Sumi: I brought you playmates.
Ninotchka: Pretty Natasha.
Boris: Puny little Natasha.
Ninotchka: You remember me, yes? I do not see how you could forget. We were in the ballet together, in Moscow. But you were taken away, recruited… and then so was I. The K.G.B. loved its dancers, did it not?
Natasha: You always talked more than you danced.
Ninotchka: You’ve forgotten what I can do. You can’t touch me.
Boris and Ninotchka are actually obscure Power Man and Iron Fist villains, but what’s interesting about this scene is that Liu references the discarded Natasha-was-a-ballerina continuity. There are a lot of ways to no-prize this (Natasha was undercover at the ballet while Ninotchka was there for real) but it’s hard to write off as a mistake. Liu referenced Deadly Origin pretty specifically, both the flashback stuff and the modern day cyber Ivan plotline.
From Black Widow #3, by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuña.
