Yelena Belova (Marvel)

Yelena Belova in Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #1.

Yelena Belova is a female comic supervillain who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Yelena Belova (Russian: Елена Белова; Ukrainian: Олена Бєлова) was a female human who came to be a recruit in the Red Room in Moscow to become the newest Black Widow. As a student of the program, her physical test scores were noted to had exceeded those of her rival Natasha Romanova. (Black Widow v1 #1)

She was 15 years old when she started the Black Widow program and began training under Lieutenant Colonel Starkovsky. In the academy, the young Belova ascended to the rank of captain, being close to her instructor Colonel Starkovsky and the physician Lika Medvedev. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #1)

Captain Belova was later informed about the death of Lieutenant Colonel Starkovsky who had been executed after visiting a sex club. This saw her being activated as a Black Widow in order to investigate the death and missing files that Starkovsky had sold on the program. In the club, Belova was introduced to the manager, the dominatrix Nikki, who was shown to know privileged information about the Black Widow Ops Program and Belova. Nikki revealed that Starkovsky was a regular client of her sex club and used to pay large amounts of money to have access to services from a sex worker called Petra, who wore a Black Widow costume similar to Belova's. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #1) After learning of Starkovsky's bondage fantasies about her, a disturbed Belova suspected he had been killed by Petra. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #2) Her suspicions were confirmed when she found the dead body of detective Golitsyn in Petra's bedroom. Upon confronting Petra, Belova learned that her insane doppelgänger had become obsessed with the Black Widow image after having access to her files through Starkovsky and decided to eliminate Belova to become the only Black Widow. After a confrontation, Belova was shot by Petra, but managed to overpower and eliminate her rival. Back to the Red Room Academy, Belova coped with Starkovsky's death by shutting down her emotions. She reported her success in recovering her missing files to Tischenko. As she left, Tischenko contacted Nikki, who was in fact a captain of the Red Room Academy, and discussed how Starkovsky's death was a plan to force Belova to assert herself as a Black Widow. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #3)

Black Widow

As the Black Widow, Belova was assigned to work as Colonel Yuri Stalyenko's agent. One of her first known missions was delivering a device that would lower the barriers around Attilan in order to allow of an invasion of the Inhuman city. When Stalyenko attempted to lower the barriers surrounding the Inhuman city of Attilan under the influence of Maximus the Mad, the Black Widow contacted the American agent Mister Bixby. She provided Bixby with a powerful device gifted by Maximus which would give Russia, America and other human nations advantage in their war against the shielded Attilan. (Inhumans v2 #5)

She later joined S.H.I.E.L.D. where she became a freelance operative of the espionage agency that managed the Vibranium mining operation in the Savage Land. During this time, the new Avengers arrived in pursuit of Karl Lykos following him after his escape from the Raft. Upon arriving at the rogue facility, Belova commanded S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to attack the Avengers but they refused leading to their swift capture. Yelena refused to reveal anything except that she was working on S.H.I.E.L.D. when she was attacked by Lykos's alternate persona Sauron who breathed fire on her causing her body to be engulfed in flames. This led to her fleeing into the jungles of the Savage Land where she was badly wounded but was recovered by her benefactor who offered her a chance at revenge with Belova accepting the deal. (New Avengers v1 #6) This was an operative from Hydra who alongside A.I.M. offered her the chance to get revenge by providing her with the abilities of an Adaptoid. As a result, Yelena made a full-recovery and in disguise she attacked Avengers Tower when the Mayor was visiting the Avengers. The proximity of the Avengers allowed Yelena to absorb each of their powers where she overpowered them until Stark used Iron Man Armors remotely to attack her. She was defeated when the Sentry overwhelmed Yelena's powers due to his ties to the Void causing her to be paralysed with fear. To prevent her from revealing their secrets, her handler detonated a remote bomb causing her body to explode seemingly killing Belova. (New Avengers Annual v1 #1)

Nick Fury came to learn that newly appointed Director Norman Osborn of H.A.M.M.E.R. was looking to recruit Yelena Belova for his Thunderbolts to serve as a field leader. To get a double agent in his operation, Natasha Romanoff came to disguise herself as Yelena Belova where she came to find herself on the team. (Thunderbolts v1 #135)

Though seemingly dead, she had survived but was left in stasis with her being recovered by A.I.M. and placed at their Chariot facility. The Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson came to the site to recruit her to be the Minister of State on his new High Council of A.I.M. on their island nation of Barbuda. (Secret Avengers v2 #2)

White Widow

Afterwards, a reformed Red Room program was created by Alexander Cady who planned to bring the best agents back into the fold. This saw them creating several clones of Belova being grown by them at their America-based headquarters. These amnesiac clones came to be activated after the original was murdered by a resurrected Natasha Romanova that had been created by the Red Room. (Tales of Suspense v1 #103)

Gaining control of her life, Belova came to be recruited by Justin Cask who wanted her to free Dr. Durst from a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison facility in Antarctica. This saw her being provided a white version of her Black Widow costume and dropped at the site. She quickly learnt though that this was a trap as she was sent to serve as a test subject against the defences of the prison. Whilst there, she came to find the Red Guardian to be a prisoner at the facility where she freed him. He would battle Durst's forces whilst Belova managed to make her escape from the person. Afterwards, she would hack the financial accounts of Cask and donate all his vast fortune to various charities. (Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova v1 #1)

In the aftermath, Belova was hiding in Symkaria when she was confronted by Natasha who did not want a fight but wanted Yelena to help her on an assignment. They broke into a classified server site where they encountered an imposter disguised as Nastasha Romanoff. (Web of Black Widow v1 #3)

