Issue(s): Amazing Spider-Man #86
Cover Date: Jul 70
Title: "Beware... the Black Widow!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
John Romita Sr. - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Spider-Man is returning home from his fight with the Kingpin, passing the Black Widow without noticing her.

She is inspired to change her outfit (finally, thank god) into something more along the lines of what he wears. She winds up in her classic 70s super-hot leather jumpsuit with wrist shooters that let her swing like Spider-Man and shoot her Widow's Bite.

Meanwhile, Pete puts his foot in his mouth again when it comes to Gwen and his relationship with Spider-Man. He subsequently gets sick and weak. When he runs into the Black Widow, he can barely defend himself and she is less than impressed.

However, he rallies at the end, demonstrating that he has actual super-powers and that she's not in his class. She decides that she's got her own thing going and doesn't need to be like Spidey after all.

After terrifying his Aunt...

...Spider-Man returns home to look into his sickness and discovers that he has a chance to get rid of his powers.

I never thought of the Black Widow as being derivative of Spider-Man, but apparently she was. It's interesting to see Romita return to full penciling for a change in order to implement her redesign.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 5 - Black Widow gets her classic 70s costume.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Black Widow's first appearance after Avengers #76. This should take place soon after Amazing Spider-Man #85, since Spidey is returning home from his fight with the Kingpin that issue.

References:

• The Black Widow first appeared in Tales Of Suspense #52, teaming up with the second Crimson Dynamo.
  
• She later teamed-up with Hawkeye starting in Tales Of Suspense #57.
  
• She later reformed and joined SHIELD. She was sent on an assignment that led to her crossing paths with her husband, the Red Guardian, in Avengers #43-44.
  
• She broke up with Hawkeye and left the Avengers (and presumably SHIELD) in Avengers #75.
  
• The Marvel Tales reprint of this issue says "And if you've guessed this was our sneaky way of whetting your appetite for the appearance of the Black Widow in The Champions (ish #6 on sale March 16 at your newsstand)... you were right, perceptive one! -- Sly Stan". I suspect that in the original, instead of Champions #6, they were promoting the Black Widow's solo series which began in Amazing Adventures #1 (Aug 70).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #67

Right about the sales pitch for the forthcoming Widow series...though in the ASM note Sly Stan mistakenly called it "Amazing Tales" (a combo of Amazing Adventures, the comic that contained the Inhumans/Widow features and Astonishing Tales, the Ka-Zar/Doc Doom comic).

The new costume was also inspired by the 1966 film "Modesty Blaise", based on the British comic strip.

You know I just realized something: the moment Natasha changes to her classic costume, her hair suddenly goes from black to red. I guess that's yet another case of "we don't know what color our heroine's hair should be" (see Jessica Drew and Betty Ross; luckily Pepper was defined as a redhead and stayed that way) Either that or Natasha subscribes to the same "most permanent hair dye ever" Jessica Drew used later.

Was O'Neil in DAREDEVIL the only writer who ever made Natasha's English stiff, formal, and a little clumsy? She's so smooth and colloquial above, even making pop-culture references, and comics scripters in general had her speaking no differently from the other characters. Then it was weird when she turned up in O'Neil's DAREDEVIL, mid-1980s, and she was all "The things Daredevil tells you, you will find to be true," and asking "How do you say?" when she couldn't think of a word. He heightened the Russian-emigre quality.

Too bad Black Widow didn't look like this when she was dating Hawkeye.

So, no explanation given at all for her ditching Clint, huh? That makes his petulance in DD 99/Avengers 111 a little more tolerable, I suppose.

So, Black Widow is now a redhead, with a skin-tight costume and is drawn by Romita. The Marvel Universe just got 700% hotter.

I've sort of kept track: she was a redhead from the beginning but for some stupid reason they changed her to black hair through the "Victoria's Secret outfit" period. They finally remembered when she got the catsuit she was a redhead all along.

Maybe she used Nice 'n Easy?

According to John Romita, in his interview in COMIC BOOK ARTIST #6, the inspiration for the Black Widow's new look was Miss Fury. His comments can be read at http://www.twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/06romita.html .

Miss Fury was the star of a newspaper strip of the 40s/early 50s by Tarpé Mills. Marvel published MISS FURY comics with strip reprints in the 40s.

Interesting. I think Miss Fury just looks like Catwoman in a cape, with those little pointy ears, or horns, or whatever they are, on her head. Catwoman predates Miss Fury by several years, but she mostly wore a dress until the Batman TV show, and Julie Newmar, came along. Fond memories...

Was O'Neil in DAREDEVIL the only writer who ever made Natasha's English stiff, formal, and a little clumsy? She's so smooth and colloquial above, even making pop-culture references, and comics scripters in general had her speaking no differently from the other characters. Then it was weird when she turned up in O'Neil's DAREDEVIL, mid-1980s, and she was all "The things Daredevil tells you, you will find to be true," and asking "How do you say?" when she couldn't think of a word. He heightened the Russian-emigre quality.

Given that she was a spy, Natasha should be about as good with American accents and Americanisms as, say, Keri Russell in The Americans.

Of course, the point here was to revise Natasha as a slick, up-to-date character, so of course she's going to use modern slang and colloquialisms. Her dialogue here is also quite different from her formal and melodramatic Stan Lee/Roy Thomas speech in her earlier appearances.

Again, let me mention that there is "flasback" X-men series that gives a contradictory orgin for Natash's "spy catsuit" (obviously by the 2000s, Marvel didn't think readers would be reading any of the "classic" stuff.)

I always assumed this look was "inspired" by the then-popularity of Emma Peel.

It's interesting that you say that, Omar, because one of the (minor) complaints about the Avengers movies is that Scarlett Johansson didn't affect a Russian accent in them.

Scarlett was great in the first movie, but she definitely didn't act like a person who's been brutally trained to be an assassin since childhood. And even when she was surprised and cursed in Russian, she did it with an American accent.

The "flashback X-Men series" issue Jon Dubya refers to is X-Men First Class v.2 #9
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/X-Men_First_Class_Vol_2_9