Black Widow (Yelena Belova)
Yelena Belova (Russian: Еле́на Бело́ва) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Originally created by Devin Grayson and J.G. Jones for Marvel Knights: Wave 2 Sketchbook #1 (January 1998), Belova made her first appearance in Inhumans vol. 2 #5 (January 1999) by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee.
Fictional character biography
[change | change source]She is depicted as a spy and was the second modern-era character to use the Black Widow name. She was trained as a spy and assassin in the Red Room. Originally, Yelena was a foe of Natasha Romanova and was sent to kill her, but the two later became allies. She was also a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., Vanguard, and HYDRA; the latter organization changed her into a version of Super-Adaptoid. As Super-Adaptoid, she was one of the members of the High Council of A.I.M. After being freed from her Super-Adaptoid identity, Belova reverted back to her old Black Widow identity before adopting the codename White Widow.
In other media
[change | change source]Florence Pugh portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Black Widow, the miniseries Hawkeye (both 2021), and the upcoming movie Thunderbolts* (2024).