This was meant to be a tiny rant for the morning, but it turned full-blown. It’s not a popular opinion, as far as I can tell, but it’s been nagging me for a while.

For anyone who didn’t know, I’m an ‘Avengers’ fan. The movies, not the comics (sorry, real fans). Because even though I grew up all sorts of geeky and on comics, every single one of the core Avengers was so far at the bottom of my list that I cringed when I heard their names.

Captain America? Meh…Superman for a different publisher (why I’m not a Superman fan is a story for a different day). Iron Man? Guy in a metal suit. Big deal (yeah, yeah, I know, big guy, metal suit, take that away what are you? Genius, millionaire, philantropist playboy). Thor? (comic Thor) Blond dude with a hammer. The Hulk/David Banner? What kind of super hero spends half his time out of control and the other half moping about how to not be?

This was my opinion of the original comic book characters. Hate me for it if you’d like, but Spiderman and Batman were the only heroes for me.

And then I saw the Iron Man movies and…*sigh*…I was hooked. (It wasn’t Thor that pulled me in, Loki was just a bonus). I know a lot of women who like these movies. What’s not to like? Realistic people stuck in comic-book like situations and….lots of hot guys. I had this confirmed this morning with a borderline (thanks to innuendo) offensive conversation on Facebook. I <3; my writer friends.

Seriously. I still think Captain America is a little too Superman, but Chris Evans?

*ahem*

Anyway…here’s my point, because I usually (though not always) get there eventually. The banners above came out about a month ago for the Avengers movie next summer. The internet fanbase exploded, shared, sighed, drooled…myself included.

And then people started pointing out the Scarlett Johansson/Black Widow picture. Cuz…if you noticed…total butt shot in that skin tight body suit. And all I heard for the next couple of days was how sexist that banner was (it’s my favorite, btw, because…well…Loki). Would people feel the same if the guys were showing off their junk?

Here is were I have the unpopular opinion. They are. Those guys in those posters, every single one of them (except maybe Captain America, *pout*) is angled to show off their physical assets, whatever they may be. Did you see Hawkeye right next to her? One, in a similar pose, and two, bare arms, all muscle definition. Iron Man? That freaking suit is posed so he looks as buff as Thor. And Thor…

So, ladies, we got to sit through five movies with hot, sexy heroes. All of whom fell for the intelligent, grounded woman in their lives. Every single one of those movies. And in case you missed it, Black Widow completely pwned about every single guy in Iron Man 2 and it wasn’t her movie. And we’re going to whine because Black Widow’s butt is on an Avenger’s Banner?

Don’t misunderstand (which someone probably will anyway), I’m not being all gung-ho about the sexualization of this character. Exactly the opposite. What I’m saying instead, is if you’d like to see her dressed conservatively, that’s fantastic. Make sure all your male leads are as well. Lose the form-fitting rubber and codpieces.