Our next entry in the spy game is Natasha Alienovna Romanova (or Romanoff, in some stories), formerly of the KGB and later an agent of SHIELD. Our Muscovite Mata Hari made her debut, in 1964, in the pages of Tales of Suspense #52. At that time, Ivan Vanko, the Crimson Dynamo, had defected, with the aid of Iron Man and was working with Tony Stark. This didn't sit well with Uncle Nikita and he calls for his top agents, The Black Widow, and the strongman, Boris.
That's right, Boris & Natasha!
Stan just changed Boris into a big hulking blond dude. They are sent to eliminate Vanko, and Iron man, if he gets in the way. So, Boris and Natasha take a submarine to the US and then turn up at Stark's offices, asking for a tour. Tony thinking a bit lower than his head, readily agrees....
While Natasha distracts Stark (use your imagination), Boris sneaks into the lab area and captures Vanko and removes him. He then dons the Crimson Dynamo armor to ambush Iron Man, after Stark hears about a fire at the plant. Iron Man is carted away and locked up, but is able to smash out of his prison and find Vanko. They break out, but Boris turns up again and the fight. Natasha distracts him and Boris zaps him in the back and Tony Stark finally thinks with his other head and recognizes that Natasha is in cahoots. Ivan uses a laser weapon to destroy Boris, dying in the process. Black Widow sneaks away, unnoticed.
Natasha returns in the next issue, to plague Tony Stark some more. I guess, since Iron Man can fly, that makes him Rocky. I guess Happy is Bullwinkle, since he is about as dumb. She steals an anti-gravity weapon, hoping to gain forgiveness for failing in her first mission, but Iron man recovers it. She is impressed by the way Iron man sacrifices himself for others and the seeds of her future defection are planted.
She disappears for a bit and returns in issue #57, the debut of Hawkeye. After Iron Man gets all the attention at a carnival, while carrying out a rescue, Clint Barton, a sideshow performer gets jealous that the tin head has stolen the thunder of the World's Greatest Archer. he puts together a snazzy outfit and goes to fight crime and stops a jewel heist, but gets mistaken by the cops as the thief. He has to go on the lam and runs into Natasha....
Being a bigger lummox than Stark, Barton finds himself easily conned into aiding Natasha to defeat Iron Man. It doesn't go well and Natasha is injured and spirited away by Hawkeye. They return in issue 60, where she again cons the dope into going to the Stark facility to steals weapons. He isn't happy with what he sees as treason but she says she works for "international peace." I suspect she gave Hawkeye and "international piece," because he goes along with it. He grabs Pepper Potts and orders her to unlock Stark's lab, but finds that there are no schematics and nothing portable to steal. There is an intercom on, in the lab and Happy and the security goons hear her refuse Hawkeye's order to get him a car. Iron man also hears it (it's a sort of radio/intercom) and zips back and dukes it out with Hawkeye. Black Widow hears this on her listening device and goes to help Hawkeye, but is grabbed by KGB goons, who want to have a word about failure.
She is taken away in a jet, which just happens to be near Hawkeye, when he fires a line arrow to hitch a ride (good luck with the slipstream, buddy!).
They return in issue #64 and Black Widow now has her sexy little fishnet number....
It has suction cups to let her climb walls and special bracelets that can fire a line to swing around. She sneaks in and surprises Hawkeye, then relates how she was dragged back in front of Nikita, who wants to shoot her; but, that would alert his enemies to his plan's failure to destroy Iron Man. He sends her off to finish the job and she refuses; so, they trot out her parents and threaten to shoot them, unless she complies. She was given the new outfit and sent on her way.
Hawkeye and Black Widow ambush Happy & Pepper and take them hostage, to lure Iron man into a trap. During the battle that follows, Black Widow is hurt and Hawkeye takes her away, while she yells that he has caused her to fail, which means goodbye mom and pop!
