Natasha Romanov: Black Widow Appreciation 2018

[Celgress]

I've always been a big fan of Black Window. How could a person not love the original comic book bad girl superheroine? She is a classic.

[vitaminbee]

I don’t mind the possibility of a prequel. I just hope it isn’t a “red room” story or whatever her training was. Red Sparrow came out and we saw the basic idea of it from Age of Ultron, why go any more into that. Give me a good assassin/spy film! Also... give her the classic Widow belt! We know it’s sitting in some archive as it was made for Iron Man 2 and was in the Art of book.

[Matternativ]

I don’t mind the possibility of a prequel. I just hope it isn’t a “red room” story or whatever her training was. Red Sparrow came out and we saw the basic idea of it from Age of Ultron, why go any more into that. Give me a good assassin/spy film! Also... give her the classic Widow belt! We know it’s sitting in some archive as it was made for Iron Man 2 and was in the Art of book.

From everything I've heard Red Sparrow really wasn't the kind of Movie that would be even remotely like Black Widow.

[ed2962]

From everything I've heard Red Sparrow really wasn't the kind of Movie that would be even remotely like Black Widow.

It turned out to be a slow burn psychological suspense movie. It's not an action flick ( which I think most of us would want BW to be at least in part).

[berserkerclaw]

It turned out to be a slow burn psychological suspense movie. It's not an action flick ( which I think most of us would want BW to be at least in part).

True but look at the plot of red sparrow. Girls aa ballerinas in a school training to be assassins. From birth or a young age. Thats the origin very close to Nats beginings.

[responsarbre]

True but look at the plot of red sparrow. Girls aa ballerinas in a school training to be assassins. From birth or a young age. Thats the origin very close to Nats beginings.

Something worth keeping in mind is that Natasha's own background is already a bit of a mishmash of Cold War and Russian tropes. I think that's the reason why the author of the original book got away with making so much similar to Natasha's story.

Red Sparrow the movie is basically a Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy plot (a manhunt for a mole) with a lot more sex and gore and some superficial Black Widow set dressing thrown in. The main reason that it doesn't feel like what a Black Widow movie would be like is that the main character (Dominika) doesn't act much like Natasha at all. There's a lot about the execution of Red Sparrow that doesn't leave you feeling like you just watched an expy Black Widow movie or even a severely altered Elseworlds Black Widow movie.

I'm not sure that Black Widow would be different from Red Sparrow just because Red Sparrow is slow and suspenseful, though. The fact that Marvel hired the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy production designer and a director with a pedigree in psychological thrillers makes me think that the Black Widow movie might aim for a more suspenseful and cerebral tone.

Having said that, the similarities and differences are interesting to think about. Dominika in Red Sparrow is also a ballerina, but notably, she doesn't become a spy until after she's injured and can no longer perform (not from childhood). She's sent to a specialized school of deep cover agents. She has a father figure in her life who is mostly responsible for her entering the spy program, and who also is inappropriately attracted to her. She flirts with the idea of defecting to America.

(The book is actually even more different from Black Widow stories. Dominika only gets sent to "Sparrow School" part way through her spy training as a punishment for failure; it's actually looked down upon as a "wh*re school" because it's a honeypot training program. The big pull of the book is actually that she has Synesthesia Superpowers — not unlike the ones in Pseudonymous Bosch's Secret Series. Dominika can use her synesthesia to tell whenever anyone is lying, basically.)

[responsarbre]

In recent news:

Natasha makes a very brief appearance in Infinity Countdown #5 following up on the events of the one-shot and setting her up for Infinity Wars, though she's notably absent from the gathering of the Infinity Watch in the Infinity Wars #1 preview (most likely because she couldn't stand to be around so many Daredevil rogues at once).

Marvel is relaunching the Marvel Knights line! Donny Cates is in charge. Rosenberg is involved, as well as Vita Ayala and Tini Howard. This is supposedly featuring the characters from the old Marvel Knights stuff, so it hopefully means a new Black Widow book. I hope.

[Sneakronicity]

Adding to this, Natasha was also featured in flashbacks of Old Man Hawkeye issues #6 and #7, but prepare yourself for that last one as it's brutal. It's the flashback to the day the Villains all carry out their plan.

[klynn]

Marvel is relaunching the Marvel Knights line! Donny Cates is in charge. Rosenberg is involved, as well as Vita Ayala and Tini Howard. This is supposedly featuring the characters from the old Marvel Knights stuff, so it hopefully means a new Black Widow book. I hope.

Hopefully the story Rosenberg alluded to in Natasha's letter to James in the last issue of Tales of Suspense lands here.

[Hrist]

Hopefully the story Rosenberg alluded to in Natasha's letter to James in the last issue of Tales of Suspense lands here.

Isn't that happening in Punisher? I feel like Tales of Suspense was written as a possible lead-in to an ongoing if it had enough fan momentum behind it, but Rosenberg knew he'd get to follow up in his Punisher arc and that's all that was actually planned.

Anyway this Marvel Knights relaunch should imo result in a new Black Widow solo and also a team-up with Jessica Jones.

[Matternativ]

Isn't that happening in Punisher?

I too was under that impression.

[responsarbre]

Also worth mentioning that Tini Howard, involved in the Marvel Knights relaunch, is the writer of Assassinistas, which (as you can tell from the Gilbert Hernandez art) is more of a slice-of-life take on the femme fatale concept. Might translate into a Black Widow gig.

edit: Unrelated but Marjorie Liu apparently won the Eisner for best writer for Monstress! Too bad that she said she isn't planning to do more Marvel work soon.

edit again: It seems like there might have been some misinterpretation, and all that's coming out of the Marvel Knights "relaunch" is the MK20 one-shot curated by Cates.

[OOTCS]

In recent news:

Natasha makes a very brief appearance in Infinity Countdown #5 following up on the events of the one-shot and setting her up for Infinity Wars, though she's notably absent from the gathering of the Infinity Watch in the Infinity Wars #1 preview (most likely because she couldn't stand to be around so many Daredevil rogues at once).

Does she interact with Matt at all? I'm starved for interaction between the two of them—with his secret back in the bottle, I wonder how much she remembers of their history...

Marvel is relaunching the Marvel Knights line! Donny Cates is in charge. Rosenberg is involved, as well as Vita Ayala and Tini Howard. This is supposedly featuring the characters from the old Marvel Knights stuff, so it hopefully means a new Black Widow book. I hope.

This is awesome, but I'm not getting my hopes up for Natasha to be involved, considering how far they've moved her away from that corner of the MU over the past few years.

Isn't that happening in Punisher? I feel like Tales of Suspense was written as a possible lead-in to an ongoing if it had enough fan momentum behind it, but Rosenberg knew he'd get to follow up in his Punisher arc and that's all that was actually planned.

Anyway this Marvel Knights relaunch should imo result in a new Black Widow solo and also a team-up with Jessica Jones.

Matt said on Twitter that the Punisher arc happens after she and Bucky meet up to do whatever the plan is. He mentioned that he had a story in mind, but it won't be shown on panel: https://twitter.com/madibeth13/statu...041000449?s=19

[klynn]

Matt said on Twitter that the Punisher arc happens after she and Bucky meet up to do whatever the plan is. He mentioned that he had a story in mind, but it won't be shown on panel: https://twitter.com/madibeth13/statu...041000449?s=19

Well, that’s severely disappointing. Dammit.

[millernumber1]

Matt said on Twitter that the Punisher arc happens after she and Bucky meet up to do whatever the plan is. He mentioned that he had a story in mind, but it won't be shown on panel: https://twitter.com/madibeth13/statu...041000449?s=19

What? That makes no sense!