Black Widow Underestimated: Black Widow Unbound - Past, Present, Future
By Paul Thomas — My examination of the scattered commitment by Marvel Comics to the character Black Widow is now falling in the midst of a disturbing moment in history about the full humanity of women. Writing about her prescient novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood explains, “The Constitution has nothing to say about women’s reproductive health. But the original document does not mention women at all.”
Atwood acknowledges as well that “[w]omen were nonpersons in U.S. law for a lot longer than they have been persons. If we start overthrowing settled law using Justice Samuel Alito’s justifications, why not repeal votes for women?”
This reminded me of Adrienne Rich’s poem, “Diving into the Wreck,” that ends with:
We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to this scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.
Black Widow (v.5) begins a 20-issue run by Nathan Edmondson, writer, and Phil Noto, artist in issue 001 with Natasha in disguise, announcing “No one will ever know my full story.”
Edmondson and Noto bring a powerful and welcomed focus on fully exploring and honoring the character of Natasha/Black Widow (issue 001)
What our life stories include matters, of course, but also the stories matter in the telling. Edmondson and Noto accomplish what Black Widow has always deserved with a careful and complex look at Natasha/Black Widow—past, present, and future.
“If You Know My Name…”: Seeing Black Widow Again for the First Time
The patterns of underestimating and hypersexualizing Black Widow have recurred since Marvel first introduced the character—objectifying Natasha’s body, Black Widow in bondage, sexual tension and puns, and reductive narratives about motherhood and family. However, Noto’s 20 stunning covers reveal this run is taking a much different and more impressive route.
Only one cover, issue 006, has a bound Black Widow, and she is breaking free from a chain web. Noto also seems to play with the hypersexualizing as well with issue 009 alluding to Basic Instinct and punctuated with Punisher imagery.
Before examining the content of v.5, I want to highlight the ways in which this series often rises above the concerns I have been addressing about Black Widow’s depictions. Edmondson and Noto are excellent storytellers, avoiding cliché and reductive plots; but one of the best aspects of this creative team is both writer and artist carry the narrative with Noto’s distinct style defining this run.
A persistent tension in Black Widow narratives is acknowledging Natasha’s attractiveness and sexuality without objectifying and trivializing her character.
Throughout v.5, Edmondson and Noto navigate this problem extremely well, notably in the bathroom and bedroom scenes that too often in other runs are ways to leer at Natasha either nude behind strategically placed objects or with her cleavage centered (see, for example, Gene Colan panels here).
Edmondson and Noto lay the groundwork, I think, for similar work in v.8 by Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande, who excel in treating Natasha/Black Widow with the sort of care and respect the character deserves.
In v.5 and v.8, Black Widow’s costume is stylish and distinct—not exploitive. Thankfully absent from Noto’s work are heaving bosoms and plunging necklines. However, both runs never shy away from highlighting attractiveness and sexiness.
Natasha/Black Widow as elegant in a glamorous world—Noto offers readers some of the best depictions of Natasha over her long history at Marvel. Similar to his Basic Instinct allusion (cover, issue 009), the zoom image of a bare foot in issue 005 suggests a Quentin Tarantino nod as well. (Issues 001, 005, 011)
While Edmondson and Noto keep Natasha/Black Widow firmly in the Marvel superhero universe—Daredevil, the Punisher, X-23, Hawkeye, and the Winter Soldier all join in—Natasha’s relationship with women is more fully developed and certainly not as exploitive as some of the earlier volumes that reduced Black Widow’s interactions with Yelena and Elektra to cat fights and objectification.
X-23 isn’t the sort of canonical pairing for Black Widow as Yelena or Elektra, but their dynamic is fresh and complimentary in ways that dignify both characters.
Natasha and Laura share a seething rage that makes including X-23 a more compelling relationship than the warned-over uses of Yelena and Elektra. (Issue 011)
Overall, Noto’s impact on this run is very much cinematic, especially with his coloring. Instead of reducing Natasha to her body, Noto places Black Widow in a dynamic landscape, both highlighting her as a skilled agent and framing her in a rich world-scape, reminding me of films such as George Clooney’s The American where setting is as much of the storytelling as plot and character.
