New "The Avengers" Clip Featuring Black Widow

As you probably know by now, there's a little film coming out this summer called "The Avengers". The film, which is kind of forging new ground, brings together all of the stars from the films "Iron Man", "The Incredible Hulk" (sort of), "Captain America: The First Avenger", and "Thor". Also teaming-up are Hawkeye, Nick Fury, and, shown to the left, Black Widow.

We've seen piles upon piles of photos released for the film, and now the studio is starting to amp up its video coverage before the film's release. Along with some new TV spots that officially hit the airwaves yesterday, today an actually clip from the movie was released. This small snippet features Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow showing off some of her impressive martial arts skills. She's tied to a chair with her hands behind her back, while a group of men interrogate her. She handles her own though, all while dealing with a phone call as well.






So what do we take away from this? First, from the phone call, Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) tells us that Hawkeye has been compromised. Not sure how that will work its way into the film, but obviously dealing with it will be some sort of a plot point.

And just as we saw in "Iron Man 2", Johansson's character is a very highly trained martial artist, and again shows that off here. She handles these guys with ease without even needing her hands. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of throwing her character into the middle with these other guys and trying to act like she belongs there. But I get why both filmmakers and fans alike would want her there. The fighting looks cool though, and I'm not going to say that the short clip I just watched didn't entertain me. Plus, as cliche as it is, I liked Coulson's cut-to in the middle with him patiently holding on the phone for her to finish up. Just another everyday thing.

The Joss Whedon directed "The Avengers" has a slew of release dates in front of it. First, the film gets a premier in Los Angeles one week from today (April 11). Then it will close out the Tribeca Film Festival on April 28. And finally, it will be released to the masses on May 4, 2012.

What do you guys think of the clip? Are you on board with her role in the film? How do you think she'll hold up with all of the other personalities on the set?