10 of Black Widow’s most memorable moments throughout the MCU

Switching sides in Civil War

Originally, Nat is on Tony’s side at the start of Captain America: Civil War. However, as the conflict progresses, breaking Tony and Cap’s friendship up for an extended period in the process, Nat switches over to Steve’s side. On a subtle level, her shift shows how pivotal her role on the Avengers team truly is.

Helping Steve and Bucky escape through the airport is a changing point for the fight. More importantly, Nat illustrates how important friendship is. While she sees how much Bucky meant to Steve, she doesn’t become an accessory in their escape just to help them. She does it to protect the entire team. She knew Steve wouldn’t stop, nor would Tony.

If she were to stop Bucky and Steve from escaping from the airport, then the fight would have continued, and more Avengers would have gotten hurt or much worse. Beyond her roles as an agent and as an intelligence officer, Nat has always added damage control to her lengthy list of duties on the team.

She sees how heated the fight was becoming, so she lets the duo get away to prevent further harm from afflicting the team — both on a physical and personal level. After all, it’s hard to remain a cohesive team when too many punches mix with feelings. Speaking of feelings, we wish Civil War expanded on the implied past relationship Bucky and Nat had (either professionally, romantically, or both) hinted at in the first half of Civil War.

However, Nat is a mediator because she’s a neutral force that holds the Avengers together.