And thus, color, light, and panoramic views serve to build and drive the narrative as much as the dialogue and character action.
“But Ethics Isn’t a Science”: Past, Present, Future
Natasha/Black Widow is haunted by her past, a central motif of most Black Widow series. Here, Edmondson and Noto develop over v.5 a compelling examination of how Natasha can use the present to atone for her past and create a future where she is free.
Separate from S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, Natasha creates a “web” managed by her lawyer, Isaiah Ross, in order to generate money for that atonement—and specifically not for her own wealth.
The jobs arranged by Isaiah and the discussion between Natasha and Isaiah create and develop the ethical dilemmas grounded in Natasha’s past as an assassin—“I’m a killer”—and her present agenda of atonement that often places her back in situations where she confronts taking human life.
Natasha’s past and present are ethical dilemmas, but as Black Widow admits, “My past is my own.” (Issue 002)
Throughout v.5, Natasha struggles with the concept of “home” as well as committing to any relationships, even an ever-present cat (that eventually proves to represent her violent past). Natasha believes, “A home is a distraction,” and where she lives also reminds her of the daily violence experienced by women.
Eventually Natasha confronts her abusive neighbor, although such efforts connect her to the place and to other people. This urge to help and defend creates a tension with her ability to blend into any environment, to be unseen: “But it is the unteachable skill to belong anywhere. The other edge of that is the unfortunate truth: You must first belong nowhere.”
The contrasts between Natasha at “home” and Black Widow in the field as a hired agent are weaved throughout this run. Noto’s use of color defines that contrast with muted and bright colors as well as the use of dark and light. (Issue 003)
The Edmondson/Noto run distinguishes itself from earlier series in a more sophisticated use of sexualized language and a break away from the bondage imagery often used with Black Widow.
Natasha often is put in situations that make her play the “flirt” or pose her as sexual bait. As well, many earlier series are punctuated with seemingly gratuitous sexual puns. In issue 004, Natasha’s thinks, “…and thus we’re powerless. Impotency does not suit me.”
This interaction with Maria about S.H.I.E.L.D.—notably two women—uses sexualized language not as flirting or puns, but to emphasize issues of power and gender (see below concerning more gendered language between Maria and Natasha).
Another reduction that Edmondson/Noto resist is sexualized bondage of Natasha/Black Widow. Absent is a nude Natasha bound in a meat locker; instead, in issues 005 and 006, Natasha is bound fully clothed, and as noted above, the cover of issue 006 emphasizes Natasha breaking free, instead of using the bondage to objectify her body.
Yes, Natasha/Black Widow is often trapped in the limits and complications of being in a woman’s body, but this series explores those tensions without women being reduced by the male gaze (of the creators and readers) even as we still are aware that the narrative will always include elements of the sexualized and abused woman’s body.
Edmondson and Noto are more interested in showing Natasha/Black Widow break free as an act of power instead of finding ways to titillate the reader with Natasha’s cleavage nearly breaking free of her skin-tight costume.
While v.5 primarily explores Natasha separate from her superhero connections, this series still includes some expected interactions with standard superhero appearances such as Daredevil, The Punisher, Hawkeye, and The Winter Soldier.
These appearances fit into the overarching past/present/future motif of the series, especially Daredevil (see below) as the embodiment of a past Natasha doesn’t escape and an idealized future.
One of the defining characteristics of Noto’s superhero work is that Noto maintains a sort of standard human look in superhero depictions. Just as Noto does not hypersexualize Natasha and her Black Widow costume, Noto mutes the hypermasculinity of Daredevil and especially The Punisher. (Issues 007 and 009)
The cover of issue 012 shows Anderson Cooper with a special report examining whether or not Black Widow is a superhero or assassin. The use of social media to add to the past/present/future motif gives this series a contemporary feel, but also allows readers to consider how media treat women differently than men.
