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That is crazy. But look into powerlifting numbers, this is why I'm biased in favor of the trained woman. A powerlifting woman can be quite strong, bench record is 450 and deadlift record is 650. I agree a good male powerlifter is going to be better than elite female ones, but most men are way weaker than a "good" male powerlifter. And most combat athletes, I THINK, are also way weaker than a "good" male powerlifter. Unless all the heavyweights are indeed deadlifting 600+ and benching 400+. Hence, assume black widow is a powerlifting savant and also good at fighting, then it's not unrealistic she does what she does to big dudes who just haven't put in the time to get those kinds of numbers. Maybe it's assuming the powerlifting PLUS fighting skill that's unrealistic, in that how are you going to train both with limited recovery.
That's why I'm saying it's a question of temperament. Women aren't going out and trying to get damn strong for the most part, but they could, hence black widow is not unrealistic, is my argument. Might not be a valid argument. Team sports results surprise me. Those sports probably require fast-twitch ability, and maybe certain kind of coordination is favored in men and not really trainable by women, like innate visual-spatial sense?
Others have mentioned the grip strength data; it's an interesting point in that grip strength seems to be one of those more fundamental things that maybe doesn't change all that much by training it. And like others have argued, women have a lot of those weird little (mostly untrainable) factors against their favor like bone structure, maybe nervous system things / fast twitch, thickness, leverages, inertia, etc. that make raw strength not as useful in combat.
I do think most people seem to be underestimating how strong women can get though.
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