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).
