Anonymous asked: This isn't a baiting question; but these for some reason people assume that Natasha, and Clint, both sleep around. That's easily disproven, but I was wondering if whether or not YOU believe they have ever been ~intimate~ with one another. If they have, whatever; it's not really our business, is it? I wonder though, because if you look back at the period where they WERE involved it almost reads like Natasha seduced him, promising her goodies once they killed Iron Man. That never happened, so...
Yeah, I assume they’ve slept together, given they were involved for, idk, five years our time. I’m not sure where this comes from, other than the totally understandable “comics are hard”, but I see a lot of people assuming that Clint and Natasha’s romance only lasted for those four Tales of Suspense issues. But the plotline carried on into the Avengers, which, for me, is where things actually got interesting, and they didn’t break up until Avengers #76. (For some context, Clint joins the team in Avengers #16.)
I mean, all the usual caveats apply: as Silver Age characters, Clint and Natasha went from zero to true love in the space of like, five panels, and that true love was mostly comprised of chaste touching, melodramatic glances, and monologuing. Clint’s out-of-costume persona also wasn’t particularly developed— he didn’t have a first name until Avengers #63! But given the length and depth of their relationship, the fact that they were talking about marriage at one point, and what we’ve learned about the characters since 1968, I think it’s pretty reasonable to assume they’ve slept together, regardless of whether or not they “sleep around.”
FWIW, in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes II, sort of a modern retelling of that era of Avengers comics, Clint and Natasha are share a room with a single bed and fight in their underwear:
I don’t really take this series as continuity gospel but it’s a corollary at the least!
And the hours pass, and the Widow bites again. And again. And again. The odds had been a hundred-to-one against her when she started. Now they are seven-to-one.
Little Man: Stop her! Stop her! She’s only a lousy woman…
Three-to-one.
Natasha: Wrong, little man. I am the Black Widow…
One-to-one.
Natasha: …and that’s more than enough to handle the likes of you.
Game, set, match.
Yeah, Natasha just took out literally a hundred guys. But I think this whole sequence works because it doesn’t make her invulnerable. We see her get captured at the beginning of the story, and spoilers: she needs Ben’s help to take down the last remaining bad guy. Natasha can’t fight them off by brute force, she has to use every scrap of cunning, she has to devise ways to corner them in small groups, she has to disappear when it’s convenient. Her weapons run out of gas, she has to make every shot count. But it all works because of that, because she’s taxed to the brink, because you need to be to make impossible odds count.
In short this is basically how Natasha should always be written. Not necessarily fighting off a hundred goons!! But her vulnerability should help reveal her strength, not someone else’s.
From Marvel Two-in-One #10, by Chris Claremont and Bob Brown.
The Widow runs in the shadows now, moving thru the vast complex like some eldritch wraith, and when she’s seen— it’s only when she wants to be. And when she strikes, it is without warning… and without mercy.
I’m not going to post the whole issue, here, but just rest assured there are a few straight pages of Black Widow being badass narrated with in florid Claremontese. I love how smart she fights in this whole sequence, not just these panels: using stealth and her surroundings, only going hand to hand when she needs to. There’s something very cerebral in her approach, ruthless and true to character.
From Marvel Two-in-One #10, by Chris Claremont and Bob Brown.
[video]
Ben: I got it!
But having the bomb is a far cry from holding it…
Ben: My hands… friction… burning ‘em! Can’t…hold on…the pain!
And yet hold he does.
Goon: Kill the fool— Agamemnon commands it!
Natasha: And the Black Widow says no!!
This sets up the major damage for the issue. Ben has to rope up this giant bomb, a tremendous feat of strength, endurance, and will. And Natasha has to help him by fighting off all the goons single-handed. Teamwork!
Mostly though: Natasha used to refer to herself in the third person, with an article. Like a supervillain. And I love it.
From Marvel Two-in-One #10, by Chris Claremont and Bob Brown.
Ben: Now we’re talkin’widder, I… uh, what d’ya think yer doin’?
Natasha: Getting us out of here,of course. Could you peel the body mold off my back, please?
Ben: Huh?
Natasha: The first thing a good agent learns is never go on a sticky job without a gimmick— in this case, a surprise package Ivan worked up from SHIELD stores.
Ben: Wow.
Natasha: Voilà! One organic body mold containing organic weaponry… completely undetectable from even the most sophisticated sensors. the modules fit together like so— forming a small, but efficient, field disruptor rifle. The only drawback is, you have about ten seconds to break thru that door before this toy overloads and fries me to a crisp. Can you do it?
Okay, so this is the origin of the weird false-back that appeared more famously in Marvel Fanfare. This is a bit to “wat” for me, and I’d really like it if Natasha had secret weapons that didn’t force her to disrobe. Still, there’s a remarkable lack of cheesecakery in this panel sequence, and I do appreciate Natasha’s no-nonsense approach.
Even if this gadget is too comic book for its own good, I do wish Natasha would use more crazy gadgetry in general. It seems like such an obvious overlap between the superhero and spy genres. Claremont tried to make Ivan a sort of Q, which is one of the few actual good uses of Ivan Marvel ever came up with. But now that he’s gone, that’s an easy hook for a new character, right?
On the subject of teamwork, note the symmetry here: Ben can’t knock down the force field without Natasha’s gizmo-rifle, but Natasha can’t knock down the door without Ben’s super strength. They’re both contributing in meaningful ways to their mutual escape, even if I’m cutting some of Ben’s panels off.
From Marvel Two-in-One #10, by Chris Claremont and Bob Brown.