As the unapologetically badass Natasha Romanoff — otherwise known as the Black Widow — Scarlett Johansson has been murdering the game in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for almost a decade now.
In that span of time, she's appeared in five Marvel movies and has signed on to reprise the role in at least one more. That's a lot of movies, and ScarJo's donned a different Black Widow wig for every single one.
The internet has been arguing over this for years, so I'm going to settle the debate once and for all from a beauty writer's (and a hardcore Marvel fan's) perspective. Which wig is the best? I ranked them all, from worst to best.
WORST: "Iron Man 2" (2010)
Marvel's first attempt at Natasha's hair was, admittedly, a very poor one. Although there are a handful of scenes in which this wig is blown out flawlessly, it doesn't get much screen time until the moment above: Natasha reveals herself as the Black Widow for the first time to help Tony Stark defeat Ivan Vanko.
Black Widow becomes an instant icon as she takes out, like, 10 dudes by herself, but her hair does NOT reflect that icon status at all. It looks like she traveled back to 2006 to borrow some Tigi scrunching spray from a middle schooler.
"Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015)
In what is undoubtedly the worst Marvel Studios movie ever made (no, that does not include "The Hulk" and the original "Spider-Man" trilogy), Natasha's hair is uncharacteristically disheveled and faded — just like her sudden attraction to Bruce Banner and inability to escape hostage situations.
I blamed Joss Whedon for the poor quality of this movie, and I'm blaming him for this wig, too. You'd think by the fourth Black Widow appearance, they'd have figured this shit out, but no.
"The Avengers" (2012)
For the Black Widow's first substantial Marvel appearance, the filmmakers went with a simple and Marilyn-esque style for Natasha, and it paid off. Unlike the previous two wigs, this one is actually believable in that it's semi-appropriate for action sequences — and it looks just as fierce as Natasha does.
"Captain America: Civil War" (2016)
When the trailers for "Civil War" dropped last year and we all got a load of Natasha's newest — her fifth — hairstyle, it was like, "FINALLY, they figured out what real red hair looks like!"
No tea, no shade, these layers made her look like she took a picture of Farrah Fawcett to the hairdresser (not a bad thing, just dated), but the choice to go deep auburn instead of comic-book red made it the most realistic wig Scarlett ever donned as Black Widow.
"Captain America: The Winter Solider" (2014)
I'm biased because this is without a doubt my favorite Marvel movie, but hear me out. OK, so this wig doesn't look as realistic as some of the others that I just majorly dissed, but that cut. That length. That center part. That copper. Be still, my heart.
This wig itself was just like Natasha: blunt as hell. And that's how it should always be.
BEST: "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018)
This movie won't even come out until May of next year, so there's no way of telling what Natasha's hair will really look like until the trailer is released. But going by this poster that was just shown at San Diego Comic Con, Natasha is throwing out the whole goddamn rule book in 2018 with a SILVER LOB.
Everyone's wrapped up in Captain America's beautiful beard, but why is no one talking about this completely unexpected Black Widow wig? Girl is rebranding, and it's working for me. Now I'm counting down the days until we can all see the real thing.
