Warning: spoilers for Amazing Fantasy #1!
Marvel just unveiled an unknown incident from Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff's childhood, and it adds a whole new layer of tragedy to her time spent in the Red Room. As Marvel comic and movie fans are well aware, Natasha was trained to be an expert spy and killer from a very young age in the U.S.S.R.'s covert Red Room facility.
Despite one instance when Enchantress manipulated her into an attempted escape, the scarce accounts of Natasha's time growing up in the Red Room pegged her as loyal and compliant to the cause she was indoctrinated in. It wasn't until years later that Natasha would seek out atonement by becoming a costumed hero within the ranks of the Avengers. However, Amazing Fantasy #1 by Kaare Andrews reveals that Natasha Romanoff had an intrinsic urge to escape the world she was forced into when she was a mere child.
Amazing Fantasy traces what appear to be near-death experiences that occurred in the early, iconic days of Captain America, Spider-Man, and Black Widow's lives. Nat's side of the story shows her thriving as a favored fighter in the Red Room before attempting to make an escape orchestrated by her teacher Alexa. As an ultimate test of loyalty, Alexa convinces Natasha that they will escape to West Germany in a plane hidden away in the woods nearby. Only when Natasha arrives at the rendezvous point, Alexa informs her that she failed her test, pulls out his gun and fires two rounds in her.
Nat is then seen wounded and dying before a centaur trots out from the darkness of the woods and whisks her away from the danger. Needless to say, this is where the fantastical side of Amazing Fantasy comes into play. After experiencing certain death, Widow, Cap, and Spidey all wake to find themselves within the confines of this mystical reality. But despite how fun it is to see Widow and the other heroes discover new allegiances in this eccentric world, the discovery that Natasha yearned to escape the Red Room so early on in her time spent there adds an even more tragic spin to her already heartbreaking backstory. The notion that Natasha was shaped into a heartless assassin under brutal conditions at least presents the comforting prospect that she was blissfully ignorant of a better life. But Amazing Fantasy overturns that silver lining by showing Nat had a desperate will to escape her unjust circumstances since she was a child - and the fact that she was manipulated and left for dead by an authoritarian she trusted only further twists the knife.
With only one issue in, the overarching plot of Amazing Fantasy is still shrouded in mystery. What is this bizarre new existence these heroes find themselves in and why do they seem to have accessed it at the moment of their death? More likely than not, the heroes will make their way back to the primary Marvel Universe before the end. However, a more cynical reading would be that this story takes place in an alternate timeline where Natasha and the others actually have died, allowing for a Pan's Labyrinth-like questioning of whether this fantasy world is actually real or a dying delusion. In that case, the Black Widow's first Red Room tragedy would be a truly somber ending for the spy. Hopefully a glimmer of hope will be found before the five-issue miniseries reaches its conclusion.