When you spend your life comparing yourself to somebody else, it's hard
to build your own personality. That's exactly what happened to Yelena Belova,
Marvel's other Black Widow. Here's what you need to know about this spy and assassin.
In one of the more lurid origin stories in Marvel history, back when the company was
still publishing comics in its adults-only MAX line, Yelena Belova's backstory was
revealed in the series "Black Widow: Pale Little Spider." Her trainer and mentor,
Colonel Starkovsky, is found killed in a Russian fetish club. Starkovsky had been training her in
combat since she was a pre-teen, and Yelena thought of him as a father figure. However,
he found himself thinking of her in a different way, and felt tremendous guilt about it.
He turned to the BDSM experts at club Fabrika, headed by a mysterious woman named Nikki.
She groomed a Yelena lookalike named Petra using files Starkovsky had stolen. Petra would humiliate
and degrade him while fulfilling his fantasies, and this allowed Starkovsky to stay sane. However,
Petra started to believe that she deserved to be the Black Widow, and killed Starkovsky in a rage.
Yelena went undercover and encountered Nikki, who eventually helped Yelena capture Petra.
Yelena killed Petra without hesitation and returned to receive her next orders
as the new Black Widow. After she left, it was revealed that Nikki was a spy,
and the whole mission was designed to test Yelena' field readiness.
"Whaaaat?"
"Why would you do that?"
Yelena Belova's first appearance came in the Marvel Knights Inhumans series,
when General Yuri Stalyenko was leading an assault on Attilan, the home of the Inhumans. The Inhumans
had isolated themselves from the human race for years for precisely this reason: they didn't
want to engage with the wars and politics of the human race. Of course, while Attilan
was ruled by the wise Black Bolt, his brother Maximus the Mad was always stirring up trouble.
Maximus had secretly reached out to Stalyenko, giving him information and technology that he knew
would allow the invaders to pierce Attilan's defenses and ultimately allow him to rule.
In order to make this work, a lot of espionage had to occur. Stalyenko sent his newly activated
Black Widow, Yelena, to deliver what appeared to be a gift to a U.S. ambassador. She told
him that he needed to get it into the hands of the Inhumans and it would act as a Trojan
horse, emitting a frequency that would lower the negative space barrier that protected Attilan.
The plan worked, as the ambassador gave the gift to an Inhuman diplomat after
the U.S. refused to intervene directly to stop the attacks on Attilan. In the end,
Black Bolt knew what Maximus had planned all along and went along with it before
he crushed Stalyenko's forces and made it appear as though Attilan had been destroyed.
During the 1999 Black Widow miniseries, Colonel Khan of the Rhapastanian army
commissioned a scientist named Dr. Didier Ines to create a biological weapon called
the Deathless Frenzy. This bio-toxin, once it infected its targets, turned them
into invincible berserker warriors until it cycled through their bodies and ravaged them.
Naturally, the U.S. and Russia didn't want a rogue state in possession of such
a dangerous weapon. More to the point, both countries wanted it for themselves.
So both countries sent their Black Widows to retrieve it: Natasha Romanoff for the U.S.,
and Yelena Belova for Russia. In their first encounter, Natasha's experience
overcame Yelena's surprise factor and sheer ruthlessness. Yelena immediately told
Natasha that she was the new Black Widow, revealing her obsession with her. Natasha
understood how to use that to her advantage as she coolly manipulated the younger spy.
Natasha kidnapped Ines and forced him to create a vaccine — then she drew Yelena out of hiding
and faked her own death, manipulating Yelena to go back to Rhapastan. Natasha genuinely felt
sorry for Yelena and the life that was chosen for her, but that didn't mean that she wasn't
going to use her. Natasha went undercover to vaccinate Khan's men and destroyed the
virus while Yelena served as her distraction. When Yelena tried to kill her, Natasha said
that Yelena's passion for the game wouldn't let her do it just yet... and she was right.
Yelena's next encounter with Natasha in the 2001 "Black Widow" miniseries was
even more one-sided and brutal. During their first encounter,
Natasha learned that the new head of the Red Room was none other than General Yuri Stalyenko,
a former mob-level thug who managed to worm his way into a position of power. Natasha
had SHIELD abduct Yelena from her apartment and perform "Face/Off"-style facial cosmetic surgery.
"It's like looking in a mirror, only...not."
A confused Yelena woke up in Natasha's New York apartment with Natasha's face and a
cheery Daredevil there to hit on her. Natasha, as Yelena, picked a fight with her in public,
baiting Yelena, as Natasha, to shoot her. A confused but angry Yelena obliged, even
as Natasha was really pretending to be Yelena, taunting her that she was too old and too slow.
The whole point of this was for Natasha to get in with Stalyenko and learn his plans. He
had a bunch of nukes stashed in New York, and though Stalyenko suspected she wasn't really
Yelena and sent an assassin after her, she was still a step ahead of him. Meanwhile,
SHIELD was pretending to chase Yelena all around New York,
exhausting the confused spy before Daredevil finally let her off the hook.
Natasha then made sure Yelena heard Stalyenko admit that Yelena was expendable and he'd
use her without hesitation. After the Widows captured him, Yelena attacked Natasha. Natasha
revealed that she was trying to save Yelena and teach her that everyone gets used in espionage.
