Black Widow (Marvel Comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Black Widow | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
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.
Contents |
[edit] Natalia Romanova a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff
[edit] Publication history
The Black Widow first appearances were as a recurring, non-costumed, Soviet-spy antagonist in the Tales of Suspense feature "Iron Man". Her government later supplied her with first Black Widow costume and high-tech weaponry, but she eventually defected to the United States after appearing, temporarily brainwashed against the U.S., in the superhero-team series The Avengers #29 (July 1966). The Widow later became a recurring ally of the team before officially becoming its sixteenth member.
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, she starred in her own series in Amazing Adventures #1-8 (Aug. 1970 - Sept. 1971), sharing that split book with the feature "The Inhumans". Immediately after her initial solo feature ended, the Black Widow co-starred in Daredevil #81–124 (Nov. 1971 – Aug. 1975) and then in the super-team series The Champions, which 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. She appeared in several mid-1980s issues of Daredevil, as well as a four-issue arc in issues #368-371 (Oct. 1997 – Jan. 1998), and as a recurring guest in Daredevil Vol. 2 (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 — as well as a three-issue arc, "The Fire Next Time", by writer Scott Lobdell and penciler Randy Green, in Journey into Mystery #517–519 (Feb.–April 1998).
[edit] Miniseries and specials
Aside from the arcs in Marvel Fanfare and Journey into Mystery, the Black Widow has starred in four miniseries and four graphic novels.
The three-issue Black Widow (June-Aug. 1999), under the Marvel Knights imprint, starred Romanova 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.
Romanova next starred in a solo six-issue miniseries again titled Black Widow (Nov. 2004 - April 2005), again under the Marvel Knights imprint, written by science fiction novelist Richard K. Morgan with art initially by Bill Sienkiewicz and later by Sienkiewicz over Goran Parlov layouts. A six-issue sequel, Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (Nov. 2005 - April 2006; officially Black Widow 2: The Things They Say About Her in the series' postal indicia), by writer Richard K. Morgan, penciler Sean Phillips, and inker Bill Sienkiewicz, picks up immediately where the previous miniseries left off, continuing the story using many of the same characters.
She starred in the solo graphic novel Black Widow: The Coldest War (April 1990), and co-starred in three more: Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday's Web (Dec. 1992); Daredevil/Black Widow: Abattoir (July 1993); and Nick Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty (June 1995), also co-starring Marvel UK's Night Raven.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Natasha was born in Stalingrad (now Volgograd).
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". She wears no costume during her first few appearances but simply evening wear and a veil. Romanova eventually defects to the U.S. for reasons that include her love for the reluctant-criminal-turned-superhero archer Hawkeye.
Romanova's parents were killed in a fire when Romanova was a child. She was saved from death herself by Ivan Petrovitch, who raised her as a surrogate father. He first appears in Marvel continuity in the Widow's 1970s Amazing Adventures feature, in which he is introduced as her chauffeur and confidant, without this back-story revealed. Romanova as a child appears in a flashback[1] to 1941, in which the superhero Captain America and the mutant Logan, before he became the superhero Wolverine, rescue her from Nazis on the fictional island principality of Madripoor.
A revised, retcon origin[2] establishes her as being raised from early childhood by the U.S.S.R.'s "Black Widow Ops" program, rather than solely by Ivan Petrovitch. With other young female orphans, she is trained in combat and espionage at the covert "Red Room" facility. There she is biotechnologically and psycho technologically enhanced — an accounting that provides a rationale for her unusually long and youthful lifespan. Each Black Widow is deployed with false memories to help ensure her loyalty. Romanova eventually discovers this, including the minor fact that she had never, as she'd believed, been a ballerina. She further discovers that the Red Room was still active as "2R".
Natasha married the renowned Soviet test pilot Alexi Shostakov. When the Soviet government decided to make Alexi into their new operative, the Red Guardian, he is told that he can have no further contact with his wife, and Natasha is told that he had died, and she is trained as a secret agent separately.
Romanova grows up to serve as a femme fatale who attempts to seduce American defense contractor Tony Stark and inevitably confronts his superhero alter ego, Iron Man. Later, Romanova defected to the United States, and eventually joins the super-team the Avengers as a costumed superhero. Later still, she begins freelancing as an agent of the international espionage group S.H.I.E.L.D., though during her romantic involvement with Matt Murdock in San Francisco, California, she operates as an independent superhero alongside Murdock's alter ego, Daredevil. After their breakup, the Widow moves to Los Angeles, California and becomes leader of the newly created and short-lived super team the Champions, consisting of her, Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Hercules (with whom she has a brief romance), and former X-Men the Angel and Iceman.
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.
During the Superhero Civil War, Natasha becomes a supporter of the pro-Superhuman Registration Act and a member of the taskforce led by Iron Man[3]. On the wake of the Civil War and the pro-registration victory, Natasha is chosen as a member of the Mighty Avengers.
