From the Comics: Black Widow’s Original Origin

Black Widow is one of the world’s most popular fictional heroines. In the comics, she plays an important role in the stability of many organizations and, in the MCU, she is a fundamental part of the cinematic universe.

However, her comic book origins often go overlooked by many modern fans. In today’s “From the Comics” exploration, we’re going back to a time when Black Widow’s only role was as a minor villain in an Iron Man story.

Background

At the time of Black Widow’s debut, Tony Stark was in his early days as Iron Man. His company still produced weapons for the US Government, the public believed that Iron Man was Tony Stark’s bodyguard, and Iron Man’s armor needed to be charged every so often.

In addition, the United States was still deep in the Cold War, which often put Iron Man at odds with communist nations. On one of these occasions Tony managed to convince a prominent scientist, Professor Vanko, to defect to America. This scientist was responsible for creating and originally wielding the Crimson Dynamo Armor, an armor designed to compete with Tony’s Iron Man Armor.

First Strike

It was around this time that the leader of the Soviet Union decided to make a play against America, through a strike on Stark Industries. He sent two Soviet agents to America with the goal of eliminating Tony Stark, Professor Vanko, and Iron Man. The first agent was the mysterious Black Widow and the second agent was Boris, a man with super-strength.

Upon arriving in America, Black Widow and Boris immediately made their way to Stark Industries and were able to quickly arrange a meeting with Tony Stark. Black Widow introduced herself as Madame Natasha and explained that her “brother”, Boris, is a teacher in Ukraine who wanted a tour of an American science facility. Captivated by Black Widow’s beauty, Tony Stark agreed to the tour.

While showing them the facility, Tony told Black Widow that she is “much too lovely to spend all day touring a dull factory,” and that they should “let Boris continue the tour himself while we have dinner together.” As this would leave Boris in the facility on his own, Black Widow agreed.

As Tony and Natasha went to dinner, Boris left the factory’s visitors area and began searching for Professor Vanko. He found the professor, subdued him, and donned his Crimson Dynamo Armor. He then began destroying the factory in order to lure Iron Man out into the open.

This situation forced Tony to end his date with Natasha and return to his factory as Iron Man. Upon arriving there, he was ambushed by Boris and nearly defeated. However, he quickly recovered and an epic battle between armored individuals began. 

After fighting for a while, Iron Man was about to defeat Boris when, suddenly, Black Widow called out for help. She pretended to be trapped underneath a piece of rubble in order to temporarily distract Iron Man, who was still unaware of her partnership with Boris. The momentary distraction allowed Boris to attack and nearly defeat Iron Man, which made him realize Natasha had been deceiving him all along.

The situation would have continued to devolve if not for Vanko’s intervention. He used one of his untested experiments to kill Boris, knowing the experiment would be fatal to himself as well. In this final moment of confusion, Black Widow fled the scene.

Shortly after this, Black Widow tried to redeem her reputation by stealing Tony Stark’s latest technology. Though she was successful in stealing this technology, the incompetence of the agents escorting her back to the Soviet Union gave Iron Man the opportunity to get it back.

Black Widow’s first comic appearance ended with her uncertain about what her future held. She feared that the leaders in the Soviet Union would be disappointed in her failure and that they would respond by cruelly punishing her. She was also impressed with Iron Man as a hero, especially since he refused to kill her cohorts and even saved them on one occasion. These factors directly lead to her appearances in a few futures issues of this comic series.

Note: Some of the exact details surrounding these events have been altered by later comics. The exact nature of those retcons will be the subject of a future “From the Comics” exploration.

Recommended Reading

If you’re interested in reading these comic adventures for yourself, we recommend the following:

• Check out the “Silver Age” section of ComicBookWire’s “Black Widow Reading Order” to see how her adventures progress throughout this era.
• Tales of Suspense #52, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 2 (Review). This comic features the first-ever appearance of Black Widow and depicts her first battle against Iron Man.
• Tales of Suspense #53, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 2 (Review). This comic features Black Widow’s second battle against Iron Man.

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