9. Natasha’s and Bruce’s romance in Avengers: Age of Ultron
So this one came out of nowhere.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is perhaps the most divisive Avengers film to date. While every other installment in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes franchise was met with critical success, Age of Ultron was a little different. Even when the movie was far from being terrible, it did have a little too much on its plate for its own good. New key characters were introduced, there was a lot of build-up towards other future projects, and some important changes came to be. That resulted in a messy narrative that tried hard to achieve a lot of things but failed to do so in almost every aspect.
However, one of the most unexpected (and weird) moments came in the form of Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner having a romantic relationship. That proved to be such a mistake that their love for one another didn’t last outside Avengers: Age of Ultron. While other MCU movies did acknowledge Black Widow and Hulk had feelings for each other, none of them continued with that storyline (and it was probably for the better).
We’re all in for shaking things up when it comes to adapting comic books to the big screen. So even if Natasha and Bruce never had a relationship in comics, maybe they could’ve worked out as a couple just fine in the MCU. However, the biggest problem is that their romance came out of nowhere. There was no setup at all when it came to pairing them together and believe me, audiences noticed. Worst of all, their relationship served no purpose at all, so there’s not even a justification for why that came to be.
If a relationship is as confusing as heroes breaking the laws of physics or time travel itself, you know it was a really forced pairing.