[edit] Trivia
- Natasha is 5'7" and 131 lbs with blue eyes and red-auburn hair.[4]
- Religious Affiliation is Russian Orthodox[5]
- Natasha was given a variant of Captain America's supersoldier serum
- She usually wears distinctively shaped bracelets which fire "widow sting" energy blasts, as well as "widow line" grappling hooks.
[edit] Yelena Belova
[edit] Publication history
Yelena Belova, the second modern Black Widow, was initially a post-Soviet Russian spy of the GRU. She debuted briefly in Inhumans #5 (March 1999), and was fully introduced in the 1999 Marvel Knights miniseries Black Widow. A second miniseries, also titled "Black Widow" and featuring Natasha Romanoff and Daredevil, followed in 2001. The next year, she did a solo turn in her own three-issue miniseries, also titled Black Widow (officially Black Widow: Pale Little Spider in the series' postal indicia) under the mature-audience Marvel MAX imprint. This June to August 2002 story arc, 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.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Belova is an amoral spy and assassin who was trained by the same spymasters who trained Natasha Romanoff, the first Black Widow. Having beaten Romanoff's results in all of the tests presented to her, she is declared to be the new Black Widow but then fights Romanova for the title of the Black Widow. The battle is inconclusive, and later confrontations between the two lead Belova to doubt herself. Belova eventually retires to Cuba, where she becomes a successful businesswoman and model.
She is lured back, however, by the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and becomes involved in the agency's mining of vibranium in the Antarctic Savage Land.[6] Shortly afterward, 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.
Belova is genetically altered by the terrorist organization HYDRA.[7]. 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 had implanted in her.
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] 1602
In Marvel 1602, a world where superheroes have started to appear several hundred years early, Natasha is a freelance spy and "the most dangerous woman in Europe". Initially allied with Matthew Murdoch (Daredevil's 1602 counterpart), she later betrays him to Count Otto Von Doom.
Natasha is still working (and sleeping) with Count von Doom during 1602: Fantastick Four, when she is captain of his flying ship. However, when she questions his plan to take the ship to the edge of the world, he pushes her over the side and appoints the Wizard captain.
[edit] 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 (June 2002) 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, debuting there in Vol. 1, #7 (Sept. 2002)
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 has 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.
Black Widow is later revealed to be the Ultimate Traitor, responsible for revealing the identity of the Hulk, framing Thor and Captain America, and aiding the Liberators in their invasion of America. After holding Tony Stark hostage and attempting to extort his enormous fortune at gunpoint, Stark activates the nanites in her bloodstream and freezes her body in place. He summarily knocks her unconscious with a wine bottle. The blow to the head and the havoc inflicted on her system by the nanites has resulted in probable brain damage.
[edit] The Avengers: United They Stand
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow appeared in The Avengers: United They Stand comics. In #2, she helps the Avengers by spying on HYDRA. In #5, she is aided by the Avengers in rescuing her husband from AIM, which doesn't thrill Hawkeye due to feelings he developed for her, although he helps anyway.
[edit] In other media
[edit] Video games
- The Black Widow appears in the 2005 Punisher video game for one level, as a non-playable character (NPC) who fights alongside the Punisher. Credits are listed for the vocal performers, but not specifying which character(s) they voiced.
- She appears in the PlayStation Portable (PSP) version of the video role-playing game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as a playable character, and in all other versions of the game as a non-playable character in which she appears to be working for S.H.I.E.L.D. A major subplot involves concern over whether she is a double agent traitor. Yelena is also a costume for Black Widow, so both Widows are playable.
[edit] Animation
- The Ultimate version of Black Widow appears in the Ultimate Avengers direct to video movie, voiced by Olivia D'Abo and then in its sequel, Ultimate Avengers 2. In both movies, she is attracted to Captain America and towards the end of the second movie, they get into an actual relationship.
[edit] Live-action
- In 2004, Lions Gate Entertainment announced that a Black Widow motion picture featuring the Natasha Romanova version, was in the script stage by screenwriter-director David Hayter.[8] [9] Lions Gate subsequently dropped the project.[10]
[edit] Other
- 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 that of Marvel's Black Widow.
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ The Uncanny X-Men #268 (Sept. 1990)
- ^ Black Widow (miniseries Nov. 2004 - April 2005)
- ^ Civil War #3 (Sept. 2006)
- ^ http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/b/blackwidowi.htm
- ^ The Religion of Black Widow
- ^ New Avengers #5 (May 2005)
- ^ New Avengers Annual #1 (June 2006)
- ^ Lions Gate press release (March 2, 2004)
- ^ The Z Review: Black Widow
- ^ IGN.com (June 5, 2006): "The Word on Black Widow"
[edit] 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
- Black Widow on the Marvel Universe Character bio Wiki
- Ultimate Black Widow on the Marvel Universe Character bio Wiki
