Natasha Romanov: Black Widow Appreciation 2018

[klynn]

Some old stuff from our beloved spy...

Thanks for posting this. I hadn't read it but found it on Marvel Unlimited. Fun, if unnecessarily convoluted, little story. I'd never seen or heard of Randy Green but I liked the art. 90's style art can be fun and interesting for me.

[Matternativ]

Is there a difference between pony hairstyles and pontytails?

That's a pony.

That's a ponytail.

[Frontier]

That's a pony.

That's a ponytail.

Oh! Cool. I like both (and wish Natasha was sporting one of these in the cartoon instead) .

[OOTCS]

Speaking of Natasha's hair (obviously the most important thing about her ), I have this memory that in Mighty Avengers (post-Civil War), she had super short hair, while in Brubaker's Captain America, her hair was shoulder length, even though those two series ran in parallel. Am I remembering this right? I know it's a weird nitpick, but it throws me off.

[ed2962]

[Bl00dwerK]

Not a huge fan of the grey costume, but I dig Nat's hair from back then.

[OOTCS]

Not a huge fan of the grey costume, but I dig Nat's hair from back then.

Was her costume really gray in that era? For some reason, I always thought it was the shading that made either look that way.

[Bl00dwerK]

Was her costume really gray in that era? For some reason, I always thought it was the shading that made either look that way.

It was, far as I know.

[Sneakronicity]

Pretty sure it was grey, as the spider emblazoned on it was black.

[Muffin Crud]

Super pleased Yelena is back. Please utilize her well, writers.

[Matternativ]

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion here but I never quite got the love for Yelena. Sure, she's been part of one or two good stories but she herself is just the typical the-same-but-yet-different kind of Villain or Antihero and not one of the ones with an interesting twist that would make her stand out to me.
Sure, she's fine as far as that stereotype goes and I'd choose her any day over Recluse but I don't see much more to her.

With that said I am all for a new Arch-nemesis/rival for Nat for a bit of fresh air it could be a guy. I often have the feeling girls don't get to have a male rival and the other way around which is kind of a shame.

[OOTCS]

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion here but I never quite got the love for Yelena. Sure, she's been part of one or two good stories but she herself is just the typical the-same-but-yet-different kind of Villain or Antihero and not one of the ones with an interesting twist that would make her stand out to me.
Sure, she's fine as far as that stereotype goes and I'd choose her any day over Recluse but I don't see much more to her.

I get that. The problem is that each story she appears in, she's in a completely different place, both her circumstances and her motivations, like she's a rebellious teenager trying on new personas until she finds one that fits, and she hasn't found it yet. I liked what they did with her in Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her, but she needs to find one angle and stick with it.

[Bl00dwerK]

This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion here but I never quite got the love for Yelena.

Maybe some folks like blondes?

[millernumber1]

Maybe some folks like blondes?

Nay! Leave the Bleach Widow! Bring Back the Black (and Red) Widow!

[responsarbre]

On Yelena, I would disagree about her not having a twist; I think she’s a lot different from the other kinds of “dark mirror” villains at Marvel. Yelena’s story is about Natasha trying to save her, not defeat her, and that’s pretty unique as far as villain interactions go. Sure, it might make Yelena seem way outmatched, but it shows what conflicts are more important to Natasha, and what she takes to heart. I like Yelena in those original stories because she’s used to show interesting things about Natasha, and I like her as a character because she’s distinct in a lot of ways from Natasha - not just superficially but on a deeper level.

As for her direction — her biggest problem is that after the handful of miniseries she was introduced in, all the writers who came after either didn’t care about or didn’t like what had been done with her before. Everything that happened to her either wasn’t consistent with her direction or was an intentional rebuke of what came before — her appearance in The Things They Say About Her as a sex-positive entrepreneur was a response to Greg Rucka’s MAX mini about Yelena’s origin that showed her being uncomfortable with sex.