Black Widow (Yelena Belova)


Black Widow is a fictional character, a spy in the and second modern-era character to use the Black Widow name. She first appears in Inhumans #5 and was created by Devin Grayson and J.G. Jones. She was trained as a spy and assassin in the Red Room. Originally a foe of Natasha Romanova sent to kill her, they later became allies. She was also a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., and HYDRA, who changed her into a version of Super-Adaptoid. As Super-Adaptoid, she was one of the members of the High Council of A.I.M. She has reverted to her original codename Black Widow in 2017.
Florence Pugh will portray the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Black Widow.

Publication history

Belova, the second modern Black Widow after Natasha Romanova, was initially a post-Soviet Russian spy of the GRU. She debuted briefly in Inhumans vol. 2, #5, and was fully introduced in the 1999 Marvel Knights mini-series 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 under the mature-audience Marvel MAX imprint. The June to August 2002 story arc, by writer Greg Rucka and artist Igor Kordey, was a flashback to the story of her becoming the second modern Black Widow, in events preceding her Inhumans appearance.

Fictional character biography

Belova is an amoral spy and assassin who was trained at the Red Room by the same spymasters who trained Natasha Romanoff, the first Black Widow. After the death of her trainer, Pyotr Vasilievich Starkovsky, she is activated as the new Black Widow and deployed to investigate. She apprehends and eliminates his killer, unaware that both his murder and the investigation were part of a ploy to get Belova to assert herself as the new Black Widow. Believing herself to be the rightful successor to the title of "Black Widow", Yelena enthusiastically volunteers for a mission that will put her at odds with Natasha, although the meeting and confrontations between the two do not lead to a decisive battle. Natasha refers to Yelena as "little one" and "russkiya", meaning "Russian", and encourages her to find what makes her unique and her personal identity rather than blindly devote herself to her nation. Natasha later subjects Yelena to a cruel-but-necessary manipulation in order to shatter her illusions about the "Black Widow" title and teach her the reality of the espionage industry. 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. Shortly afterward, she barely survives an attack by Sauron, receiving severe burns and being subsequently approached with an offer for revenge against S.H.I.E.L.D. and the New Avengers.
Belova is genetically altered by the terrorist organization HYDRA, as she had suffered debilitating and disfiguring injuries after her last encounter with the New Avengers in the Savage Land. HYDRA recruited her with the prospect of revenge and after hiring the services of A.I.M. transferred her mind into a new version of Super-Adaptoid. This body appeared as Belova had originally until it began to absorb powers, at which time it changed as the original did, though now yellow in color. Now equipped with the ability to copy all of the New Avengers' powers, she engages the superhero team in combat. She is 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 absorbs with the rest of the Sentry's powers and energy. When she is defeated, HYDRA disables her using a remote self-destruct mechanism they had implanted in her, rather than let her reveal intelligence to the New Avengers.
She has returned working with a vigilante group, the Vanguard.
During the Dark Reign storyline, Quasimodo researched Yelena Belova for Norman Osborn. Yelena Belova appeared to join Osborn's Thunderbolts. However it was eventually revealed to be actually Natasha Romanova in disguise, acting as a double agent for Nick Fury. She believed she was disguised as Belova on Fury's behalf, planted for Osborn to find and invite into the Thunderbolts. However, Osborn revealed to her that he had tricked her into taking on Belova's appearance in order to get her to do his dirty work. After Natasha's escape from the Thunderbolts, Osborn then revealed the true Yelena in stasis to Scourge and warned him that she could be his replacement on the team.
The real Yelena is later freed from stasis by members of A.I.M. who install the female Adaptoid on the High Council of A.I.M. as the Minister of State in Bagalia.
After the death of the original Black Widow at the hands of Captain America's Hydra doppelganger then defeat at hands of the real Captain America in Secret Empire, Yelena began to reassume the Black Widow identity once again, but now to honor the late-Natasha. Sometimes during the world's restoration from Hydra's mess, Yelena travels around the world to assassinate the world's infamous generals and remaining Hydra's remnants, which caught the attentions of Natasha's former lovers, Winter Soldier and Hawkeye.

Powers and abilities

Black Widow is in peak athletic condition. She also has extensive military, martial arts, and espionage training.
As a Super-Adaptoid, she was mutated by material synthesized from the Super-Adaptoid where she could adapt the powers of anyone around her like Luke Cage, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Sentry, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Wolverine in rapid succession.

In other media

Television

The character appears on the Avengers Assemble animated series, voiced by Julie Nathanson. The new Black Widow is introduced in the third season Avengers: Ultron Revolution, thanks to Baron Strucker's reactivation of the Red Room. In the episode "Seeing Double", she is sent to abduct Bruce Banner to bring to Strucker's base in Siberia. When Natasha Romanova arrived, Natasha fought against Yelena upon learning about this Black Widow's history and how Strucker uses the Winter Soldier program to turn Banner into the Winter Hulk. Upon Captain America and Iron Man arriving, the two Avengers helped Natasha to fight Yelena, Strucker and Winter Hulk until Yelena later goes against Strucker's orders. While Captain America and Iron Man fought to keep Winter Hulk from reaching a civilian location where a HYDRA base is, Natasha continues to fight with Yelena even when she activated the Red Room's mind-controlled washouts. But Romanova disables the mind-controlled Red Room washouts and Yelena is personally defeated yet managed to get away. The character returns in the fourth season Avengers: Secret Wars, now calling herself the Crimson Widow. In the episode "Prison Break", she alongside Zarda and Typhoid Mary plotted a prison break at the Vault which gets thwarted by Captain Marvel and the Wasp. In the episode "Why I Hate Halloween", Crimson Widow and Crossbones are sent to retrieve Whitney Frost from Hawkeye. After fleeing from Dracula's vampire army, Crimson Widow and Crossbones are apprehended by the Avengers. The character also appears in the final season Avengers: Secret Wars. In the episode "House of M", Crimson Widow is an enforcer of the Red Skull alongside Crossbones and Typhoid Mary when confronting the Avengers and dealing with Madame Masque.

Film

portrays Yelena Belova in the Marvel Cinematic Universe upcoming film Black Widow.

Video games

Yelena Belova appears as a major antagonist in New Avengers: Breakout, written by Alisa Kwitney. In the novel, she is depicted as Natasha Romanoff's former friend and roommate from the Red Room program. After joining a rogue faction of S.H.I.E.L.D., she comes into conflict with Natasha and the rest of the Avengers while overseeing a covert mining operation in the Savage Land.