When Natasha met Yelena for the third time, things got weird. Well, weirder. The Red Room
was hunting down former Black Widow agents, but Natasha turned the tables and killed her pursuers
and their accomplice, the CEO of an American drug company. That made her a wanted fugitive,
so she found her way to Cuba, where she knew Yelena had defected. This is where their
relationship thawed, as a mellow Yelena had been living it up after making millions as a lingerie
model and business owner. She had retired from the spy game and was living in luxury.
She also provided a place for girls to get off the street and gave them medicine.
She was happy to offer safe harbor for Natasha in exchange for Natasha roughing up some drug
suppliers who had jacked up the prices on their supply. Natasha did this, but realized that these
dealers were working for Gynacon, the company whose CEO she had killed. Natasha was later
kidnapped by a couple of killers looking for revenge, but Yelena and Daredevil rescued her
after she had been drugged. Natasha stayed in Cuba for a while, recovering, and they became friends.
The next time Yelena popped up in New Avengers #6, she was back in the spy game and had started
working for SHIELD, although she was part of a renegade unit that was mining Savage
Land Vibranium. Unlike Wakandan Vibranium, which absorbed sound, Savage Land Vibranium
destroyed the integrity of anything metallic. The New Avengers came across the operation while they
were hunting down Karl Lykos, a man who could transform into a sentient pteranodon called
Sauron, an energy leech who specifically homed in on mutant energy. Belova and her unit also
attacked the New Avengers, but Sauron burned her with fire before he was finally defeated.
Belova was whisked away by AIM, who saved her life and offered her a deal.
Her body was now permanently scarred and broken, but if she agreed to have
her consciousness transferred into the body of the new Super Adaptoid,
her power would be limitless and she could get back at the New Avengers. The Super
Adaptoid could absorb the powers of anyone upon contact, and those powers would stack.
In "New Avengers Annual #1," Yelena attacked Avengers Tower. When she absorbed the powers
of the Sentry, it appeared that there was no way the Avengers could stop her.
Iron Man summoned his entire armory of suits against her, wearing her down as they fought
her remotely. That gave the Sentry time to activate his other, evil self within him,
the Void, and push it in Yelena. Sensing a mission failure, AIM destroyed Yelena remotely.
Yelena Belova has often been involved in many hidden corners and cracks of the Marvel Universe.
One of the stranger ones was her membership in a secret team called Vanguard, an elite
black-ops squad that specialized in assassinations across the world. Their leader was Trenton Craft,
alias Colonel America, the product of a companion to the Super Soldier program of World War II.
Whereas Captain America was developed as a peak physical specimen, Craft was developed as the
most powerful telekinetic mind on the planet. However, he was too powerful and couldn't control
his powers, which led to a disastrous first mission where he destroyed an entire city.
He spent the next 60 years secretly honing his powers as he oversaw this team.
Craft was seemingly assassinated, but it turned out to be a complicated series of double crosses
that culminated with Craft showing up alive and deciding to obliterate the team since they
were compromised. Whether or not this version of Yelena survived the end of the story is unclear.
Yelena disappeared from the public eye until Norman Osborn found her breaking into a SHIELD
facility, which led to an offer for her to lead his team of Thunderbolts during Dark Reign.
She proved to be a capable tactician and leader of the group. However,
this wasn't actually Yelena at all — it was once again Natasha Romanoff
assuming Yelena's identity in order to infiltrate the Thunderbolts for Nick
Fury. She secretly reported her activities to Fury, who directed her on her missions.
Of course, this wasn't actually Fury. Osborn knew she wasn't Belova,
because he had Belova in a stasis tube, recovering from her destruction as the
Super Adaptoid. So he intercepted Natasha's communications and pretended to be Fury,
hoping that Natasha would eventually lead him to his foe. He had the Thunderbolts track
down Songbird and then ended the charade, ordering the Thunderbolts to kill them.
Natasha and Songbird managed to escape when several of the Thunderbolts turned on each other.
Some time later, Andrew Forson, the Scientist Supreme of AIM,
recovered that stasis tube from Osborn and revived Yelena. AIM had purchased
the island of Barbuda and decided to declare themselves a sovereign nation.
Barbuda became a haven for super-villains, and Yelena became its Minister of State.
The Secret Avengers stormed the facility as things began to fall apart for AIM.
A captured Mockingbird tried to escape but was met by Yelena, and they fought.
At the end of the fight, Mockingbird was shot and killed... except it wasn't Mockingbird. She'd
placed a hologram device on Yelena that made her look like Mockingbird. Yelena was dead, yet again.
If you're wondering how Yelena found time to have all these adventures when seemingly
every story involves her dying or captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., there's a simple answer:
"You're clones. You're copies of people out here in the world."
"Clones? What?"
The Red Room spy program that produced deadly female spies quite literally produced deadly
female spies. They kept clones of Natasha and Yelena on hand and had a psychic operative
named Epsilon Red, who maintained all of their memories and could download them into new bodies.
Natasha Romanoff was killed by the HYDRA version of Captain America during Secret Empire. However,
the Red Room activated a new Natasha clone. When the clone became aware of all this,
she used a blank slate Yelena clone as fodder to impersonate SHIELD agent Sally "Skids" Blevins in
order to fake Sally's death. She then took apart the Red Room and destroyed all of the clones.
Natasha sent another Yelena clone disguised as her in order to throw off Hawkeye and the
Winter Soldier... but not before she killed the real Yelena. Then she killed the clones
as well to put an end to her friend and rival, once and for all… at least until
the character likely gets a well-earned reboot following the "Black Widow" film.
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