Black Widow (Marvel Comics)
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This entry is for the Marvel Comics characters. For the 1940s Timely Comics character, see Black Widow (Golden Age).
The Black Widow is the name of two fictional superspy characters in the Marvel Comics universe. The first and best-known, Natalia Romanova a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff, was created by writers Stan Lee and Don Rico and artist Don Heck in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964). For a time in the 2000s, Romanova lost the title of Black Widow to a younger Russian spy, Yelena Belova.
Natasha Romanova a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff
The first and best-known Black Widow is a Soviet agent trained as a spy, martial artist and sniper, and outfitted with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry, including a pair of wrist-mounted energy weapons dubbed her "Widow's Bite."
In her long history in Marvel comic books, she began as an antagonist of anti-communist hero Iron Man. She later defected to the United States, donned a superhero costume, and eventually joined the super-team the Avengers. Later appearing very occasionally as a lead character in stories, she most often worked as an agent of the international espionage group S.H.I.E.L.D.. In the 1970s, she co-starred for a time in the series Daredevil, starring her superhero love-interest at the time.
The Black Widow wore no costume during her first few appearances, where she antagonized Iron Man, but simply evening wear and a veil. She eventually defected for reasons including her love for the reluctant-criminal-turned-superhero archer Hawkeye. Wearing her Soviet-made, first Black Widow costume, she reappeared, temporarily brainwashed against the U.S., in The Avengers #29 (July 1966); she later returned as a recurring ally before officially becoming the sixteenth hero to join the team.
The Black Widow appeared for the first time in her trademark skintight black costume in The Amazing Spider-Man #86 (July 1970). In short order, the Widow starred in her own series in Amazing Adventures #1-8 (Aug. 1970 - Sept. 1971), sharing that split book with the feature The Inhumans. This introduced her chauffeur and confidant, Ivan Petrovitch, who was eventually revealed as the surrogate father who raised her after having rescued the child Natasha from the fire that killed her parents.
Immediately after her initial solo series ended, the Black Widow became romantically involved with the superhero Daredevil during his brief relocation to San Francisco, California, and co-starred in Daredevil #81–124 (Nov. 1971 – Aug. 1975).
After their romantic breakup, the Widow moved to Los Angeles and became leader of the newly created and short-lived superteam The Champions, consisting of her, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Hercules, and former X-Men The Angel and Iceman. The group's namesake comic ran 17 issues (Oct. 1975–Jan. 1978).
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Black Widow appeared frequently as both an Avengers member and a freelance agent of S.H.I.E.L.D She starred in a serialized feature within the omnibus comic book series Marvel Fanfare #10–13 (Aug. 1983–March 1984), written by George Perez and Ralph Macchio, with art by penciler Perez. These stories were collected in the one-shot Black Widow: Web of Intrigue #1 (June 1999). The Widow guest-starred in issues of Solo Avengers, Force Works Iron Man, Marvel Team-Up, and other comics—including several mid-1980s issues of Daredevil, a four-issue arc in issues #368-371 (Oct. 1997–Jan. 1998), and as a recurring guest in Daredevil Vol. 2 (series 1998–present). She co-starred in two graphic novels: Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty with Nick Fury and Marvel UK's Night Raven, and Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday's Web with the Punisher.
The 1990 issue X-men #268 revealed that in the summer of 1941, Steve Rogers, who has just recently become the new hero known as Captain America, was in Madripoor where he found himself attacked by the ninja group known as the Hand. Outnumbered and not yet the supreme fighter experience would make him, the Captain almost died before a pre-Weapon X Wolverine intervened in his behalf. The two then briefly partnered to rescue a young girl who would grow up to become the Black Widow from Nazis operating on the island principality. In the course of their mission, Logan, seemingly at the cost of his own life, saved the child Natasha by covering her body with his when the car they were in was riddled with machine gunfire.
The Black Widow starred in a three-issue arc, “The Fire Next Time,” by Scott Lobdell and Randy Green, in Journey into Mystery #517–519 (Feb.–April 1998).
Her friends often call her "Natasha", the informal version of "Natalia". She has sometimes chosen the last-name alias "Romanoff" — evidently as a private joke, as that form wouldn't be applicable as a Russian female's last name. She has been hinted to be a descendant of the Romanov royal family and a relation to Nicholas II of Russia.
Miniseries and specials
Aside from the arcs in Marvel Fanfare and Journey into Mystery, the Black Widow has starred in three self-titled miniseries.
The three-issue Black Widow (June-Aug. 1999), under the Marvel Knights imprint, starred the Natasha Romanova Black Widow and fully introduced her appointed successor, Captain Yelena Belova (see below), who had briefly appeared in an issue of the 1999 series Inhumans. The story arc, "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider", was by writer Devin Grayson and artist J.G. Jones,
The next three-issue, Marvel Knights miniseries, also titled "Black Widow" (Jan.-March 2001) featured both Black Widows in the story arc "Breakdown", by writers Devin Grayson and Greg Rucka with painted art by Scott Hampton.
A three-issue miniseries titled "Black Widow", under the mature-audience Marvel MAX imprint, starred Yelena Belova (see below).
