Bucky Barnes may have united the Thunderbolts against Valentina in the MCU, but the true face—and likely leader—of the New Avengers is Yelena Belova. In this continuity, Yelena was raised alongside Natasha Romanoff as her younger adoptive sister, under the watch of Alexei Shostakov and Melina Vostokoff. Though their fractured family would eventually reunite to dismantle the Red Room, Yelena was left to carry the weight of Natasha’s death after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.” Now, having begun to step out of that grief and into something new, Yelena stands ready to face whatever comes next—even a threat as great as Doctor Doom.
Origins
However, despite how dark her MCU origins are, her life story in the comics makes her MCU one more wholesome by comparison. For instance, although little is known about her childhood, she joined the Red Room at 15. By then, Natasha had defected from the Red Room and became her own hero, leaving an empty slot open for the mantle. While believing she was unworthy of such a claim, Yelena’s mentors pushed her to strive for the title, causing Yelena to obsessively train to the bone until she surpassed her rival’s scores (becoming the first student in the Room to do so). Even after graduating with flying colors, Yelena still desired to prove herself superior to Natasha, so she tracked Nat down and attempted to interfere with her mission to retrieve a deadly bioweapon. This would fail, however, as Nat stayed ahead of Yelena and completed her mission. But by the end, Yelena had Nat at gunpoint, but decided to spare her life so Yelena could try to outshine Nat again at a later time.
But something about their encounter stuck with Natasha, most likely the fact that Yelena was enslaved and blindly loyal to a horrible organization—just like she once was. Hoping to snap her out of it, Natasha had S.H.I.E.L.D. initiate a complicated plan to kidnap Yelena and have the two of them undergo surgery, leaving them looking like each other. Natasha’s plan had two goals: discovering Yelena’s superiors’ massive plan, and showing Yelena that she was nothing more than an expendable tool, and the Black Widow mantle ultimately meant nothing. While the pair would take down said superiors and reverse the surgery, Yelena would still return to the Red Room for a while—but this time, Yelena would be the one deeply affected by her encounter with the Black Widow. Natasha’s words and demonstrations eventually caused Yelena to retire for a while, but also left her open to joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and leading her own black ops team. Unfortunately, though, her redemption would not last long. During one mission, when Yelena led her team to assist in an illegal Vibranium mining operation in the Savage Land, the Avengers arrived after pursuing the escaped villain Sauron. Upon discovering the illegal activity, a fight broke out, and Sauron burned her so severely that she was presumed dead. But HYDRA found and healed her, offering promises of revenge that Yelena couldn’t refuse. After that, she worked for HYDRA and even A.I.M. for a while, gained superpowers for a short time, endured further betrayal, and even died. But thankfully, Natasha still showed compassion and resurrected her via clone bodies that the Red Room made. Yelena was last seen during the “Blood Hunt” arc, where she was turned into a vampire but cured by the hero Dagger.
Powers and Abilities
Unlike Sam or Bucky, Yelena doesn’t possess an extra superpower: no telepathic abilities, and no strength-enducing prosthetics. Even so, her skills are so proficient that such powers become irrelevant. This is especially true given how she was raised and trained in the Red Room, which is one of the most covert and efficient organizations in Marvel, built to strip away individuality and create the deadliest assassins and spies in the world. Yelena is no exception, as she underwent intense physical training for about a decade, sharpening herself like a dulled blade until she mastered many forms of martial arts, acrobatics, and weapons combat. Not only would this include standard guns and knives, but also efficiency with Widow-style gadgets such as Natasha’s wrist stingers. But the extent of her training would go further, driving her to become a master of espionage. Much like Bucky’s Winter Soldier training, Yelena takes full advantage of the shadows, noticing every small detail of her surroundings, and reads human beings like books. This would further allow her to manipulate her targets, whether that involves seducing men or expertly playing a role in deep undercover. Combining it all, Yelena can get in and out of her targets, leaving her enemies none the wiser. While her rival and counterpart, Natasha, excels in these abilities as well, the key difference is how the two women approach the fight. Nat is calculated, not just with combat and espionage, but also in restraining herself so she doesn’t kill anyone. Yelena, on the other hand, will not hesitate. If her assignment is to kill a target, she will do it with no questions asked. If she’s fighting someone on her level, she will aim for the killing blow right off the bat. Essentially, Yelena is what Natasha would look like if she became a villain; Natasha’s mirrored opposite in every way.
However, that doesn’t always mean such a quality is a good thing. Yelena is on Natasha’s level, arguably more so due to her lack of hesitation, but that itself is the problem. Ever since she was 15, Yelena has been conditioned to surpass Natasha as the new Black Widow. While this would drive her to train ruthlessly until she reached her goal, that goal became her identity. Whenever she fights, she always feels the need to dominate her foes (especially if that foe is Nat) and prove that she’s the superior Widow. Therefore, being driven by such immense pride makes her impulsive, further influencing her to make costly mistakes or leave her vulnerable to retaliation. But perhaps the worst (and saddest) part of this is how, even after failing to best Nat or complete a mission, she always returns to the organizations that take advantage of her. Whether it’s HYDRA, A.I.M., or even S.H.I.E.L.D., living under the thumb of any of these groups is all she’s ever known. No matter what she tries, she can’t ever find an identity or independence outside of this life. This further leaves her vulnerable to manipulation from similar (if not the same) organizations; even if they betray her, she will often return to them with her tail between her legs. Aside from this, Yelena may be an elite living weapon, but she’s not perfect. Despite everything the Red Room made her to be, she’s still human. Of course, this means she possesses the same weaknesses as any average person, meaning she could wear herself out or get injured if she isn’t careful. Natasha treats the Black Widow mantle with healthy restraint and respect, but Yelena’s greatest flaw is that she still treats it as the ultimate status of perfection and power.