The media scrutiny and added layer or media/social media and celebrity build on the alienation motif, that Natasha doesn’t fit in, both as a personal commitment and as her fate. Natasha muses in issue 014, “I am exceptional. I am the exception. I do not belong.”
As noted above, previous series have included jarring sexual puns, seemingly out of context with the plot or situation, and obligatory sexual tension between Natasha and nearly any man in the story. A good example of Edmondson reaching beyond that is the use of gendered language.
Seeking details about Chaos, Natasha has a man nail-gunned to the wall in issue 014, yet he decides to ask for a kiss and calls her “little girl.” Here, the narrative portrays the sexism of the world without the sexism or male gaze of the writer/artist or the reader.
This scene fits well against another conversation in issue 016 between Natasha and Maria (see above in issue 004): “I need you back, Natasha. I’m man enough to admit it.”
Another important scene between two women, both of whom navigate gendered language. Part of Natasha’s reply is an interesting contrast to being called a “little girl” just two issues earlier: “Being the odd girl out, the bad girl, the anti-hero. It’s not what I wanted.”
Natasha evokes these terms, not conceding to the inherent sexism, but as a woman aware of these stereotypes that reduce women, that deny women selfhood and power. Part of her embracing power here is the definitive “I quit.”
Although much of the past motif in v.5 includes Natasha’s violent and deadly past, the past that she seeks atonement for, another aspect of her past that is linked to her present is her direct awareness of the violence women suffer at the hands of men, often their partners.
In early issues, Natasha confronts a neighbor over domestic abuse, even as she seeks ways not to be engaged in “home,” but in issue 016, readers see Natasha as a child. At first, she is drawn to the glamour of a ballerina’s life, and then she learns about the violence of men.
Her friend warns her of the world’s reality as well: “One day, Marina, I will be the best too,” Natasha says. “Then you’ll need a rich husband,” Marina replies, “like she has to pay for your training, won’t you? You cannot make it on your own, Nat.”
The sneer of Natasha as a child—“He did that to her! He did it!”—foreshadows the avenging Natasha who in adulthood continues to wrestle with the tension between avenger and assassin. (Issue 016)
The Chaos storyline builds to a climactic resolution of the past/present/future motif. The leader of Chaos, The Profit, offers Natasha an alluring option, even as he frames himself as Jesus (which Natasha calls out). The offer includes, “With us, your past will never matter.”
The idealized and imagined future for Natasha involves her and Matthew Murdock in issue 017. Unlike the clunky and out-of-character maternal instincts scenes between Natasha and Matt in earlier series, here Natasha rejects the ideal, eventually killing The Prophet as a powerful rejection of this fantasy.
This is not who Natasha is, she seems to realize.
In another flashback of her youth, and once again a conversation between two women, issue 020 has a direct reference to the dominant motif of time: “All of this,” Marina asks, “The red room. Service. Where do you think we will be in ten years? Twenty? Forty?”
“A Book of Myths/in which/Our Names Do Not Appear”
The Edmondson and Noto run on Black widow still stands as the longest, at 20 issues. But the greatest contribution is that they have produced a book of myths in which the names of women, and the lives of women, do appear and in ways that honor those lives.
Natasha has plans for her future, and appears to have found some peace, even in uncertainty: “Save those you can. Do good. Even if it seems impossible. It’s something that we choose to do. Because we are heroes.”
A hard act to follow, v.5 lays the foundation for another important run with v.6 and the creative team of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. What version of Natasha/Black Widow will they choose?
Read our parallel look at the history of Daredevil, Man Without Fear…By The Year!
Read more feature writing about comics!
P. L. Thomas, Professor of Education (Furman University), taught high school English for 18 years in South Carolina before moving to teacher education and teaching first-year writing. He is author of How to End the Reading War and Serve the Literacy Needs of All Students: A Primer for Parents, Policy Makers, and People Who Care (IAP). Follow him at http://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/ and @plthomasEdD.
