Black Widow: What We Learned From Reading Every Comic She's Appeared In
by Brenton StewartThe Black Widow's long and complicated history hides a lot of details casual readers may have never known. Comic book characters often have long and convoluted histories involving retcons, retellings, and plot twists that become increasingly complicated over the decades, and that goes doubly for super spy characters like the Black Widow. The only way to really follow it all and become as familiar with a character as a reader can possibly get is to read their every appearance. So we did.
The Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, changed quite a lot over the years, from her first appearance as a Cold War-era femme fatale to becoming a seminal member (and eventual leader) of the Avengers, all the way to being an empowered solo star of her own titles. In fact, a lot of fans may not realize how few details now integral to the character's background were even present during the first decades of her history.
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First appearing in Tales of Suspense #52 in 1964, the Black Widow, who first concocted Soviet schemes against Iron Man, did not even have a costume, any of her signature gadgets, or any of her elite fighting skills. While she used a purse secretly storing knockout gas, Natasha's main contribution to the plot early on was as a seductress removed from the action who manipulated the men to act according to her designs.
Her origins portrayed her as the grieving widow of a Russian hero who wanted to serve her country in her late husband's stead. When her Soviet masters turned on her after her failures against Iron Man, and with the guiding influence of Hawkeye, Natasha eventually turned toward the side of good and became an Avengers ally and an agent of SHIELD. It was during that time one of her longest-standing character traits was established: unlike the other Avengers, she's completely willing to kill.
While many of the Avengers have strict policies against killing, the Black Widow proved herself early on to be a severe exception. Even though her closest friends and allies like Hawkeye and Daredevil would frequently, as a major plot point, take great issue with other characters killing, for some reason Natasha always received a looser leash. The international spy and assassin may have turned over a new leaf, but she continued spying and assassinating all the same.
That proves to be an interesting detail considering that, initially, the character's origins made her more of a ballerina than a government assassin. In fact, many modern fans of the character may be shocked to learn that for nearly 3 decades of the character's history there was no mention of her childhood brainwashing, elite training prior to her marriage, or the Red Room at all. It was not until later retcons that the ballet past turned out to be a sham.
Much of Black Widow's past proved contradictory over the years until her 2004 solo miniseries tied it all together. It was there that Natasha discovered that all her memories involving ballet or becoming an Olympic athlete or falling in love with a Russian hero were all lies brainwashed into her and reinforced with biochemical engineering. Since the time of her childhood, which was actually in the 1920s, Natasha's body was engineered to be an ageless and perfect killing machine that would follow orders without question.
A massive piece of her original stories that eventually fell to the wayside in the modern-day was Ivan. Introduced as her chauffeur and dear friend who saved her from burning wreckage as a child, it turned out that Ivan was just another piece of her Russian handlers' plot to keep Natasha in line. Eventually, Ivan revealed himself to have villainous intentions, converting himself into a mad cyborg bent on killing Natasha's former lovers, and ever since his death very little mention has been made of Ivan.
There is a brief shoutout to Ivan in the MCU that could come to fruition in Black Widow's solo film, however. Avengers: Endgame features a throwaway line where the Red Skull refers to Natasha as the "daughter of Ivan." While Ivan certainly had a paternal relationship with Natasha in the comics he was not actually her father, and the detail goes to show how the movies and comics don't always line up. Even without being completely faithful to the source material, however, the movies do manage to hold cool parallels to the character's history.
Another parallel would be Natasha's eventual leadership of the Avengers in the MCU. While her leadership of the team in the comics was brief, much like in the films it comes as a result of Captain America and much of the rest of former figureheads stepping down and taking a less active role. In both worlds the shift proved a major piece of character development for Natasha, allowing her to come to terms with her dark past and see herself as a hero.
Also in similarity to the films, it was not until after Natasha's term as Avengers leader that creators delved into granting the character solo features. While she had always been a consistent member of the supporting cast, it was in the Black Widow's solo titles that she really shined. Whether she was digging into her past or settling old scores, the spotlight gave the character her coolest moments in the comics and is sure to do so in the film.
The price of the spotlight, however, was apparently torture. Black Widow has been captured, interrogated, and tortured quite a lot throughout the years. In her solo titles alone there were 6 different times that Natasha endured excruciating pain at the hands of her captors, but weirdly enough it almost became her superpower. Far from weakening her, torture apparently makes Black Widow even stronger and she would escape and massacre her way to freedom almost every time.
Servicing Natasha in her escapes and missions was her trusty Widow's Bite, which over the years accumulated such a wide array of gadgets and functions it could give Batman's utility belt a run for its money. Although at first her gauntlets only allowed her to fire a nylon cord to swing from rooftops like Spider-Man, soon after Natasha gained the Widow's Bite that allowed her to fire an electrical charge, blasts of energy, poison darts, knockout gas, and anything else Natasha needed it to. Heck, it could even be a universal key for vehicles or translate Punjabi.
So many years with such a large number of appearances ended up creating many twists, trends, and features of the characters that are easy to miss without reading through the character's history chronologically. What remained constant was a truly great character with a strong and empowered core, and after all this time it will still be exciting to see where the character can go in the comics and the silver screen alike.
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour as Alexei aka The Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz as Melina. The film opens May 1, 2020.
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