Warning: contains spoilers for Avengers #47!
The Red Widow - a major villain in the current Avengers comics - looks set for a major Winter Soldier-style upgrade thanks to the bloody events of Avengers #47. This issue features Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, becoming the latest recruit of the Red Room, adopting the persona of the Winter Hulk. The Avengers battle against the Winter Guard in order to save She-Hulk, but after Red Widow pays a high price to keep the heroes busy, the issue ends with Jen's transformation.
A relatively new creation in the Marvel Universe, Red Widow first appeared in Avengers #10, a deadly product of the Red Room. This assassin joined the Russian Winter Guard and quickly set the tone with a twisted nature that scared Dracula himself. The character even competed to possess the Phoenix Force, proving herself fairly powerful after winning several fights, including one against the Black Knight. She was created by writer Jason Aaron, who has worked on several Marvel series including Ghost Rider, Avengers, Wolverine, and Thor as well as the Vertigo series Scalped and Image Comics' Southern Bastards, and artist David Marquez, who has worked on several of Marvel's Ultimate comic book series as well as Star Wars.
Avengers #47, written by Aaron with art by Javier Garron, is the second part of 'World War She-Hulk,' and it features some pretty significant developments for Red Widow. Namely, she resorts to cutting off her own arm in order to escape the Avengers, having been restrained by Captain Marvel. Her reaction to being down an arm is pretty nonchalant as well, agreeing with her handlers that it is a pretty small price to pay to have gained a Russian Hulk. Not only does this moment make Red Widow feel like an even more deadly villain thanks to her stone-cold lack of a reaction, but it's likely the same organization that furnished the Winter Soldier with his robotic prosthetic will have one waiting for her too, especially as she specifically requests a new arm.
This could be a great excuse to give Red Widow a Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier-style upgrade via a cybernetic arm, maybe even made of Vibranium, given the Winter Guard's seemingly upgraded goals and resources. Considering how impressive Red Widow has already proved herself to be after only recently assuming command of the Winter Guard, this could be a pretty major upgrade that gives the already cutting-edge villain even more edge.
Red Widow's brush with the Phoenix Force showed how much of a fanatic the villain is, as her ultimate desire was revealed to be to turn the whole planet into one big Red Room. Despite working with other Avengers opponents, Red Widow has shown she's a tactical genius willing to drop her allies at a moment's notice and prepared to punish betrayal with ruthless efficiency, but it's still shocking to see she's prepared to cut off a limb to maintain an advantage. As the Avengers face the Winter Hulk and Red Widow escapes to fetch what's hopefully a Winter Soldier arm upgrade along with a mysterious "payload," it's clearer than ever that Earth's Mightiest Heroes need to worry about their smartest, most dedicated villains as much as those with more overt power.