Greatest Feats
While this view can make her desperate and irrational at times, it can also sharpen her focus, helping her achieve the impossible. For instance, as previously mentioned, there was the time when Yelena tracked down Natasha to kill her and claim her title. However, since Natasha was on a very important mission to retrieve and dispose of a deadly bio-weapon, she was not in the mood to mess around. So, to throw Yelena off her scent, she faked her own death and made sure not to leave any evidence behind. Yelena wasn’t fooled, though. Since she studied Natasha for a long time before going after her, she knew the circumstances surrounding her “death” were too suspicious: the death feels too clean, there’s no body, and she knows Natasha is too skilled to go out like that. Therefore, Yelena searches for and finds the smallest trails, allowing her to locate Natasha and get the drop on her. It cannot be understated how amazing and impressive such a moment is, because Natasha Romanoff is one of the greatest spies in all of Marvel. If she wants to disappear, she will disappear, leaving absolutely no trace and her pursuers none the wiser. But Yelena, who just started her own career as a Widow, was able to not only find her but also catch her off guard with a gun to her head. Such a deed takes unparalleled levels of skill and intelligence that not many Marvel characters can claim, yet Yelena clawed her way to the top for it.
Although in Yelena’s next encounter with the Black Widow, clawing her way to the top wasn’t on her mind. Compassionately trying to save Yelena from her life in the Red Room, Natasha kidnapped Yelena and had S.H.I.E.L.D. perform a surgery on the two of them, making Natasha look like Yelena and Yelena look like Natasha. As part of Natasha’s plan to break Yelena free from her conditioning, S.H.I.E.L.D. ordered Yelena to kill Natasha to test whether she would actually do it out of her conditioning or spare her. In the meantime, Natasha would coax information from Yelena’s superior, getting him to admit how expendable Yelena was in his eyes. When Yelena was finally made aware of everything going on, she teamed up with Nat to take her former boss down. However, this wouldn’t end with a truce or even a begrudging but respectful parting as one would expect. Instead, Yelena full-on attacks Natasha, not out of proving her superiority or desiring the Widow mantle, but out of hatred and despair. For Yelena’s whole life, she was conditioned to reach for the stars and become the true Black Widow, but now she’s forced to see that it was ultimately meaningless. On top of that, Yelena was drugged, kidnapped, and surgically transformed to look like her most hated rival. That would tick anyone off, but it also violates her to a degree. But despite that, Yelena did not let something that would normally shatter anyone else weigh her down, because she not only fights Natasha again but holds her own. It’s already a near-impossible challenge to keep up with Nat during a fight, but Yelena did so while refusing to let the intense mental and emotional pain cloud her judgment. Although this wouldn’t immediately win Yelena over, it still showed a level of maturity and growth that goes beyond becoming the new Widow.
In fact, years later, Yelena would evolve beyond this goal in more ways than one. Shortly after suffering third-degree burns from Sauron’s attack in the Savage Land, and S.H.I.E.L.D. basically denouncing her, HYDRA saved and recruited her. Desiring revenge against the Avengers for her tragedy, she agreed to undergo an alteration from A.I.M. that gave her the ability of the Super Adaptoid. This means she can absorb and replicate the superpowers of anyone she touches, almost like DC’s Amazo android. Anyway, equipped with this overpowered ability, Yelena headed straight for Avengers Tower and engaged in battle with the many superheroes there. During the fight, she gained the powers of Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Iron Man, Wolverine, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Captain Marvel, and worst of all, the Sentry. Despite her initial struggle to control her new powers, Yelena was able to cause massive destruction, endanger multiple lives, and push the heroes to their knees. However, the tide would turn in the heroes’ favor once Iron Man and Spider-Man came up with a plan: overwhelm her with multiple Iron Man suits so she can’t handle their powers all at once. This pushed her to try the Sentry’s powers again, but it also pushed her own version of the Void to manifest and overwhelm her further. The HYDRA agent overseeing her battle saw this and decided to pull the plug, triggering a bomb in her head to kill her for her failure. Yet, somehow, she survived the explosion, and Marvel still has not elaborated on how this was possible. Regardless, while Yelena never needed superpowers to be formidable, briefly gaining the ability to replicate the powers of someone as powerful as the Sentry speaks volumes to her potential. If she had mastered control over her mimicking ability, especially when it came to the Void, she could be a shoo-in for one of the most powerful anti-heroes or villains on Earth!
Conclusion
Yelena is not the sweet and quirky sister we know and love in the comics; she’s a cold-blooded killer who struggles with her own identity. While she’s just as awesome in the comics, I personally prefer Florence Pugh’s portrayal of the character, as it gives her more emotional depth with her connection to Natasha and the struggle to cope with depression. And I love how she became a confident and inspiring leader, which further makes me excited to see how she responds to a cosmic threat way above her weight class: Dr. Victor Von Doom.