Hawkeye joins Cap's Kooky Quartet in Avengers #16 and says that a week before, the KGB caught up with Natasha and shot her. He could only call an ambulance, but has no idea if she is still alive. In issue #29, she turns up alive, in the hands of the KGB, who have brainwashed her completely and send her off to destroy the Avengers. She recruits the Swordsman and Power Man (the dude before Luke Cage) to aid her and succeeds in capturing several, before Goliath turns up. The brainwashing shows cracks, as visions of Hawkeye keep plaguing Black Widow. The brainwashing finally loses its hold and she is free.
Natasha ends up aiding the Avengers against the Sons of the Serpent and earns an amnesty. She hangs around with Hawkeye and the Avengers, then, in issue #38, she goes to see Hawkeye and the Avengers, at the Mansion, but runs into a strnage fog, surrounding the building. She passes out and a shadowy figure says to fire the Vacu-Ray to save her and she floats up into the sky. She wakes up on board the SHIELD Helicarrier. There, after smacking around a few flunkies, she meets up with Nick Fury, who tells her he needs her for a mission...
She turns up at the mansion to tell Hawkeye goodbye, as she is headed to somewhere in Southeast Asia, on the Communist side. Goliath dismisses her as returning to her former masters and Hawkeye sides with him. She flips him the bird and leaves.
She is sent off with phony stolen submarine plans and steals an experimental VSTOL jet, from under the nose of Gen Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. She lands in Southeast Asia, where she is reunited with her old bosses and Dr Yen, the man who brainwashed her. They have perfected the Psychotron, a devastating weapon. They have also suckered Natasha, as they know she is a SHIELD spy....
She is subjected to the Psychotron, which bombards her brain with nightmarish images. However, she isn't that weak and bamboozled them into thinking she will comply with spilling the beans about SHIELD. She sneaks off to sabotage the Psychotron, but gets gassed, after trashing some goons. Hawkeye finds out that a double agent, inside SHIELD betrayed her and goes to help and ends up a prisoner of the newly revealed Red Guardian, the Soviet counterpart to Captain America. He also happens to be Natasha's husband!
Zoinks!
The Avengers bring in the cavalry and Cap and Red Guardian slug it out, while Natasha goes to sabotage the Pyschotron. Red Guardian is impressed by Captain America and saves his life, at the cost of his own, when his masters try to shoot him in the back. The Psychotron is destroyed and Widow is hurt, but safe. She later tells them about Alexi, her husband, the brave cosmonaut and test pilot.
Natasha recovers and gives up her life of adventure, until Clint neglects her. She is offered another job by Nick Fury and Hawkeye's attitude convinces her to take it. She ends up returning to a life of adventure; and, in 1970, John Romita gave her an updated look, losing the chorus girl costume in favor of a black jumpsuit and the gold Widow's Bite wristbands and a gold belt. He was inspired by the costume of the Golden Age Miss Fury, by Tarpe Mills, one of the rare women working in comics. The original idea was tor revive Miss Fury, until Stan suggested using the design for Black Widow and Romita erased the mask.
She got her own feature, in Amazing Adventures, where she lives the life of a jet setting adventuress, along with mentor and chauffeur Ivan. Then, she hooks up with Daredevil, both figuratively and literally, before dumping him and joining the Champions.
For the most part, the spy business is forgotten, though she occasionally is associated with SHIELD again. Over in the Misfit Tag-Teams thread, I covered her appearances, including a sequence in issues #82-85 of Marvel Team-Up, where she is brainwashed by Viper into believing she is Nancy Rushman, a school teacher, until Spidey, Nick Fury and Shang Chi get at the truth.
I also covered, in the Land of Misfit Stories, her run in Marvel Fanfare #10-13, where she is attacked in her home and heads back to the Soviet Union, to rescue Ivan. That epic was drawn (mostly) by the late and dearly missed George Perez and she gets to play up the spy angle a bit more, as she runs up against Iron Maiden and Snapdragon, fellow former agents of the KGB.
