Black Widow #3
Itsy-Bitsy Spider Part 3 of 3: I.D.
Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, is on a mission to recover a bio-weapon being developed by Didier Ines for the Rhapastan military. Along the way she discovered how deadly the weapon was and secreted Ines away to develop an antidote against it.
Pursued by Yelena Belova, another Black Widow created by Russia’s Red Room, Natasha tracked her to Zurich and tried to convince her not to throw her life away as a spy. While trying to reason with the young spy, Natasha is seemingly killed when she is shot in the back by a team of SHIELD assassins.
That’s when a call comes in to Natasha’s phone from Daredevil. Yelena answers it and tells the hero that Natasha is down and she is taking over as the Black Widow, kicking Natasha’s body in the icy water. Daredevil warns Yelena that the Avengers have relayed information to him to pass along to the Black Widow. He warns her that both the United States and Russia have deployed teams to Rhapastan to intervene in the situation. Her mission is to make sure the bio-weapon doesn’t end up in the wrong hands. Yelena then returns to the Middle Eastern country and begins tracking General Khan’s troops as they relocate their supply of the bio-weapon.
Back in Zurich, Doctor Didier Ines is contacted by someone checking to see how he is coming along with the creation of an antidote to the bio-weapon. He tells the caller that he hasn’t succeeded but has managed to develop a vaccine against the toxin. This is good enough for the person on the other end of the line, and they instruct Ines to prepare as much as possible and have it shipped to a specific location.
That evening, Yelena Belova attempts to steal the truck carrying the bio-toxin. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get far before Colonel Khan’s troops are on her. Despite her training, she is too inexperienced in the field and is quickly captured. However, she doesn’t go down without horribly burning some of Khan’s troops. Khan decides that he is going to have some fun with Yelena before getting her to spill the beans on her employers and then ending her life.
A short time later, a medical supply truck arrives on the scene, it is bringing burn medication for the injured soldiers. Noticing that there is a woman in a burka in the passenger seat, the soldiers demand to know who she is. The driver says that the woman is a skilled nurse and the only one qualified to treat the burn victims. When this raises some suspicions, one of the troops go to tell Colonel Khan about it. He is unconcerned and orders them to let the woman treat the others, pointing out that they already have the Black Widow a prisoner.
The “nurse” turns out to be Natasha Romanov in disguise and she uses her ruse to vaccinate the soldiers agianst the bio-weapon. Once she has completed this job, Natasha flees into the desert.
At dawn, Yelena has managed to break free and is about to make her escape. That’s when she is ambushed by Natasha, who reveals that she is still alive. She also explains that she faked her death with the help of SHIELD so they could use Yelena to their advantage. She then injects Yelena with a dose of the vaccine. She tries to get Yelena to leave, but then American and Russian soldiers arrive on the scene and start engaging the Rhapastani troops. In the ensuing clash, the canisters of the bio-toxin are blown up. However, with nearly everyone vaccinated against the weapon, the only one affected is Colonel Khan.
Natasha then tells the soldiers to stand aside while she fights Khan himself. As she clashes with the madman, Yelena meets with her handler Yuri Stalyenko. She can’t understand why someone who is so exhausted by her career of a spy would willingly throw herself into a fight with Khan. Stalyenko explains that Natasha is tired of the short sighted stupidity like men like Khan, and that she still has ambition.
Eventually, the battle with Khan comes to an end when the toxin finally runs its course and kills him. When Yelena tries to shoot Natasha from behind, Romanov calls her on it saying she won’t do it now that she has gotten passion for the job and will want to always challenge herself by going up against Natasha in the future. Realizing Natasha is right, Yelena is allowed to escape.
However, her superiors are furious that she failed her mission and when it seems she is trying to escape in a helicopter, the Russians shoot it down. However, Natasha knows that Yelena isn’t dead, a hunch that’s confirmed when one of the American troops reports his jeep stolen. She tells them that a spy of Yelena’s caliber is unstoppable and that’s what makes her so unique.
Recurring Characters
Black Widow (Romanov), Black Widow (Belova), Daredevil, Yuri Stalyenko, Didier Ines, SHIELD, Colonel Khan
Topical References
Natasha is depicted as having a flip phone that were common when this comic was published in 1999 when this story was published. This should be considered a topical reference. While these phones still exist, they are a niche market compared to smart phones that dominate the market. These types of phones are regularly used by low-level criminals as they can be easily obtained and are more anonymous. As such, it’s use here could be considered topical unless you think that Natasha is using a burner phone like your friendly neighborhood pot dealer.
