Ultimate Wolverine Just Introduced a Major MCU Favorite

While Ultimate X-Men introduced the mutants of the Ultimate Universe, it wasn’t the Ultimate mutant book that many conventional X-Men fans wanted. They wanted something that would hearken back to their favorite X-Men books, with a more run of the mill status quo. Ultimate Wolverine gave them that, starring the most savage version of Wolverine readers have seen in a long time. Ultimate Wolverine #3 is yet another awesome installment of the series, and the issue was promised to introduce three characters who would become very important to the future of Ultimate Wolverine. Two of them are mutants with a long history with Wolverine — Gambit and Kitty Pryde — and one of them is a fan-favorite MCU star — Natasha Romanov, named Romanova in the issue, the woman known as Black Widow.

Black Widow has a venerable history in the comics that is very different from the movies. In the movies, Black Widow was a graduate of the Red Room and wasn’t nearly as old as she is in the comics. While the Red Room has been added to the comics, Black Widow has a much longer history, one that stretches back to World War II. During this period she met Wolverine and Captain America in one of the most beloved X-Men comics of the early ’90s — Uncanny X-Men #268.

Wolverine and Captain America Saved Black Widow’s Life from the Hand In WWII

The whole situation started in Madripoor with Captain America, who was hunting down Hydra. Cap comes to the aid of a Russian man named Ivan, who is under the attack of the ninjas of the Hand. The two of them are nearly overwhelmed, when a third person shows up — Wolverine. Wolverine is able to help them destroy the ninjas, and go to Seraph’s, a bar that Wolverine frequented. Baron Strucker and several Hydra agents are there, and Ivan tells the two of them that the Hand and the Nazi are teaming up, and they’d kidnapped the child that he was protecting — young Natasha Romanov. The men attack the Nazi’s limo to free the girl and Wolverine takes a bullet for young Natasha. Ivan and Cap are able to escape with her, believing Wolverine was dead. They try to take her to American consulate, but the Nazis and Hand are there. Wolverine shows up one last time and saves the day, taking them to a getaway plane.

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This took place while Natasha was a little girl. She’d end up returning to Russia and would eventually enter the Red Room, where she would meet and fall in love with the Winter Soldier when she met him in the 1950s. Black Widow was injected with the Infinity Formula, which slowed her aging to a crawl and enhanced her physical abilities. Wolverine and Black Widow were ships passing in the night during the Cold War, and wouldn’t meet again until they were superheroes. The two of them worked with the X-Men to break the Hand’s hold over Madripoor before teaming up with Captain America in the sequel to Uncanny X-Men #268 known as Wolverine: Madripoor Knights. Wolverine and Black Widow are great friends and Black Widow considers Wolverine like an uncle to her.

Ultimate Black Widow Is the Ultimate Wild Card in Ultimate Wolverine #3

Black Widow is the first character to be introduced in Ultimate Wolverine #3, coming out of a cabin in snowy Smolensk. She meets up with Gambit and Kitty Pryde, who have come to engage her services. She wants to fight, but Gambit needs a driver more than a fighter, and she joins the duo. This is a very interesting sequence of events, because they seemingly have no idea who Black Widow is. Later in the issue, readers are made privy to the briefing that the Eurasian Alliance troops got before going on the mission against Gambit, Kitty, and Black Widow. This briefing establishes that Natasha is Black Widow, but talks about how she’s gone AWOL.

Everything appears to be on the level, but there’s still a feeling that Natasha may be a spy. The Eurasian Alliance is smart; they are trying to find the Opposition, as they are called, and it would be smart for them to send out someone like Natasha to infiltrate them. Putting out info that she escaped them would give credence to her defection. It’s unknown how it will all turn out, but it’s one of the most interesting developments in a book full of them.

Ultimate Wolverine #3 is on sale now.