Overview

Personality and attributes

It was noted that she was shorter than fellow Black Widow Natasha Romanova. (Thunderbolts v1 #134) She later came to take the name of White Widow for herself. (Black Widow v8 #6)

Whilst training to be a Black Widow, Yelena often compared herself to Natasha Romonova and often remarked how her predecessor had scored better than her. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #1) She acknowledged that she lacked the experience of Natalia Romonova but considered herself her predecessors equal or superior in every other respect. (Black Widow v1 #1) Yelena was ambitious, hungry and passionate with this driving her desire to find and destroy Romonova no matter the cost. (Black Widow v1 #2)

Her suit had a grappling line by the top of her hand allowing her to scale buildings. (Black Widow v1 #2)

Yelena stated that she had parents back in Kiev waiting for her to make them proud. (Black Widow v1 #1)

Lieutenant Colonel Starkovsky served as one of her instructors at the Red Room with Yelena commenting that he was like a father to her. She thought of him as a great man where she intended to whatever it took to serve his memory. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #1)

Powers and abilities

Such was her talent that she was said to be the first student in the history of the Red Room to had surpassed the marks of the legendary Natalia Romonova. She also has extensive military, gymnastics, martial arts, and espionage training. (Black Widow v1 #1) One of her instructors was Lieutenant Colonel Starkovsky who taught her hand-to-hand combat and improvised weapon knife work. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #1)

For a time, she was biologically modified to possess the powers of an Adaptoid allowing her to absorb the superpowers of anyone she touched. Her body was able to hold multiple abilities which she could use in conjunction with one another against her enemies. Despite this, she was not used to superhuman abilities and thus was not adept in their use. (New Avengers Annual v1 #1)

Formerly, she served in the Russian military where she held the rank of Captain in the GRU in the First Directorate. In this time, she came to operate as part of the Red Room and had been trained as a Black Widow. (Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1 #1)

Notes

• Yelena Belova was created by Devin Grayson and J. G. Jones where she made her first appearance in Inhumans v2 #5 (March, 1999).
• In an interview on Marvel.com, Grayson wrote on the creation of the character, "“[BLACK WIDOW (1999)] was about Natasha confronting her own sense of aging, and to illustrate that I felt I needed someone younger for her to play off of. We had also just lived through this extraordinary political transformation, and Yelena gave me a way to make a differentiation between a generation of Russians who grew up as Soviets and the one following them, who grew up after the Belavezha Accords. When we meet Yelena, she’s young and rash and hungry to prove herself against Nat. She considers Black Widow a mantle more than a person and one that Natasha no longer deserves. In [the follow-up series] which I co-wrote with Greg Rucka, Nat goes to great lengths to show Yelena the extent to which, even as a ‘free Russian,’ Yelena is still a spy and a Red Room graduate and as such a tool of her government and/or the highest bidder. Yelena has made use of choices that weren’t initially available to Nat. In my mind, Natasha is indelibly connected to the Soviet Union and the Cold War, and Yelena is not. Yelena is a child of perestroika and glasnost and unification, a patriotic Russian moving through the world without the hang-ups of Stalinism. She is, in other words, loyal by choice, as opposed to Natasha, who was loyal by indoctrination and so subsequently—perhaps inevitably—revised her primary allegiance... Yelena reflects contemporary Russia. Obviously, there’s a lot more to them than that—Nat is older and more experienced and less invested in the approval of others, as well as being a very passionate person who forms deep connections with other people despite the intention not to, whereas Yelena is in some ways less cynical about her ability to change the world than Nat is, less hampered by association with highly principled associates, and probably more likely to identify as asexual than to follow Nat’s romantic path—but that’s the central tension between the two characters."

In other media

Television

• In Avengers Assemble, Yelena Belova appeared as an antagonist in the animated series third season Avengers: Ultron Revolution episode "Seeing Double" where she was voiced by actress Julie Nathanson. She was recruited by Baron Strucker after he reactivated the Red Room program and her become the next Black Widow. Belova operated as his prime agent in HYDRA with her deemed as his greatest creation though she regularly challenged him. Strucker dispatched her to capture the Hulk where she turned him into Bruce Banner. She brought Banner to a HYDRA facility where Baron Strucker used the Winter Soldier brainwashing technology to transform the Hulk into a controllable agent called the Winter Hulk. In the episode "Prison Break", she began to operate as the Crimson Widow who remained as the sole remaining operative of the Red Room.
• In Hawkeye, Yelena Belova appeared in the setting of the live-action television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where she was portrayed by actress Florence Pugh.

Films

• In Black Widow, Yelena Belova appeared in the setting of the 2021 live-action film where she was portrayed by actress Florence Pugh.

Video games

• In Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Yelena Belova's Black Widow suit appeared as an alternate costume for Natasha Romanoff Black Widow in the PlayStation Portable version of the video game.
• In Marvel Avengers Alliance, Yelena Belova as Dark Widow appeared as a mini-boss in the setting of the Facebook video game.
• In Marvel Heroes, Yelena Belova appeared as an alternate enhanced costume for Black Widow in the setting of the MMORPG video game.
• In Marvel Future Fight, Yelena Belova appeared as a playable character in the setting of the mobile video game where she was introduced as part of the Black Widow film tie-in update.

Podcasts

• In Marvel's Wastelanders: Black Widow, an older version of Yelena Belova appeared in the setting of the audio series set in the Old Man Logan universe where she was voiced by actress Susan Sarandon.

Appearances

• Inhumans v2: (1999)
• Black Widow v1: (1999)
• Black Widow: Pale Little Spider v1:
• New Avengers v1:
• New Avengers Annual v1:
• Thunderbolts v1:
• Secret Avengers v2:
• Web of Black Widow v1:
• Widowmakers:
• Black Widow:
• Winter Guard v1: (2021)

External links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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