The retcon of how Nick Fury originally recruited Black Widow to go work for SHIELD was quite disturbing.
Today, we look at the disturbing retcon that Marvel used to reveal how Nick Fury actually recruited Black Widow to go work for S.H.I.E.L.D.
In every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer without actively contradicting an earlier story (so the more passive definition of retcons as being anything that is retroactively added to continuity, even if there is no specific conflict with a past story). Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.
Obviously, as you are all aware by now, Black Widow debuted in the 1960s as a Soviet operative, basically a riff on Boris and Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle. Just an over-the-top Russian spy. You really couldn’t get more generic of a villain, really. The first sort of twist for the character was when she seduced the American archer known as Hawkeye and manipulated him into becoming a super-villain and trying to kill Iron Man. That failed a few times and so the Soviets forced her to become an ACTIVE operative rather than just someone who sent other people on missions and in Tales of Suspense #64, she teamed up with Hawkeye once more to take Iron Man down, but ol’ Shellhead figured out that Black Widow was Hawkeye’s Achilles heel and blasted at her, forcing Hawkeye to help her and call off his attack on Iron Man…
Well, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee decided to make Hawkeye a superhero after that and so, in Avengers #16, Black Widow tries to defect and is instead gunned down, leading Hawkeye to join the Avengers in her memory…
She turns out to be alive in Avengers #29, just brainwashed and teams up with Power Man and the Swordsman to destroy the Avengers, starting with Hawkeye.
Luckily for Hawkeye, her love for him causes her to break free of the brainwashing and she was back to the side of the angels…
She was all set to become a member of the Avengers when Nick Fury captured her and convinced her that she was needed as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Avengers #38…
That was her status quo for years. Well, in the final issue of the first Richard K. Morgan Black Widow miniseries (art by Goran Parlov and Bill Seinkiewicz), we learn that Black Widow was controlled by special pheromones and Nick Fury stole them and THAT’S how he got her to defect…
Fury didn’t even bother denying it. Now, my pal Tom A. suggested this one and he thinks that this might be more of a If I Pass This Way Again, as no one really talk about this anymore, but I think we just don’t hear about her start with SHIELD period, so I think it is still part of her continuity and boy, it is MESSED UP.
Thanks to Tom for the suggestion! If anyone has a suggestion for a future edition of Abandoned Love, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
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