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Black Widow (Natalia Romanova)

Winter Soldier Vs Black Widow

Bucky Barnes -Winter Soldier- Faces Natalia Romanova -Black Widow- in Captain America #27. Bucky was trying to get Steve Rogers Shield after his death.

250px-Black_Widow_1Cover of Black Widow No. 1 (April 2010) by Daniel Acuña.

Black Widow (Чёрная вдова, “Chornaya Vdova”) (Natalia “Natasha” Alianovna Romanova, also known as Natasha Romanoff) is a fictional character, appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by editor and plotter Stan Lee, scripter Don Rico, and artist Don Heck, the character first appeared in Tales of Suspense No. 52 (April 1964). The character was first introduced as a Russian spy, an antagonist of the superhero Iron Man. She later defected to the United States, becoming an agent of the fictional spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and a member of the superhero team the Avengers. Commonly depicted as a femme fatale, the Black Widow was ranked as the 31st sexiest woman in comics by the Comics Buyer’s Guide.

Scarlett Johansson portrayed the character in the films Iron Man 2 (2010) and Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) and is set to reprise the role in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).

Publication history

Tales_of_Suspense_52Cover of Tales of SuspenseNo. 52 (April 1964) by Jack Kirby.

The Black Widow’s first appearances were as a recurring, non-costumed, Russianspy antagonist in the feature “Iron Man“, beginning in Tales of Suspense No. 52 (April 1964). Five issues later, she recruited the besotted costumed archer and later superhero Hawkeye to her cause. Her government later supplied her with her 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 No. 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 No. 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 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 Pérez and Ralph Macchio, with art by penciller Perez. These stories were collected in the one-shot Black Widow: Web of Intrigue No. 1 (June 1999).

The Widow guest-starred in issues of Solo AvengersForce WorksIron ManMarvel 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 novelsFury/Black Widow: Death Duty with Nick Fury,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 penciller Randy Green, in Journey into Mystery #517–519 (Feb.–April 1998).

A new ongoing Black Widow comic title debuted in April 2010. The first story arc was written by Marjorie Liu with art by Daniel Acuna.  Beginning with issue No. 6 (Sept. 2010), the title began being written by Duane Swierczynski, with artwork by Manuel Garcia and Lorenzo Ruggiero.

Black Widow appeared as a regular character throughout the 2010–2013 Secret Avengers series, from issue #1 (July 2010) through its final issue #37 (March 2013).

Black Widow will appear in the new 2013 Secret Avengers series by Nick Spencer and Luke Ross.

images-1Limited series and specials

Aside from the arcs in Marvel Fanfare and Journey into Mystery, the Black Widow has starred in four limited series 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, who had briefly appeared in an issue of the 1999 series Inhumans. The writer for the story arc, “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” was Devin K. Grayson while J. G. Jones was the artist. The next three-issue, Marvel Knights mini-series, 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 another solo miniseries titled Black Widow (Nov. 2004 – April 2005), also under the Marvel Knights imprint and 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 Morgan, penciller Sean Phillips, and inker 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.

Black Widow is also featured in the short story Love Is Blindness in I Heart Marvel: Marvel Ai (2006) #1 (April 2006), where she instigates a humorous fight with Elektra over Daredevil’s affections. The comic is stylized to look like Japanese animation and uses images, not words, inside the speech and thought bubbles to convey what the characters are saying/thinking.

In 2010, the year in which the character, called only Natasha Romanoff, made her film debut in Iron Man 2, the Black Widow received two separate miniseries. Black Widow and the Marvel Girls was an all-ages, four-issue series that chronicled her adventures with various women of the Marvel Universe, including StormShe-Hulk, the Enchantress, and Spider-Woman. It was written by Paul Tobin, with art by Salvador Espin and Takeshi Miyazawa. The second four-issue miniseries, Black Widow: Deadly Origin, was written by Paul Cornell, and featured art by Tom Raney and John Paul Leon.

Fictional character biography – Early life

170px-Avengers36panelFirst costume (and bouffant hairdo). From The Avengers #36 (Jan. 1967), art by Don Heck.

Natasha was born in Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia. The first and best-known Black Widow is a Russian agent trained as a spymartial 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 archerHawkeye.

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 to 1941, in which Petrovitch, the superhero Captain America, and the mutant Logan (who would later become the superhero Wolverine) rescue her from Nazis on the fictional island principality of Madripoor.

