TALES OF SUSPENSE #52
‘THE CRIMSON DYNAMO
STRIKES AGAIN!’ (1964)
Premier Nikita Khrushchev sends
redhead Madame Natasha
(codenamed Black Widow) to
spy on industrialist Tony Stark.
In her fi rst appearance, the
Widow dresses formally in a
green gown, fur stole and veil.TALES OF SUSPENSE #64
‘HAWKEYE AND THE NEW BLACK
WIDOW STRIKE AGAIN’ (1965)
Having seduced would-be
hero Hawkeye into betraying
America, the now-black-haired
Natasha keeps up with her
boyfriend by fi nally getting
a costume (with mask and
spiderweb tights) and gadgets
like ‘the Widow’s sting’.THE AVENGERS #43
‘COLOR HIM ...THE RED
GUARDIAN’ (1967)
When Hawkeye reformed
and joined The Avengers, the
Widow (full name Natasha
Romanoff) defected to the US
and moped around until a story
arc took her back to Russia.
Here, it is revealed that a) she
actually is a widow, but b) her
husband — Alexei Shostakov,
the Red Guardian — isn’t really
dead (though he was by the
end of The Avengers #44).AMAZING ADVENTURES #1
‘THEN CAME THE BLACK
WIDOW’ (1970)
In her fi rst solo series, Natasha
wore a new black leotard and
revived the red hair, spending
her retirement from espionage
fi ghting street-level New York
crime. This issue introduced
Ivan, her long-time sidekick/
mentor/gadgetmaker/nemesis
(it’s complicated).BLACK WIDOW #1
‘THE ITSY-BITSY SPIDER:
UNINVITED’ (1999)
Think it’s been a long wait for
a Black Widow movie? It took
Marvel 35 years to give Natasha
her own comic. The Widow
(now Natalia Romanova) is
challenged by Yelena Belova,
whom the post-Soviet regime
has given her old codename.
This run gave the heroine
a past as an ex-ballerina trained
at the Soviet Red Room spy
school. KIM NEWMANcoming back to this family and continuing
the journey with everyone...I think we all
probably have mixed feelings about it, at least
in specifi c scenes, but I really had a sense of
accomplishment [after shooting fi nished on
Black Widow]. I feel like I tried it all this
time around. I really got to go to all those
uncomfortable places and explore certain
recesses of her.”
Meanwhile, Johansson has progressed
alongside Natasha. As an actor, she says, she
“didn’t have the same tools” that she has now
when she did Iron Man 2. “And then also
having my life experience, having succeeded
and failed in diff erent ways, and feeling like
a grounded woman who takes responsibility
for their actions...it’s all informed the
character as we fi nd her now.”
If this is Johansson’s goodbye to Natasha,
as it appears to be, she’s happy with the story
they’ve told. “Natasha’s almost forced to
come to terms with her past,” she says. “It’s
ultimately about healing those deep wounds.
We were defi nitely not just going to give the
fans some, like, spy/assassins movie.”
Not a spy/assassins movie, just a movie
that happens to feature spies and assassins
— and if all goes to plan, the timing of this
fi lm, after the character’s death, will actually
be an advantage. Rather than undermining
Natasha’s sacrifi ce in Endgame, this will
add context.
“[The timing] was really liberating,” says
Shortland. “I wanted to give her justice. It
gave us this feeling like, ‘I’ve got one chance
and I really want people to understand her
and to feel empathy for her,’ because often
what you see is a very fetishised construct.
We wanted to get under her skin.”
A movie about going under the skin
with Under The Skin star Scarlett Johansson:
this sounds less like a risk all the time. If
death can’t stop her, who else is going to
stand in her way?BLACK WIDOW IS COMING SOON TO CINEMASDEFINING
MOMENTS IN
NATASHA
ROMANOFF’S
COMIC-BOOK
HISTORY