Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic and welcome to Heroes Like Us. This is the series
where we look at an identity and then superheroes or super villains that share that identity.
Today we are talking about Russian characters. Now I've already done one video about this but we're
doing a second one because the Black Widow movie is coming out, so a lot of people are interested
in her kind of supporting cast of characters and other heroes that appear in those storylines.
So this is a Marvel only Russian-focused Heroes Like Us, so let's dive in and see who we can find.
Aside from Natasha, we have a second Black Widow: Yelena Belova. Marvel Comics.
In Moscow, we have this thing called the Red Room Academy, an espionage training facility
that produced spies like the Black Widow. Well, she wasn’t the only one, so we also
have characters like Yelena, recruited as an orphan and trained to be a deep cover operative
throughout the world. She has a turbulent history with the Black Widow that we know, Natasha,
as Yelena has stolen her identity, tried to kill her, been killed by her, and even
had Natasha impersonate her, to infiltrate a group of villains called the Thunderbolts.
Like the other Black Widows trained there, Yelena has no superhuman abilities naturally
but excels at hand-to-hand combat and uses a weapon called a Widow’s Bite,
one of them attached to each wrist. Yelena is set to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
played by Florence Pugh in the movie Black Widow. Up next we have the Red Guardian. Alexi Shostakov.
Marvel Comics. Alexi is a Soviet Union pilot, recruited into the KGB. At that time, he had
actually married a famous ballerina, who hadn’t yet become the Black Widow, Natasha Romanova.
While on a mission, the KGB decided he was going to go into training to become a legacy character
the Red Guardian, an equivalent to the United States and Captain America.
He fought both against and with characters like the Avengers for a long time. More recently,
Alexi was revealed to have taken on the mantle of Ronin, a masked character that has had several
incarnations including Hawkeye. In the movie Black Widow, Alexi appears to be a much older character,
serving as a father or father-like figure to Natasha and Yelena, played by David Harbour.
Now let's talk about Vanguard. Nikolai Krylenko. Marvel Comics. A Russian mutant who joined the
same program that trained Alexi and first took on the name Vanguard, before eventually claiming
the Red Guardian title. His mutant ability is an energy field that repels all kinetic
and electromagnetic energy. As a young man, he had to cross his signature hammer and sickle to
activate this power, but eventually he learned to use this protective ability without those
items. Nikolai had a sister who was a mutant, named Laynia, who went by the name Darkstar,
who was able to tap into the extradimensional energy called the dark force, which is the same
energy harnessed by the hero Cloak, from the duo Cloak and Dagger. She can tap into this energy
and create constructs, teleport herself, or fly. Up next we have a character called Ursa Major.
Mikhail Ursus. Marvel Comics. Mikhail is another Russian mutant, with the ability
to transform at will into a brown bear, while retaining his intelligence and ability to speak.
He’s fought both with and against Russian forces, often rebelling against them and
being locked up for his insubordination. He was recently brought out of isolation to serve on the
roster of the Winter Guard, though his anger and newfound alcoholism makes him an unreliable hero.
Now lastly for this video we have the character Kraven the Hunter. Sergei Kravinoff. Kraven is
a hunter, as his name says, obsessed with finding the biggest and fiercest prey to hunt on, looking
for trophies. He began without supernatural abilities but began to supplement his natural
state with potions, giving him improved speed and strength, and extending his natural life. While
usually a villain, he was recruited in the 1950s to serve on a version of Nick Fury’s Avengers.
This of course didn’t last long. Eventually, in a more modern era, Kraven sought out another big
trophy, the Spider-Man Peter Parker. He often hunted Spider-Man, either alone or as a part
of a group, such as the Sinister Six. When he wasn’t focused on Spider-Man, he hunted
other beings such as the anti-hero Venom. He often worked with his half-brother Dmitri, who went by
the name Chameleon. Since he was an illegitimate son, he was treated as an embarrassment and always
was second to Kraven. He was a master of disguise, using masks and makeup to appear as others,
which is how he earned the name Chameleon. He eventually became incredibly evil, using
his disguises to appear as world leaders and try to start global conflicts or acts of terrorism.
So there you have it, another batch of heroes and villains
with Russian backgrounds. Hopefully you found this interesting. If you want to
check out the first video, you can find it here. Otherwise let me know if there's any characters
we missed and we will definitely include them in future videos. Thanks for watching!