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In Black Widow, the Avenger just watched her next MCU partner suffer a shocking defeat that could’ve killed her.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Black Widow #8 by Kelly Thompson, Elena Casagrande, Elisabetta D’Amico, Jordie Bellaire and VC’s Cory Petit, on sale now.
The world of spycraft can be a dizzying and confusing game of cloak and dagger, and nobody knows that more than the Black Widow. After losing a family she was brainwashed into loving, Natasha Romanoff had to give up a life she was happy with to return to her dark mantle, joined by the White Widow Yelena Belova as they protect the world from the shadows.
It appears as though Natasha may be at risk of losing Yelena as well after a particularly shocking encounter with a villain in Black Widow #8.
Black Widow’s latest adventure centers on hunting down a cult utilizing super drugs that temporarily grant normal humans powers at the cost of drastically lowering their life spans. In figuring out how to stop the cult and the flow of the super drugs, Natasha starts to build a new family for herself aided by Anya Corazon and Yelena Belova, two other spider-themed heroines from her past. Yelena and Natasha go way back, as she was once intended to be her replacement as a new Black Widow.
The two danced between becoming friends and foes for years before settling their differences and becoming allies. Together they hunted down the villain Apogee and the mystery drug he infects the world with. While tracking down the leader of a shell corporation, Yelena found herself in the thick of enemy territory, tied to a chair and seemingly in need of rescue. Natasha burst through the skylight to rescue her. The two fought off their attackers, but that’s when things got tricky.
As Black Widow saved one man with a compressed parachute and pushed him out of a window, she turned to discover Yelena was the hostage of a user with electrical powers. As Natasha looked on helplessly, electricity coursed through Yelena’s head and causing her to collapse to the floor. By the end of the issue, Natasha cradled Yelena as the younger spy’s life seemed to hang in the balance. And yet, readers familiar with the two Widows know there must be more going on here.
Yelena appears on future covers for the comic and is obviously getting a much higher profile with her impending debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Either there is a deeper plot at work here involving much the same death fake-out shenanigans Natasha used to protect her family earlier in the same series, or else Yelena has just been put out of commission for the time being. Indeed, this issue focused on Anya’s budding training as a spy under Natasha’s wing, and needing to rely on the young girl could endanger her in ways that could only put Natasha in further emotional conflict.
The former Russian spy rarely enjoys a happy life and her latest series drives that point home by showing how often she thinks of it. In a way, she comes to see Yelena as her new family, and by endangering Yelena’s life there is a point to be made about Natasha taking stock of those she surrounds herself with. There need not be an idle fantasy about a family now lost, because Natasha already has a little family of her own. And for the time being, she is cradling its most valued member in her arms, uncertain of their fate.
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