By [ad_1]
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow has a complicated history. Once a part of the Red Room training program, she worked for the bad guys before turning on them and becoming an Avenger. Black Widow knows what it’s like to be manipulated by others, but she is also incredibly adept at doing the manipulating as well.
Natasha’s unique character traits can be found in quite a few heroes (and antiheroes) that have graced television screens over the last few decades. It’s a shame their universes would never cross over because Black Widow would find a lot of kindred spirits among these characters.
10 Sydney Bristow Turned Against Her Organization (Alias)
Sydney Bristow wasn’t raised in an environment like the Red Room, but she knows how it feels to discover that everyone she thought she could trust might actually be an enemy. Just like Natasha when she discovered that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., Sydney discovered that her job as a spy was actually for the very organization she thought she was working against in Alias.
She lost friends and family as a result of the betrayal. Also, like Natasha, Sydney is a spy who could make herself a disguise out of pretty much anything, knew multiple languages, and could blend in just about anywhere.
9 Eleven “El” Hopper Was Raised In An Experimental Facility (Stranger Things)
Eleven is assigned a number instead of a name when she’s raised in an experimental facility. Like Natasha, Eleven grows up learning special skills. She’s not necessarily trained to be an assassin, but her powers mean she certainly could do the job.
Also, like Natasha, Eleven forms two families of her own choosing. She calls those other children raised in the experimental program her siblings. She also finds a family in the group of friends she makes after her escape. Eleven knows exactly what it’s like to be manipulated by the man she sees as a father figure. Her “papa” uses her for his own ends, and Eleven has to learn to trust others again.
8 Nikita Breaks Free Of Her Organization’s Control(Nikita)
While the Red Room program of the MCU preys on orphaned young girls to train into assassins, Nikita’s Division preys on young people in trouble too. Division takes young people in legal trouble, fakes their deaths, and “saves” them in order to turn them into agents. When Nikita realizes how heartless the organization really is, she breaks out, plants her own mole, and sets out to not only make them pay, but do some good in the world.
Nikita choosing to turn on the organization and not giving up until she can get everyone else out is very much in line with Natasha’s efforts to free all of the Widows who come after her. Both women even find allies in the handful of people in the respective organizations they can trust.
7 Neil Caffrey Is A Master Manipulator (White Collar)
Neil isn’t a spy or a government agent in White Collar. He isn’t raised in a facility like Natasha either. However, Neil is an impeccable reader of people and stores some of the most obscure knowledge he comes across for later use.
Neil is who Natasha would have been if she’d become Catwoman. He’s a brilliant thief, forger, and con artist. Where he excels, however, is in knowing how to play people. No matter how his plan is derailed, he can always read the situation perfectly to turn the tables. Neil knows exactly what to say to get someone to trust him or hate him. It’s a skill not many heroes have, as they end up relying on luck or allies to bail them out. Neil and Natasha don’t need luck.
6 Parker Crosses The Line When Others Won’t (Leverage)
Much like Natasha, Parker is an orphaned child who ends up in the care of someone who isn’t the best parental figure. The difference is that Archie genuinely cares about Parker, and he doesn’t take advantage of hundreds of other orphaned girls. He teaches Parker how to be the most successful cat burglar in the world.
Parker and Natasha are both willing to do bad things so that others don’t. They are the team members who will cross lines when no one else wants to, even though they also want to be the kind of person who does the right thing. Parker and Natasha are fast learners and find unorthodox ways out of dangerous situations. They both find families with the friends they make while breaking the law despite their childhood traumas.
5 Buffy Summers Helps Others Decide For Themselves (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)
Buffy Summers might not seem like she’d have a lot in common with a super-spy outside of them both being seriously strong humans in a world of otherworldly creatures. Buffy isn’t the most subtle and has a hard time keeping her vampire slaying a secret. However, Buffy does know a thing or two about having her actions decided for her by a board of people who don’t put their lives on the line, just as Natasha does as a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Buffy is the latest in a long line of young women who are used to save the world thanks to a mystical strength that’s passed down. She doesn’t particularly like being used, and she makes the very Natasha-like decision of doing things her way, no matter what the Watcher’s Council decides. She also decides to allow potential slayers to gain access to their gifts early and choose whether or not they want this life for themselves, much as Natasha helps Yelena free the Red Room’s Widows from the control of Dreykov.
4 Kim Possible Shares A Lot Of Skills With Black Widow (Kim Possible)
Kim Possible definitely doesn’t have a dark childhood like Natasha Romanoff. Where the two are similar is in their skill sets, their ability to lead double lives, and their ability to get their best friends out of trouble.
While Natasha finds herself as the person frequently “picking up after” the other Avengers in the MCU, Kim frequently has to save her friend Ron when he tags along on her missions. They also are equally adept at hand-to-hand combat, finding ways to hack into top-secret buildings, breaking and entering, and even scaling buildings. There’s nothing the two of them can’t do. They even both time travel.
3 Nicky Shen Finds Her Own Path (Kung Fu)
When the CW updated Kung Fu for the 21st century, they did it with a Chinese-American family at the center of modern issues with a secret family history. While Natasha doesn’t grow up with her birth family, she grows up thinking one thing about herself, only to discover that she needs to break out of the Red Room’s control to be her own person. When she does, she becomes someone who fights for other people and sometimes breaks the law to do it.
Nicky has a similar path in life, though not as extreme as Natasha’s. She doesn’t defect from one organization for another. She does, however, get out from under her mother’s controlling thumb to find her own path in a monastery in China. When she returns home, she takes on organized crime and starts tracking some mythical objects, not unlike Natasha having to track down Infinity Stones after saving the world.
2 Echo Overcomes Her Conditioning To Break Free (Dollhouse)
Though Natasha isn’t part of the Red Room when they use chemical agents to control their Widows, she does understand what it’s like to be conditioned to act a certain way. The complete control over the Widows is something Echo of Dollhouse would certainly understand.
Echo is the blank slate left behind when Caroline’s personality is removed from her body as part of the Dollhouse program. However, Echo becomes self-aware and begins to lead her fellow “dolls” to discover themselves and break out. It’s just like Natasha breaking out of the Red Room and finding a way to help her fellow Widows do the same years later.
1 Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew)
The CW’s Nancy Drew and Black Widow might not be tech geniuses, but when it comes to practical choices and unraveling mysteries, they’re always the smartest person in the room. They both have childhoods filled with traumatic events that they’d rather block out, but those traumas fuel their commitment to justice as adults.
While Black Widow deals with alien threats and secret organizations, Nancy saves her town from ghosts and urban legends instead. They’re both joined by an eclectic team with special skills, doubling as their closest friends.
About The Author
[ad_2]
