Black Widow (Yelena Belova)

Yelena Belova
Cover for Black Widow #1 Art by J. G. Jones
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Inhumans #5 (March 1999)
Created by	Devin Grayson (writer) J. G. Jones (artist)
In-story information
Full name	Yelena Belova
Team affiliations	A.I.M. Russian Federation S.H.I.E.L.D. Vanguard
Notable aliases	Black Widow, Super-Adaptoid, Pale Little Spider, Rooskaya
Abilities	Peak athletic condition Extensive military, martial arts, and espionage training

Black Widow (Yelena Belova) is a fictional character, a spy in the Marvel Comics Universe and second modern-era character to use the name Black Widow. She first appears in Inhumans #5 (March 1999) and was created by Devin Grayson and J. G. Jones.

Belova, the second modern Black Widow after Natasha Romanova (Natasha Romanoff), was initially a post-Soviet Russian spy of the GRU. She debuted briefly in Inhumans #5 (March 1999), and was fully introduced in the 1999 Marvel Knights mini-series Black Widow. A second miniseries, also titled Black Widow and featuring Natasha Romanoff and Daredevil, followed in 2001. The next year, she did a solo turn in her own three-issue miniseries, also titled Black Widow (officially Black Widow: Pale Little Spider in the series' postal indicia) under the mature-audience Marvel MAX imprint. The June to August 2002 story arc, by writer Greg Rucka and artist Igor Kordey, was a flashback to the story of her becoming the second modern Black Widow, in events preceding her Inhumans appearance.

Belova is an amoral spy and assassin who was trained at the Red Room by the same spymasters who trained Natasha Romanoff, the first Black Widow. After the death of her trainer, Pyotr Vasilievich Starkovsky, she is activated as the new Black Widow and deployed to investigate. She apprehends and eliminates his killer, unaware that both his murder and the investigation were part of a ploy to get Belova to assert herself as the new Black Widow. Believing herself to be the rightful successor to the title of "Black Widow", Yelena enthusiastically volunteers for a mission that will put her at odds with Natasha, although the meeting and confrontations between the two do not lead to a decisive battle. Natasha refers to Yelena as "little one" and "rooskaya", meaning "Russian", and encourages her to find what makes her unique and her personal identity rather than blindly devote herself to her nation. Natasha later subjects Yelena to cruel manipulation in order to shatter her illusions about the "Black Widow" title and teach her the reality of the espionage industry. Belova eventually retires to Cuba, where she becomes a successful businesswoman and model.