Summary
Warning: Spoilers for Black Widow: Venomous #1!Telepaths within the Marvel Universe need to watch out forBlack Widow. The fact that Natasha Romanova can stand tall alongside gods, monsters, and super-soldiers within the Avengers without needing any powers speaks to the level of skill that she has as a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative. However, she’s still a human and, thus, on paper at least, shouldn’t be a match for, say, a mutant or master telepath.
Natasha surprises her doubters inBlack Widow: Venomous#1 by Erica Schultz, Luciano Vecchio, David Curiel, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Ariana Maher.She’s recently bonded with her own symbioteand decides to train the symbiote in the confines of the Red Room. However, the symbiote is confused to learn that she can’t read Natasha’s thoughts.
Black Widow reveals that her training in the Red Room was largely geared towards blocking psychic attacks, canonizing and expanding on something that was revealed about her a year ago. This new reveal officially positions Black Widow as dangerous even to telepaths.
Black Widow’s New Symbiote Design Is Creeping Me Out So Hard (Arachnophobes Beware)
Natasha Romanoff’s creepy new symbiote look leans into her venomous spider theme more than ever, solidifying her place as Marvel’s deadliest hero.
Black Widow is Immune from Psychic Attacks
Black Widow: Venomous#1 by Erica Schultz, Luciano Vecchio, David Curiel, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Ariana Maher
This isn’t the first time that such a revelation about Black Widow has been revealed. The first time would come in last year’sUncanny Avengers#4 by Gerry Duggan and Javier Garron, where Natasha has a confrontation with a telepath named Wildside. This mutant is capable of forcing someone’s traumatic memories to the forefront of their mind, causing them immense distress.When he tries to unleash his power on Black Widow, it instead forces her into unruly fits of laughter. Obviously not the reaction that Wildside, or even readers, were expecting.
When the moment first happened, readers thought it just meant that Black Widow was immune to suffering (and, by proxy,Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare) and refused to let her past dictate her future. However, this new issue ofVenomousrecontextualizes that moment in a big way. She’s not just immune to a type of telepathy, but she has trained herself to combatalltypes of telepathy. One would assume that such an immunity extends to evenMarvel’s most powerful telepaths, such as Professor Xavier and Emma Frost.Reed Richards can’t even beat Xavier’s telepathy- but Black Widow can.
Black Widow is Far More Powerful Than Expected
Just as Powerful as Her Superpowered Peers?
This new feat calls for readers to start questioning Black Widow’s power level and if she should rank higher on the Marvel power scale than originally assumed. Despite her skills, Natasha’s humanity in a world of superheroes and supervillains has always automatically ruled her out of all-time powerful conversations, but perhaps critics should reconsider. No one would expect her to be more powerful than a Charles Xavier, but if she knows how to block his power using sheer willpower, should that change things? This is the start of a compelling debate forBlack Widowfans.
Black Widow: Venomous#1is on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Black Widow
First introduced as an antagonist to Iron Man, the Russian assassin Natasha Romanoff eventually defected to the US and joined Marvel’s roster of heroes. Working as a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers, Black Widow has appeared in countless comics and several films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (played by Scarlett Johansson).
