Fuck Yeah, Black Widow

femslash februrary ⧖ natasha + yelena

I got what I wanted. Did you?

Natasha: No, little one. You will not kill me today.
Yelena: And why not?
Natasha: Because you look forward to coming after me again. The game is your passion. And that is what makes you unique.

So I heard it was femslash February.

From Black Widow #3, by Devin Grayson and J.G. Jones.

Okay, I think I’m just going to condense this all into one big Rogues Gallery Rundown. Who are Natasha’s villains? Who aren’t Natasha’s villains? Why does she have so few? What does it all mean?!

"I wanted you to understand, finally, what it meant to be a spy."

Happy Birthday, Greg Rucka!

Interesting. And you orchestrated this yourself? Framing Romanov for your murder?
Why are you surprised? I’d hardly be worthy of the name Black Widow if I couldn’t do such a thing, General.

Sometimes, people ask me who I’d like to see write a Black Widow series. Sometimes I just tell people. “Greg Rucka.” “Oh yeah,” they say. “He’d be perfect.”

Rucka has done two Black Widow series. The first, Breakdown, he co-wrote with Devin Grayson, and it’s maybe the most challenging Black Widow story I’ve read. The second Pale Little Spider, is a MAX story starring Yelena Belova, the other Black Widow. Yelena is a character sometimes frustratingly dear to my heart, and the bulk of that is Rucka’s doing. He’s done a lot to add color and shadow to Natasha’s mythology, and he always keeps her smart.

Breakdown is collected in the Itsy-Bitsy Spider hardcover, which is a great introduction to Black Widow comics. It’s also available digitally. The Pale Little Spider mini is, unfortunately, much harder to find. I had to raid back-issue bins to find it. Greg Rucka says a lot of good things about women and comics and how that all goes so wrong so often, and I the sad but important but sadly important point of praise I can give is that he always writes Black Widow as a character, not a sexual punchline. And that means so so much to me, especially after the last Black Widow series Marvel published.

Right now, Rucka is writing Natasha again in Punisher War Zone. You should also check out Stumptown, his detective book that recently started its second volume. He has a tumblr, too!

Yelena: You will find his request clarified on this computer disk. It also contains technical specifications on Inhuman defensive capabilities.
Bixby: A Trojan horse. How very theatrical of you, Yuri.
Yelena: Colonel Stalyenko wishes to express his gratitude for your assistance. He relishes the opportunity to finally work together against a common foe. Rest assured, though, he does not make this move lightly. These Inhumans, they are most formidable—
Bixby: Everything has a weakness. Damn freaks may be able to fly backwards into the sun, but they don’t know squat about sick and twisted. Tell him I’ll look into it. Wait… that’s it? You don’t even tell me your name. Who are you?
Yelena: I’m the Black Widow.

Trivia fact of the day: Yelena’s first appearence was actually in the Paul Jenkins/Jae Lee Inhumans miniseries, which introduced her (and Col. Stalyenko) and foreshadowed her appearance in the 1999 Black Widow series. I’m not sure where the idea of Yelena Belova originated, with Devin Grayson or with editorial— I suspect it wasn’t with Jenkins. I’m, you know, of the opinion that Paul Jenkins should never write Black Widow, but he did a nice job making her authoritative and mysterious in her first cameo here. Jae Lee is very careful with his shadows and panelling— her scene lasts three pages, but we never see her face.

Trivia fact #2: Black Widow and the Inhumans shared a book back in the day, so maybe having Yelena pop up here isn’t completely random.

From Inhumans #5, by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee.