causes viewers to become hypersensitive about exactly what is chosen for each woman.
Ruffalo also points out that he believes that the idea of bringing love to a superhero is "beautiful" and that there's nothing wrong with making the Avengers characters more whole—in fact, he thinks that Black Widow is one of the strongest characters in the film (again, no spoilers, but she plays the protector in her relationship). To him, the fans are misplacing their anger.
"I think that what people might really be upset about is the fact that we need more superhuman women," he wrote. "The guys can do anything, they can have love affairs, they can be weak or strong and nobody raises an eyebrow. But when we do that with a woman, because there are so few storylines for women, we become hyper-critical of every single move that we make because there's not much else to compare it to."
Ruffalo himself has been a vocal advocate for women and has encouraged Marvel Studios to become more inclusive, even tweeting out last week "@Marvel we need more #BlackWidow merchandise for my daughters and nieces. Pretty please." In his mini essay, he reiterated that he believes Joss Whedon has the same sentiments at heart and that it's been hard to watch him take the fall for a problem that certainly has more to do with the business of film than anything else.
"I know Joss really well," wrote Ruffalo. "I know what his values are. And I think it's sad, because in a lot of ways, there haven't been as many champions in this universe as Joss is and will continue to be." But, he continued, "People are going to have their opinions. And that's actually a great thing. The fact that this is a debate that's coming out of this movie is probably a positive thing."