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Way back in their first meeting, Spider-Man and Black Widow fought for a ridiculous reason, which only demonstrated how little the two heroes had in common.
Although they’ve spent some time on the Avengers together, Spider-Man and Black Widow haven’t developed a very strong relationship. Despite their shared spider motif, Peter Parker and Natasha Romanova don’t have a lot in common. The first meeting between Spider-Man and Black Widow, through its sheer ridiculousness, exemplified how little the two heroes have in common.
Black Widow first met the web-slinger in 1970’s Amazing Spider-Man #86, by Stan Lee, John Romita Sr. and Jim Mooney. The issue began with Black Widow watching Spider-Man swing by, fascinated by his spider-powers. At the time, Natasha was looking to reinvent her Black Widow persona, following the apparent death of her husband, the Red Guardian, in 1967’s Avengers #44, by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Natasha was so committed to this reinvention that she designed herself a new black jumpsuit.
For some odd reason, when Natasha saw Spider-Man, she believed that she could learn the secret to his powers and add them to her own skillset. Black Widow believed that, no matter how effective her gadgets and skills were, they were just pale imitations of Spider-Man’s abilities. Of course, rather than simply ask Spider-Man about his powers, Black Widow decided to stalk the wall-crawler and attack him. This encounter was very strange for Spider-Man, who was going through a lot already. After fighting the Kingpin in the previous issue, Peter felt strange, believing he was losing his spider powers.
In reality, Spider-Man just had the flu, giving him a bit of a disadvantage in the fight with Black Widow. Spider-Man was understandably confused by this attack, since Black Widow seemed to strike at him randomly. Even when considering Natasha’s true motivation, Black Widow was fighting Spider-Man for a pretty flimsy reason. It was unclear exactly how fighting Spider-Man would give Natasha the secret to his powers, outside of sheer observation. In the end, Spider-Man overcame his illness to break free of the Black Widow’s web line and jam her wrist blasters. Realizing that Spider-Man’s powers were more biological than technological, Black Widow fled, abandoning her plot entirely.
Overall, the circumstances behind this fight were fairly absurd. Black Widow could have easily approached Spider-Man and asked him about his powers, rather than randomly attacking him. Additionally, it’s strange that Black Widow believed herself a female imitation of Spider-Man in the first place. The two don’t exactly share similar powers or skills, and their costumes are radically different from one another. Black Widow is also more of a spy than a superhero, unlike Spider-Man. There isn’t a big reason why anyone would confuse the two, outside of their shared spider motif. Natasha’s envy of Spider-Man’s powers also came out of nowhere, since they’d never really met before. It’s true that Black Widow could benefit from Spider-Man’s powers. Yet nothing came out of her efforts to learn more about the web-head’s abilities.
After finding that Spider-Man’s powers weren’t technological, Natasha simply fled, carrying on the same as she had before. Black Widow didn’t really gain anything out of this encounter, and neither did Spider-Man. If the two had simply talked, perhaps they could have become allies. Yet this fight simply showed Black Widow that Spider-Man had her outmatched, and that she couldn’t imitate him. Nothing changed for Black Widow after this encounter with the web-head. In this time period, it was pretty standard for superheroes to fight in their first encounter. In the context of the 1970s, it makes perfect sense that Black Widow would fight Spider-Man merely to learn more about his powers. Ultimately, however, Spider-Man’s fight with Black Widow only went to show how little the two have in common.
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