Gene in January, Day EighteenDaredevil #90, page 17 by Gene Colan and Tom
Palmerhttps://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1695793
Here's another flashback page to the Black Widow's first mission. Natasha is
gradually reinventing herself from the established spy fiction tropes of the
times, declining to be a compliant ingénue to chauvinist exemplar Danny
French's unwelcome advances. If you were a fan of James Bond movies growing up
in this era, it wasn't unusual to have a pretty confused and regressive
conception of how women liked to be treated.
This tale of the early Black Widow has probably been retconned out of existence
several times by now. I admit to being less than thrilled with the repeated
meddling with Natasha's back story in modern comics. Jack Kirby advised young
artists to create their own new characters, rather than to riff endlessly on
his own previous work, and I think that applies to these endless retcons and
reboots, as well. The current Black Widow is a clone, Natasha having been
murdered by Captain America; her pre-Avengers history is now linked to Bucky
Barnes/The Winter Soldier (she's interesting enough on her own without
endlessly pairing her off with other heroes) and, worst of all Ivan Petrovich,
Natasha's surrogate father- and later chauffeur and confidant- was retconned
into a homicidal incest robot. I hope that, when they die, these modern comics
writers have to answer for their unpardonable sins.Don't get me started on what
they did to Gwen Stacy.
Pax,Sean
