While Black Widow has no shortage of spectacular gadgets in her arsenal, there is one in particular she used during her early days as an Avenger that needs to make a comeback immediately as it helped the superhero live up to her spider-inspired moniker and made Black Widow more like Spider-Man than fans may have realized.
Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow began her comic book career as a hardened villain who infiltrated the United States on behalf of the Soviet Union. After only a few short appearances as a villain, Black Widow eventually defected to SHIELD and became a double agent working primarily for the U.S. government to help tear down communism. While acting as a super spy, Black Widow also lent herself to the Avengers and worked alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to fight super-villains of all shapes and sizes–and to help her keep up with her super-powered colleagues, Black Widow used her forgotten Spider-Man gadget.
In Avengers #38 by Roy Thomas and Don Heck, the Avengers are going through a rough patch, and as it turns out, it’s all Black Widow’s fault. In this issue, Black Widow is contacted by Nick Fury who tells her that she has to go on a top secret mission for SHIELD if she wants to remain in America on good terms. The only thing was, Black Widow was not allowed to tell her Avengers teammates what she was doing or where she was going. So, that very night, Black Widow told the team that she never wanted to be a part of their organization and that they’d likely never see her again, all to keep that SHIELD mission as secret as possible. While creating turmoil within the Avengers is an impressive feat, the real interesting aspect of Black Widow in this issue is the gadget she uses to quickly zip from the SHIELD offices to Avengers HQ: Black Widow’s ‘Widow’s Web.’
Just as Spider-Man has his iconic web-shooters, Black Widow had her evidently trademarked Widow’s Web that she could shoot from a device on her wrist and swing through the city just like the Web-slinger himself. It seems as though Marvel Comics had intended for Black Widow to have gadgets and other paraphernalia related to a spider since her superhero name is ‘Black Widow’ which isn’t too far off from other spider-related heroes like Silk or Scarlet Spider. As she progressed as a character, Black Widow became more of a reference to how deadly Natasha is, and then later that title became something of a brand name for the type of assassin she was and the organization she was with. However, in this issue, and a number of her other earlier appearances, Black Widow was seemingly on her way to joining the ‘Spider-Family’ as her moniker and her preferred means of transportation would suggest, but any thought of that happening went away with this particular gadget which hasn’t been seen in the comics for quite some time—at least, not in the ‘web-slinging’ way it was utlilized in this issue.
Even though Marvel seemingly ditched the ‘spider’ schtick when it comes to Black Widow, remnants of this ‘Spider-Man gadget’ remain to this day. Most recently in the film Black Widow as well as in the Disney+ original show Hawkeye, both Natasha and her sister, Yelena, are running up and down buildings using ropes that they can shoot from their wrists. Both assassins got their start in the Black Widow Ops Program through the Red Room and both seem to have this particular device, so while it isn’t named as their Widow’s Web, it definitely fits the criteria perfectly. However, regardless of the device’s live-action legacy, one thing is certain and that is Black Widow’s forgotten Spider-Man gadget needs to make a comeback in comics just as it seemingly has in the MCU.