However, her ultimate spy use was in Bizarre Adventures #25. I also covered that, in Land of the Misfit Stories; but, want to highlight a few things here. Story is by Ralph Macchio, who also did the Marvel fanfare story. Artis by Paul Gulacy....
Basically, Natasha gets called in on a mission, in Africa, where she runs afoul of a former colleague, as well as a traitor within SHIELD. The whole thing is truly gorgeous, with Gulacy at the height of his skills
The story is one of the best Black Widow spy stories and Gulacy continues his use of models, basing two of the characters on Michael Caine, in the Harry Palmer spy films, and Humphrey Bogart...
In conjunction with this story, Gulacy created a Black Widow portfolio....
...which is truly stunning and I spent several years hunting for it, after seeing it in a mail order flyer. I finally found a copy in 1991, at a convention. The moody, atmospheric art really captures the spy intrigue, at it's best. The image of Natasha, in a mackintosh, collar turned up, is the essence of spy chic. When I was in high school and we got cable, I saw the video for Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad, of ABBA) and her single, "I Know There's Something Going On," which had that vibe to it...
(produced by Phil Collins, who also played drums)
as did Berlin's "Metro"
Natasha split her time between spy stuff for Nick Fury and superhero work, including involvement in the Elektra saga, in Daredevil and runs with the Avengers. She later retired and we got the blond Black Widow, Yelena Belova, then we got both.
One bit that I never bought was the name. Stan chose it because of the Romanov dynasty, in Russia, which died with Tsar Nicholas II and his family, in the October Revolution. Yes, there is the Anastasia conspiracy theory, but it is hokum. Anyone who had the name Romanov or Romanoff was likely to have changed it or ended dead. Stan just didn't want to find a more plausible name. It is evocative, though. The middle name came much later.
The parents prove to be a bit of a paradox, as Natasha is later shown to have been orphaned, in the war, and sheltered and raised by Ivan, before the State gets their hands on her. That was further refined. If that's the case, who were the people threatened previously, by Khrushchev?
I may have not made it clear, but Natasha starts out working for the KGB, but it is the Chinese who brainwash her, but also bring Red Guardian into things. The USSR and Red China were at odds in that time frame, but Marvel can't seem to make up its mind if they are working in different directions or in partnership, in the Avengers stories.
Romita's redesign was greatly appreciated, as the previous fishnet number just looked like a chorus girl costume, from a 1940s musical. Not that it stopped Black Canary, but her buccaneer boots helped, as did the bolero jacket. Black Widow looked a little too much like she was drawn for a romance comic (and written that way, too). the sleek bodysuit really upped both the sex appeal and the coolness factor and was more practical for superhero work and spying. It ended up influencing a lot of superheroine and other female action suits, including the female jewel thieves in Kevin Smith's Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (which included his wife, Jen). Frank Miller later changed it for a grey leotard bodysuit, with a high collar; but marvel wisely reverted back relatively quickly (the grey suit got a few appearances, including the BW graphic novel). The MCU retained the basic look, minus the gold elements and with boots....
She even got to kick some ass....
...even while tied up.....
..though I have to say, as any luchador will tell you, it is hard to throw someone with a
huricanrana, without their cooperation.
If you are looking for more spy oriented Black Widow, the Bizarre Adventures story (reprinted in Web of Intrigue hardcover, the Black Widow Strikes Omnibus, and the Black Widow Epic Collection #2), though the Marvel Fanfare story (also in Web of Intrigue, in a 1995 reprint comic and the 2010 and 2016 HC and TPB) is a nice mix of both spy and superhero. The Amazing Adventures material is pretty good, especially the Gene Colan issues and the daredevil days were favorites of many. The Yelena Belova Widow has her fans and she made it into the movie (when they finally got around to it).
Next time, a lady who set the trend for people like Black Widow, though she isn't exactly a spy....she just occasionally helps out a spy agency. Join as as we look at the classic adventure hero, Modesty Blaise, along with her sidekick and lieutenant, Willie Garvin.
I will try to keep the bad taste of the movie out of our mouths, as much as possible.