Fuck Yeah, Black Widow

I said I might do a giveaway for reaching the 2,000 follower milestone, so here’s comics, kid. This is the three issue Pale Little Spider 2002 mini by Greg Rucka and Igor Kordey— Yelena Belova’s origin story, and a must for anyone interested in the character. Relevant info:

Signed by Greg Rucka!
Issues will come bagged and boarded.
You don’t have to follow me to enter; this is more about me trying to share comics I like than me trying to get more followers.
Like or reblog to enter, like and reblog to enter twice.
I will ship wherever the US Postal Service will let me.
Winner will be selected via random number generator one week from today, on September 16, 2012 & notified via ask.

Maks: Come back here! Who the hell do you think you are? You just don’t strut into my morgue and tell me you’re hijacking my investigation! I don’t care what directorate you’re from, the GRU has no authority over the police—
Yelena: Fuck you!!

From Black Widow: Pale Little Spider #1, by Greg Rucka and Igor Kordey.

Petra: Call me Black Widow. Give me the name… or die right here, right now.
Yelena: No.

From Black Widow: Pale Little Spider #3, by Greg Rucka and Igor Kordey.

Yelena: …As ordered, General.
General: Why aren’t you in uniform, Captain Belova?
Yelena: Begging the general’s pardon, but this is my uniform.
General: At ease. Your report, if you please, Captain.

Shades of Kate Kane, here. Continuity police wise, it’s interesting that this is her uniform: Yelena’s look is clearly a 90s midriff update of Natasha’s classic black catsuit. But Natasha didn’t adopt the black costume until well after she defected, the uniform they gave her was the fishnets. The Russian government is full of odd fashion choices.

From Black Widow: Pale Little Spider #3 by Greg Rucka and Igor Kordey.

Yelena: You can’t have my name. He gave it to me. And you took him from me.

This is Yelena’s origin— the moment she breaks Petra’s neck is the moment she becomes the Black Widow. Yelena’s ambition, her desire to be the greatest agent the Red Room ever trained, is what separates her from Natasha, and to a large degree her origin reflects that. But even though Yelena has trained all her life for this, she still needed to be pushed to this moment. Pale Little Spider is a murder mystery, with Yelena killing the killer and solving the paradox of her identity. But she doesn’t know that the whole thing, including the death of her mentor, was a set up by her handlers. A mirror of Natasha’s original origin.

From Black Widow: Pale Little Spider #3, by Greg Rucka and Igor Kordey.

Val: Listen to me, now, I know a guy, Maks… He was with GRU Third Directorate until a couple monts ago, working for one of the new software companies now. And he tells me that Yelena Belova isn’t just any spook… she’s the Black Widow, Maks. Maks, are you listening?
Maks: That’s not possible. That’s not possible, Val. There is no Black Widow. There is no Black Widow, it was Cold War fantasy, propaganda. She doesn’t exist…
Val: Maks…what if she does?

One day I will make a long post about public perceptions, secret identities, and the Black Widow as urban legends. Today, I will post these panels.

From Black Widow #2, by Greg Rucka and Igor Kordey.