The Natasha Romanova Black Widow returned in a six-issue miniseries, also "Black Widow" (Nov. 2004 - April 2005), written by science fiction novelist Richard K. Morgan with art initially by Bill Sienkiewicz and later by Sienkiewicz over Goran Parlov layouts. This revised the origin of the Black Widow to establish her as an orphan raised from early childhood by U.S.S.R.'s "Black Widow Ops" program (rather than being raised solely by Ivan Petrovitch). With other young female orphans, she was trained in combat and espionage at the covert "Red Room" facility. There she was biotechnologically and psychotechnologically enhanced—an accounting that provides a rationale for her unusual lifespan, vitality, and abilities. Each Black Widow was deployed with false memories that would ensure their loyalty. Natasha eventually discovered all this, including the minor fact that she had never, as she'd believed, been a ballerina. She further discovered that the Red Room was still active as "2R". The miniseries received mixed reviews for its revisionist deus ex machina of false memories.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
The six-issue miniseries Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her, by writer Richard K. Morgan, penciler Sean Phillips, and inker Bill Sienkiewicz, ran from November 2005 until eary 2006. This second volume picks up immediately where Homecoming left off, and continues the story using many of the same characters.
Yelena Belova
Yelena Belova, the second modern Black Widow, was initially a post-Soviet Russian spy of the G.R.U. (Glavnoye Razvedovatel'noye Upravlenie / Main Intelligence Administration). She debuted briefly in Inhumans #5 (March 1999), and was fully introduced in the 1999 Marvel Knights miniseries Black Widow.
Belova is an amoral spy and assassin who was trained by the same Russian spymasters who trained Natasha Romanova, the first Black Widow. Having beaten Romanova's results in all of the tests presented to her, she was declared to be the new Black Widow. Belova fought Romanova for the title of the Black Widow. The battle was inconclusive, and later confrontations between the two Black Widows led Belova to doubt her place in the world.
After her initial co-starring role in the 1999 Black Widow miniseries, she co-starred in the 2001 same-name sequel. Following this was the same-name, three-issue miniseries under the mature-audience Marvel MAX imprint (June-August 2002). This story arc, "Pale Little Spider", by writer Greg Rucka and artist Igor Kordey, flashed back to the story of her becoming the second modern Black Widow, in events preceding her Inhumans appearance. Yelena eventually retired to Cuba, where she became a very successful businesswoman and model.
In New Avengers #5, it was revealed that Belova had been recruited by the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and was involved in the agency's mining of vibranium in the Antarctic Savage Land. In the following issue, she barely survived an attack by the mutant Sauron, receiving severe burns and being subsequently approached with an offer for revenge against S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.
In New Avengers Annual #1, Belova was genetically altered by the terrorist organization HYDRA. Now equipped with the ability to copy all of the Avengers powers (see Super-Adaptoid), she engaged the superhero team in combat. She was eventually defeated by a combination of Tony Stark's 49 successive Iron Man armors, from the first (Tales of Suspense #39) to the then-current, and the Sentry's use of his Void persona, which she absorbed with the rest of the Sentry's powers and energy. When she was defeated, HYDRA killed her using a self-destruct mechanism they implanted in her.
Ultimate Black Widow
This parallel universe version of the Black Widow (Natasha Romanova) under the Ultimate Marvel imprint is a member of the Ultimates, this realm's analogue of The Avengers. She debuted in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #14 in a story written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Terry Moore, before becoming one of the major characters in writer Mark Millar and penciler Bryan Hitch's The Ultimates. She first appeared in Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #14 before joining the Ultimates in Ultimates v1 #7.
Natasha Romanova is a former KGB spy and assassin, nicknamed the Black Widow. She was originally part of the Ultimates' covert operations ("black ops") team, but was subsequently moved to public status after a publicly acceptable background was written for her. The Widow seems to have genetic or cybernetic enhancements that allow her to coordinate herself in combat far better than the average human, being able, for instance, to leap across the gap between two high-rises. After accepting a marriage proposal from Tony Stark, he presented her with a black suit of Iron Man armor as an engagement present, along with a set of nanites bonded to her skin to control the armor. When she attempted to extort Stark to give her his fortune, he used those nanites to control her and to download her knowledge of the Liberators into his brain before having his bodyguards apprehend her. Stark told his men that his attack had given her brain damage, although this is unconfirmed.
Other media
Black Widow made an appearances in the 2005 Punisher video game. She is not a playable character, appears for only one level, and fights alongside the Punisher. Voice actors and actresses were given credit for the game, but it is unknown as to which characters they voiced.The Ultimate version of Black Widow appeared in the Ultimate Avengers direct to video movie, voiced by Olivia D'Abo. In this movie, she appeared to be part of S.H.I.E.L.D, one of the people to try the serum that Bruce Banner was working on. She used to lure Tony Stark to talk with Nick Fury. At the end it seems that the Black Widow is romantically involved with Captian America.
A Black Widow motion picture from Lions Gate Entertainment, featuring the Natasha Romanova version, was in the script stage by screenwriter-director David Hayter in 2005.
In the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, a group of female jewel thieves rob a jewel in slick, leather jumpsuits. According to the DVD audio commentary, director Kevin Smith claimed the costume designer had based these suits on the ones worn in the comic.
Black Widow will appear in the upcoming game Marvel Ultimate Alliance as a non-playable charecter (npc)
References
- [The Grand Comics Database]
- [Marvel Directory (Marvel Fan Site Program): Black Widow (I)]
- [Marvel Directory (Marvel Fan Site Program): Black Widow (II)]
- [The Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Black Widow (Captain Yelena Belova)]
- [Don Markstein's Toonopedia: The Black Widow (1964)]
- [The Comic Characters Database: Black Widow]
- [IMDb: The Black Widow]
- [Comics2Film: ''Black Widow]
- [Comic Book Resources Nov. 16, 2004: "Richard K. Morgan Talks Marvel's Black Widow"]
- [Max Comics (fan site): Black Widow ("Pale Little Spider")]
- [The Women of Marvel Comics Black Widow Page]
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