Black Widow Prelude Comic | Marvel Cinematic Universe | MarvelTimes

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 Black Widow Prelude #1

WRITERS

• Peter David

ARTISTS

• Carlos Villa
• Chris Sotomayor
• Travis Lanham

EDITORS

• Mark Basso
• Martin Biro
• C.B. Cebulski

COMIC 1 RELEASE DATE

• January 15, 2020

COMIC 2 RELEASE DATE

• February 19, 2020

NUMBER OF COMICS

• 2

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Black Widow Prelude is a comic mini-series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is set before Black Widow with a few depictions of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (archival footage), Captain America: Civil War and Iron Man 2.

Part 1

TRACE THE BLACK WIDOW’S HISTORY IN THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE!

From spy to Avenger, the enigmatic BLACK WIDOW has lived many secret lives. But how do these disparate episodes add up to the life of the heroic Avenger, and what is the thread that connects her past to her future? Get ready for MARVEL STUDIOS’ BLACK WIDOW solo film with this glimpse into the storied history of NATASHA ROMANOFF in this tale set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

Part 2

THE HUNT FOR THE BLACK WIDOW! Follow the trail of NATASHA ROMANOFF’s exploits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! As the facts are considered, the question remains: is the BLACK WIDOW really a threat? Get ready for MARVEL STUDIOS’ BLACK WIDOW solo film with the conclusion to this prelude story!

Plot

Part 1 of Black Widow Prelude 

Inside the Triskelion, Alexander Pierce discusses Project Insight with the World Security Council. Suddenly, Councilwoman Hawley attacks the guards and holds Pierce at gunpoint. She deactivates her Photostatic Veil, revealing herself as Natasha Romanoff.

Years later, after the Clash of the Avengers, Thaddeus Ross and Councilwoman Hawley watch the security footage of Romanoff infiltrating the World Security Council. Hawley finds the story of the Avengers Civil War in a newspaper and shows it to Ross, claiming that Romanoff followed his orders and saved many lives. She refused to offer Ross resources to help him find and bring in Romanoff. However, Ross did not give up, as he believed Romanoff helped Steve Rogers escape.

Moving to the conference room, Ross offers Hawley vital information about Natasha Romanoff. He tells her about the Red Room and the various reasons Romanoff may have joined S.H.I.E.L.D., although the real incident remained unknown. Ross recalls the Ambush in Odessa. He states that after the unfortunate incident, Romanoff was reassigned to an easier job: monitoring Tony Stark. Ross claims that that was the starting point for Romanoff in the superhero life.

Part 2 of Black Widow Prelude 

Thaddeus Ross continues discussing Natasha Romanoff with Councilwoman Hawley. The conversation touches on Whiplash, the Tesseract and Bruce Banner. Ross quickly evades questions about the relationship between his own daughter and Banner and begins to explain how Romanoff helped to retrieve Banner from Kolkata as per Nick Fury's orders.

Back in 2012, Romanoff calmly approaches a distrustful Banner and explains that S.H.I.E.L.D. needs his help to track down the Tesseract. After a brief outburst, Banner and Romanoff come to a compromise with Banner reluctantly agreeing to assist. Romanoff reveals that there was a S.H.I.E.L.D. team waiting to subdue Banner if necessary but expresses gratitude that she did not need them.

Ross recalls that Romanoff did indeed end up meeting the more dangerous side of Banner and was forced to escape from him, thankfully with no serious injuries. Thor was able to assist with distracting and containing Banner.

Ross remembers that the Avengers were able to stop the alien invasion together and calmly mentions that he was aware that Hawley planned to destroy the city with an atom bomb as she did not trust the Avengers to handle the situation. Ross and Hawley bring up the fact that Romanoff appeared to be the only one able to calm Banner down after he had entered his Hulk state, however this did not stop him from escaping after the Battle of Sokovia. While Ross argues with Hawley about whether he could trust Romanoff, Hawley praises Romanoff's work with Steve Rogers on the Lemurian Star where she assisted to save hostages and take down a group of criminals, however, Ross points out that her priority appeared to be saving S.H.I.E.L.D. intel over civilians. Hawley brings up Romanoff's work in South Korea where she assisted Rogers again during a battle with Ultron, but Ross brings up the disaster in Lagos where many civilians were killed in an explosion. Ross accuses Romanoff of always being there when disasters occur. After Ross and Hawley disagree and part ways, Ross contacts Tony Stark and then announces that his team will track down Romanoff in order to unveil the Sokovia Accords.

