Who is Black Widow?


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Rewatched Captain America: The Winter Soldier and only have one question. Who is Black Widow? Who is Natasha Romanoff? Throughout a couple Marvel movies it is emphasised that the spy is a woman of many secrets with a mysterious dark past, which, she is always in fear of being revealed.

 

Other than the Marvel movies, I don't know much about its universe or the superheroes and villains within it, and I know less about the comics. Even the wiki on her went over my head, ha. So in a simple breakdown, what is Black Widow's background and story? Any Marvel/comic experts? :D

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I have a feeling she's going to have a lot of her backstory included in the plot of "Age of Ultron." 

 

I did a lot of the same kind of research, she seems incredibly complicated. But that seems to happen an awful lot with most comic book characters. The authors have to keep their most popular characters going, keep reinventing them, keep having them meet up with and fight all the other popular characters, and it creates some really complex (though not always consistent) character histories. 

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What, do you not get wikipedia in your part of the world?

 

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

 

(hehe...just noticed Latter Days Guy beat me to it. But he didn't include the snarky question...so....)

Edited by The Folk Prophet
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Rewatched Captain America: The Winter Soldier and only have one question. Who is Black Widow? Who is Natasha Romanoff? Throughout a couple Marvel movies it is emphasised that the spy is a woman of many secrets with a mysterious dark past, which, she is always in fear of being revealed.

 

Other than the Marvel movies, I don't know much about its universe or the superheroes and villains within it, and I know less about the comics. Even the wiki on her went over my head, ha. So in a simple breakdown, what is Black Widow's background and story? Any Marvel/comic experts? :D

 

The simple answer is that for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (AKA the Movies and TV shows) we do not know yet.  Comic book characters are constantly being re imagined and re done with slight tweaks.  The MCU is continuing this tradition by picking and choosing which story lines are being used and which are not.  Until its revealed we can only guess what they are reusing and what they are creating fresh.

 

Now in the agent Carter TV show they did show a Russian Spy training camp for female spys.  The one graduate (that we are aware of) seemed incredibly effective.  This has many thinking that the whole whole Russian "Black Widow Spy Ops"  and "Red Room" story lines are in play.

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Spy assets. :animatedthumbsup:

 

 

In the Black Widow's case that it probably more true then not.  Consider what her namesake is best known for... Then realize that the most likely history of her professional career is gaining the trust of men, learning their secrets and then destroying them.

 

Even after she turns to the side of the Good guys you can still see parts of this training (Her interrogation of Loki comes to mind)

 

Now if we have an organization creating these "Black Widows" then it in not hard to see physical appearance as being part of what they look for and what they would be willing to alter to make it what they need.

 

Therefore it seems like the Black Widow is one of the few comic book females that really has the background to justify looking like an airbrushed, photo shopped, underwear model.  Of course she is just one of the many comic book female who look this way.

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I watched the mini-series with my husband. We got a big kick out of some things about the production value, and he absolutely could not accept that the mother in Cinderella was played by the same person. Good series. I didn't realize at the time that the Russian spy training orphanage thingy was significant, but I see it now.

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In the Black Widow's case that it probably more true then not.  Consider what her namesake is best known for... Then realize that the most likely history of her professional career is gaining the trust of men, learning their secrets and then destroying them.

 

Even after she turns to the side of the Good guys you can still see parts of this training (Her interrogation of Loki comes to mind)

 

Now if we have an organization creating these "Black Widows" then it in not hard to see physical appearance as being part of what they look for and what they would be willing to alter to make it what they need.

 

Therefore it seems like the Black Widow is one of the few comic book females that really has the background to justify looking like an airbrushed, photo shopped, underwear model.  Of course she is just one of the many comic book female who look this way.

 

Agreed.

 

I'd like to try and justify all the provocative drawings of comic book damsels as sort of an artistic expression of their bodies as sort of "super bodies" that aesthetically parallels their roles as super-heroes, and is therefore a "celebration of the human form in all its glory,"....and I could probably make a half-way decent case that might even have some validity to it....

 

....but yeah the rest of it is just that sex sells.

 

But Black Widow is nothing compared to like Witchblade or Vampirella. And in most comics, artists will often sometimes draw a pin-up style version of characters.

 

But to be fair, the guys are pretty big hulking masses of sex appeal as well, and probably aren't at all uneasy on the eyes for many female readers.

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