bluesrat replied to your post: “I don’t “get” Bucky/Natasha. ”:They established it very well in the comics. They were an item for a while; bonded very well over understanding what it’s like to have a fucked-up past full of brainwashing and working for Communists.I think I need to read that section bc too many het pairings in comics are basically wish-fulfilment/awarding-prizes for the favourite male lead hero. I would like to feel good about a het ship. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, I like… um. Who else?
Nat has always had amazing relationships, and even better, she’s a woman the writers acknowledge is more than just the man she’s attached to. She’s been a hero and a villain and she’s been married and lost her husband and loved other men with a ferocious intensity. She’s a woman whose soul is big enough to do that.
Waaaaay back when, Nat had a really great relationship with Clint. Hawkeye started out as a naive wannabe hero, running around in a costume about half a step up from a plastic mask and towel tied around his neck. She seduced him and persuaded him to basically be her evil partner…but she really did fall in love with him, and ended up becoming a hero for him instead. That’s what led to her defecting from the USSR.
Her relationship with Bucky was really one of the better ones I’ve seen in comics. They’ve both suffered so much in their lives, and they got together (back together; they’d known each other before) around the time Cap was ‘killed.’
Honestly I can’t really think of many others I’d recommend, myself. I hate Tony/Pepper. Even though they finally got together, it looks so terribly unhealthy, like she’s spent years knowing that as much as she cares for him, he’d destroy her, but she finally just gave up and went for the damage anyway. That could make for a really neat story, but not one where I’m supposed to believe it’s something I should be cheering on.