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From SCIFIPEDIA
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Black Widow is a fictional comic book character, an ex-spy turned superhero, owned by Marvel Comics.
The Black Widow is an extraordinary gymnast, athlete, and hand-to hand combatant, trained in several martial arts. Soviet government treatments have given her enhanced strength, durability, and immune system. Due to this, she ages very slowly, and still appears young and beautiful, despite being in her late 60s. She is an accomplished espionage agent, and speaks several languages.
She wears a bracelet on each wrist with unusual properties. They can omit an electric charge of 30,000 volts (her "Widow’s bite") and fire cable with tiny grappling hooks for athletic travel, and shoot tear gas cartridges. Her costume is covered with tiny suction cups that allow her to stick to any surface. Between her ability to swing by her cables, and stick to surfaces, her style is sometimes reminiscent of Spider-Man’s, which is why she has made J. Jonah Jameson uncomfortable with her.
After a tragedy involving the superhero team the New Warriors occurs, Congress passes the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA) requiring all superheroes to register and become accountable to the U.S. Government. Natasha registers and is asked to join the team of a new Avengers roster consisting of registered heroes, and she accepts.
Natasha has had an on-going though short-lived series, and has carried several limited series’ over the years, and co-starred with Daredevil for a while in his own comic book series, then re-titled Daredevil and the Black Widow. Currently, she appears regularly in the comic book series, The Mighty Avengers.
Character Origin
The Black Widow has a long and complex history. In 1941, she was about two years old, when she was trapped in a burning building during a Nazi attack on Stalingrad. Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov, a Russian soldier, found her and saved her from the fire. Never locating her parents, Ivan took her in.
In 1956, she is in the custody of Taras Romanov, who begins to train her as a spy. At this time, she is trained by a mysterious stranger named Logan (who would become Wolverine) in hand-to hand-combat.
Later, Natasha is recruited for the USSR’s Black Widow Program. In this program, young women are programmed to become sleeper agents to be employed around the world. Years later, Natasha would overcome this programming. The women of this program were also given special bio-chemical conditioning that increases their physiology to near-inhuman levels and slows down their aging process.
Integrated back into Russian society, she falls in love and marries test pilot Alexi Shostakov. Alexi appears to die in combat, but is actually been chosen to be the Red Guardian, a kind of communist answer to Captain America. Natasha would encounter Alexi again years later in the United States.
After his “death”, Natasha becomes an intelligence operative for the Russian government. She is trained in the USSR’s Red room Academy. Due perhaps to her enhanced physiology from the Black Widow Program, she and becomes their most accomplished operative. Her “programming” still unconscious, though perhaps influencing her, she chooses the code name Black Widow.
While on assignment in the United States, she meets the accomplished archer Hawkeye. She seduces him to manipulate him to do her bidding, bringing him in early conflict with Iron Man, but eventually falls in love with him, and he with her. Due partially to his influence, Natasha rebels against her masters. She eventually frees herself from their influence, and joins S.H.I.E.L.D., an international law-enforcement agency. Hawkeye, in the meantime, joins the Avengers.
Yelena Belova: The "Other" Black Widow
Later, after reuniting with Ivan Petrovich, she breaks up with Hawkeye, and starts a career as a solo vigilante. She soon encounters Matt Murdock (Daredevil), and the two become partners as well as romantically involved. She is later offered full membership in the Avengers. There she meets Hercules, with whom she becomes good friends. She leaves the Avengers with him, and starts a Los Angeles based super-team, The Champions. When the Champions break up, she works with the Avengers again, and then S.H.I.E.L.D. She would work closely with Nick Fury and has myriad adventures.
The “Other” Black Widow
Captain Yelena Belova was trained also in the Red Room Academy in Russia. With Natasha becoming a free agent, Yelena was tapped to replace Natasha as the state’s official Black Widow. First appearing in Inhumans #2 (1999), Yelena is the first one to receive Red Room training that has surpassed Natasha’s marks. She is obsessed with proving that she is Natasha’s superior, and the two have clashed and even teamed up on several occasions.
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