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

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

Florence Pugh portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Black Widow, the miniseries Hawkeye (both 2021), and the upcoming movie Thunderbolts* (2024).