Anna Daniels
People familiar with Black Widow primarily through the MCU know she can be a bit hard to pin down. You never quite know where her allegiances lie, such as when she switched sides in the middle of Captain America: Civil War. After all, she’s a spy, so it’s probably for the best that no one can really read her. We know she has a dark past, but we’ve only really ever seen her fight alongside the Avengers, so she must have been trained by the bad guys but defected early on, right?
As it turns out, the comics originally had Black Widow start off as a villain. She made her debut in Tales of Suspense #52 where she was an arch-enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. She had some incredibly difficult missions during her early stories, including one plot to seduce, betray, and steal from Iron Man. She eventually met Hawkeye, who also started out as a villain, and while she was attracted to him, she was often able to manipulate him into doing her dirty work. However, it wasn’t long until they wanted to work with the Avengers, and Black Widow officially defected over to work with the United States. The romantic relationship between Natasha and Hawkeye didn’t last, but it helped them understand where their allegiances needed to be.
Written by: Looper