A revised, retconned origin establishes her as being raised from very early childhood by the U.S.S.R.’s “Black Widow Ops” program, rather than solely by Ivan Petrovitch.  Petrovitch had taken her to Department X, with other young female orphans, where she was brainwashed, and 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. During that time she had some training under Winter Soldier, and the pair even had a short romance.  Each Black Widow is deployed with false memories to help ensure her loyalty. Romanova eventually discovers this, including the fact that she had never, as she had believed, been a ballerina. She further discovers that the Red Room is still active as “2R”.

Natasha was arranged by the KGB to marry the renowned Soviet test pilot Alexei Shostakov. However, when the Soviet government decided to make Alexei into their new operative, the Red Guardian, he is told that he can have no further contact with his wife. Natasha is told that he had died and is trained as a secret agent separately.

imagesThe Avengers

Romanova grows up to serve as a femme fatale. She was assigned to assist Boris Turgenov in the assassination of Professor Anton Vanko for defecting from the Soviet Union, which served as her first mission in the United States. Natasha and Turgenov infiltrated Stark Industries as part of the plan.  She attempted to manipulate information from American defense contractor Tony Stark, and inevitably confronted his superhero alter ego, Iron Man. The pair then battled Iron Man, and Turgenev steals and wears the Crimson Dynamo suit. Vanko sacrificed himself to save Iron Man, killing Turgenev in the process, using an unstable experimental laser light pistol.  Romanova later meets the criminal archer Hawkeye and sets him against Iron Man, and later helped Hawkeye battle Iron Man.

Natasha once more attempted to get Hawkeye to help her destroy Iron Man. The pair almost succeeded, but when Black Widow was injured, Hawkeye retreated to get her to safety.  During this period, Romanova was attempting to defect from the Soviet Union and began falling in love with Hawkeye, weakening her loyalty to her country. When her employers learned the truth, the KGB had her gunned down, sending her to a hospital, convincing Hawkeye to go straight and seek membership in the Avengers.

The Red Room kidnaps and brainwashes her again, and with the Swordsman and the first Power Man, she battles the Avengers.  She eventually breaks free from her psychological conditioning (with the help of Hawkeye), and does successfully defect, having further adventures with Spider-Man, with Hawkeye and with Daredevil.  She ultimately joins the Avengers as a costumed heroine herself.

S.H.I.E.L.D. and Daredevil

170px-BlackWidow2005No1Promotional art for Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her #1 (Nov. 2005), by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Later still, she begins freelancing as an agent of the international espionage group S.H.I.E.L.D.She is sent on a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. mission to China by Nick Fury. There, with the Avengers, she battles Col. Ling, Gen. Brushov, and her ex-husband the Red Guardian.  For a time, as writer Les Daniels noted in a contemporaneous study in 1971,

… her left-wing upbringing was put to better use, and she has lately taken to fighting realistic oppressor-of-the-people types. She helps young Puerto Ricans clean up police corruption and saves young hippies from organized crime. … [The splash page of Amazing Adventures No. 3 (Nov. 1970)] reflects the recent trend toward involving fantastic characters in contemporary social problems, a move which has gained widespread publicity for Marvel and its competitor, DC.

During her romantic involvement with Matt Murdock in San Francisco, she operates as an independent superhero alongside Murdock’s alter ego, Daredevil.  There she tries unsuccessfully to find a new career for herself as a fashion designer. Eventually, her relationship with Murdock stagnates, and after briefly working with Avengers finally breaks up with Murdock.  During a HYDRA attempt to take over S.H.I.E.L.D., she is tortured to such an extent that she regresses back to an old cover identity of schoolteacher Nancy Rushman, but she is recovered by Spider-Man in time to help Nick Fury and Shang-Chi work out what had happened and restore her memory, with “Nancy” developing an attraction to Spider-Man before her memory is restored during the final fight against Madam Viper, Boomerang and the Silver Samurai.  She later returns to Matt Murdock’s life just as he begins dating another woman, Heather Glenn, prompting her to leave New York.

After being poisoned by members of the Hand, Natasha refused medical aid and fought her way past S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in a bid to seek out Matt. Her body briefly succumbed to the poison, but she was revived by Stone, a pupil of Matt’s mentor Stick. Natasha found that Matt had been going through personal hardships in light of his one true love, Elektra‘s reappearance, apparent betrayal, surprising redemption, and recent murder. She also reconciled with Foggy, and learned from him that Matt’s relationship with his fiance Heather had degenerated into a bitter, almost misogynistic power struggle stemming from Matt’s depression over Elektra’s death. Natasha and Foggy arranged for the two to break up, sending forged farewell letters to both parties.

Despite helping Matt to overcome the Hand and revive Elektra, Natasha realized that Matt still only thought of her in platonic terms, despite how much they loved the other, and elected to restrain herself from any advances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widow_(Natalia_Romanova)

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