Appearances

Characters

• Secretary Thaddeus Ross
• Councilwoman Hawley
• Margaret
• Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (flashback)
• Alexander Pierce (flashback)
• Jack Rollins (flashback)
• Councilman Yen (flashback)
• Councilman Singh (flashback)
• Councilman Rockwell (flashback)
• Tony Stark/Iron Man (flashback)
• James Rhodes/War Machine (flashback)
• Vision (flashback)
• T'Challa/Black Panther (flashback)
• Peter Parker/Spider-Man (flashback)
• Steve Rogers/Captain America (flashback)
• Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (flashback)
• Sam Wilson/Falcon (flashback)
• Clint Barton/Hawkeye (flashback)
• Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (flashback)
• Scott Lang/Ant-Man (flashback)
• Madame B. (flashback)
• Nick Fury (flashback)
• Pepper Potts (flashback)
• Happy Hogan (flashback)
• Bruce Banner/Hulk (flashback)
• Thor (flashback)
• Ultron (flashback)
• Gerald Durand (flashback)
• Georges Batroc (flashback)
• Ivan Vanko/Whiplash (picture)
• General Dreykov (mentioned)
• Ivan Romanoff (mentioned)
• Natasha Romanoff's Mother (mentioned)
• Betty Ross (mentioned)
• Brock Rumlow (mentioned)

Locations

• Washington, D.C.
• United States Department of State Headquarters
• Triskelion (flashback)
• Schkeuditz, Germany (flashback)
• Leipzig-Halle Airport (flashback)
• Belarus (flashback)
• Red Room Academy (flashback)
• New York City, New York (flashback)
• Budapest, Hungary (flashback)
• Malibu, California (flashback)
• Tony Stark's Mansion (flashback)
• Kolkata, India (flashback)
• Sokovia (flashback)
• HYDRA Research Base (flashback)
• Novi Grad, Sokovia (flashback)
• Seoul, South Korea (flashback)
• Lagos, Nigeria (flashback)
• Russia (mentioned)
• Iran (mentioned)
• Odessa, Ukraine (mentioned)
• Pakistan (mentioned)
• Mumbai, India (mentioned)
• Raft (indirectly mentioned)

Events

• HYDRA Uprising (flashback)
• Hijacking and Retaking of the Lemurian Star (flashback)
• Battle at the Triskelion (flashback)
• Avengers Civil War (flashback)
• Clash of the Avengers (flashback)
• Chitauri Invasion (flashback)
• Attack on the Helicarrier (flashback)
• Battle of New York (flashback)
• War on HYDRA (flashback)
• Attack on the HYDRA Research Base (flashback)
• Ultron Offensive (flashback)
• Battle of Seoul (flashback)
• Battle of Sokovia (flashback)
• Attack on the IFID Headquarters (flashback)
• Ambush in Odessa (mentioned)
• Infiltration into Hammer Industries Headquarters (mentioned)
• Battle at Stark Expo (mentioned)

Items

• Photostatic Veil (flashback)
• Black Widow's Bite (flashback)
• Black Widow's Batons (flashback)
• Arc Reactor (flashback)
• Palladium (flashback)
• Iron Man Armor: Mark XLVI (flashback)
• War Machine Armor: Mark III (flashback)
• Infinity Stones (flashback)
• Mind Stone (flashback)
• Vibranium (flashback)
• Panther Habit (flashback)
• Captain America's Shield (flashback)
• Spider-Man Suit (flashback)
• Web-Shooters (flashback)
• Synthetic Webbing (flashback)
• Captain America's Uniform (flashback)
• Winter Soldier's Prosthetic Arm (flashback)
• EXO-7 Falcon (flashback)
• Combat Goggles (flashback)
• Hawkeye's Bow and Quiver (flashback)
• Ant-Man Suit (flashback)
• Pym Particles (flashback)
• Mjølnir (flashback)
• Uru (flashback)
• Iron Man Armor: Mark VII (flashback)
• Taser Disk (flashback)
• Chitauri Helmet (flashback)
• Chitauri Gun (flashback)
• Regeneration Cradle (flashback)
• Iron Man Armor: Mark XLV (flashback)
• Ultron Sentries (flashback)
• Tesseract (picture)
• Gamma Radiation (mentioned)
• Sokovia Accords (indirectly mentioned)

Vehicles

• Quinjet (flashback)
• Helicarrier (flashback)
• Lemurian Star (flashback)
• Black Widow's Motorcycle (flashback)

Sentient Species

• Humans
• Synthezoids (flashback)
• Asgardians (flashback)
• Chitauri (flashback)

Creatures

• Leviathans (flashback)

Organizations

• World Security Council
• United States Department of State
• Avengers (flashback)
• Leviathan (flashback)
• Red Room (flashback)
• KGB (flashback)
• S.H.I.E.L.D. (flashback)
• STRIKE (flashback)
• HYDRA (flashback)
• Stark Industries (flashback)
• United Nations (mentioned)

Mentioned

• Google

Trivia

The comic is featured in Black Widow Prelude (collection)