Already spider-themed, Marvel Comics’ Black Widow naturally became the first of several female counterparts to Marvel’s most popular superhero, the first of several fully feminist Marvel superwomen and finally a Hollywood heroine.
In the first six years of her fictional career, she moved from minor villain to headlining hero. Over the same span, her dramatic journey paralleled the advancement in the status of women across the 20th century.
She wasn’t a costumed character but a beautiful “femme fatale,” an archetype created by male writers that represents a woman’s sexual attractiveness to men as a siren threat, a weapon.
Dashiell Hammett’s Brigid O’Shaughnessy, from the 1929 novel The Maltese Falcon, is a classic of the type, seducing several men to their doom. The femme fatale has often amounted to a nightmare view of female independence and confidence.
But Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique, credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century, was already a year old when the Black Widow debuted. So, by the end of the decade, the character was transformed from a slinky villain into a playgirl feminist superhero with her own feature in Amazing Adventures (Aug. 1970, drawn by John Buscema and written by Gary Friedrich).
Defecting to the U.S. and trading espionage for superheroics, Natasha had settled on a costume that consisted of a skintight black catsuit and wristband weapons that echoed Diana Rigg’s most popular outfit as Emma Peel in The Avengers (no, not those Avengers).
After her Amazing Adventures feature ended in 1971, the Black Widow started teaming up with Daredevil. In 1975, the characters attracted the interest of Angela Bowie, who planned to play Natasha in a TV project. She was the wife of David Bowie (Yes, that David Bowie).
Philip Portelli wrote:
ReplyDelete"Kicking is not a super-power!"
"Since 1970 Marvel has been giving the BLACK WIDOW the spotlight long denied some of its older characters, both male and female. While the Invisible Girl, the Wasp and the Scarlet Witch are established parts of their team books, they never got a feature of their own.
Her partnership with Daredevil lasted several years while no other super-hero's girlfriend received co-star status and when she was part of the Champions, she was the leader, long before the Wasp or Storm led their teams!
Natasha was never just "the girl" and while she never had her own book in the Bronze Age, she was never treated like a "copyright holder" like Ms. Marvel, Spider-Woman and the She-Hulk. In fact, two of those were swept aside after a few years while the Sultry Spy kept getting opportunity after opportunity!"
Bob Doncaster wrote:
ReplyDeleteI think the black cat suit look debuted in an issue of Spider-man. Sure beats the ( kind of ) fish net one with the short cape and mask.
Robert S. Childers wrote:
ReplyDeleteIn Amazing Spider-Man #86, from July 1970. She decided to test out her new gear by seeing if she could take on Spider-Man (he was understandably mystified, and she eventually decided he was a bit too powerful for her). The cover of the issue, and Spidey himself on the inside, made a lot of noise about her being a "female version of Spider-Man," which I still don't get. Outside of her name being a type of spider, she's nothing at all like Spider-Man.
She swings from buildings, wears a skin-tight suit and has a spidery code name. That's enough.
ReplyDeleteMichael Fraley wrote:
ReplyDeleteWe have John Romita to thank for BW's catsuit redesign, debuting in an issue of Spider-Man. I'm pretty sure that Mom brought that issue home to me from the corner market. I'm also pretty sure that Mom didn't look at it too closely, or I would have gotten another copy of Sad Sack.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteI did not like the original version of the Black Widow. Her costume, which made her look like a widow, was just blah, and I disliked the communists as heavy, which permeated many early Marvel books. I missed the Spider-Man issue since it came out doing my hiatus from comics, but did follow her in Amazing Adventures but it was the Colan issues that made me sit up and take a gander. I didn't particularly care for the way that she was characterized in Daredevil though Colan drew her beautifully.
When Natasha shows up in the first Iron Man movie, I was surprised that she didn't have red hair and she didn't have an accent. Marvel movies being the way they are, it all got explained eventually--and even without the accent, Scarlett Johansson has made a great widow!
The movie version of the jumpsuit is more utilitarian, I think. Black is, of course, the in-color! Before Emma Peel, I can think of two women in form-fitting albeit not snug black--albeit not a jumpsuit: Modesty Blaise and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
I replied:
And even Modesty Blaise was preceded by Honor Blackman in The Avengers.
Melody Ivins wrote:
ReplyDeleteI remember the original costume, which included a chic half-face black veil and perhaps a classic Little Black Dress. Va va voom! Of course I liked her better when she became a fighter rather than a vamp, and I love her MCU incarnation.