Warning! Spoilers ahead for Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova #1
In a new one-shot from Marvel Comics, former allies Yelena Belova and the Red Guardian team up, though they seem to have pretty different goals in mind. Perfectly coinciding with their upcoming debut in the MCU's Black Widow film, this comic marks Red Guardian's return to the spotlight after having been in the shadows for years, thought by most to have been dead. Instead, it's revealed in Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova #1 that Alexei Shostakov was merely imprisoned. However, the Red Guardian is now free, and he may be looking to continue the plans he had before he was locked up.
Widowmakers #1 begins with Yelena Belova on a mission of her own, shortly after helping Black Widow take out what remained of the Red Room, the Russian training program that created both Natasha and Yelena herself. While Yelena once thought that she might one day replace Natasha as the Black Widow, she's come to realize that her fate lies elsewhere, and she's trying to figure that out. Now, she's working freelance, and is hired in this issue to break out a doctor from an old and abandoned SHIELD prison. However, Yelena was hired under false pretenses, as the man who hired her was seeking to lure her to the prison in order to test his newly trained killers against "a version of Black Widow no one would miss." While evading her attackers, Yelena finds and rescues Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian, who she believed was dead.
While Red Guardian is alive in Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova #1 from Devin Grayson and Michele Bandini, that doesn't mean he's well. Sadly, Alexei confesses that he had been dreaming that his former wife Natasha would be the one to save him, though admitting he had no real expectations she'd actually do so. After all, Black Widow was the one who put him in this prison according to Shostakov. After Yelena breaks the Red Guardian out from his cell, he helps her place explosives around the prison in order to destroy it once and for all. As they work and fight off the assassins, Yelana questions Shostakov about how he got in that cell in the first place, hearing that he had tried to build some sort of empire. Guardian confirms that he was indeed trying to build an empire, not for himself but for Russia, seeking to return his nation to its former glory under Stalin.
Just like Captain America, Red Guardian is a staunch patriot for his country, though it seems he's prepared to go to some pretty harsh extremes to return Russia to the pride and glory he believes has been lost. While Yelena flew off to exact some much needed justice on the rich man who hired her, Red Guardian remained to hold their foes off. However, Shostakov was revealed to have survived his brawl, now free to resume building his new Russian empire.
Now that he's free and out in the world, there could be some pretty serious repercussions going forward in the Marvel Universe. This also explains his appearance in the current Black Widow series from Kelly Thompson. He and a variety of Black Widow's foes have constructed a false happy ending for Natasha in order to keep her off the board and out of their plans. If anyone would seek to stop Alexei's goals for a new Russian regime, it'd be Black Widow. However, it's evident that Red Guardian still has feelings for her, and it wouldn't be illogical to assume that he was pushing for the scheme that involved letting her live. Regardless, fans will have to wait and see what else Red Guardian has in store for his country and the Marvel Universe at large as Black Widow continues from Marvel Comics.