Yelena Belova

Not to be confused with Elena Belova or Elena Belova (biathlete).
Yelena Belova
Artwork from the cover of Black Widow: Pale Little Spider #1 (June 2002). Art by Greg Horn.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearance
Created by
In-story information
SpeciesHuman
Place of originMoscow, Russia
Team affiliations
Notable aliases
Abilities
  • Expert marksman and mastery of various weapons
  • Master martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant

Yelena Belova (Russian: Еле́на Бело́ва) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is depicted as a spy and was the second modern-era character to use the Black Widow name. Created by Devin Grayson and J.G. Jones for Marvel Knights: Wave 2 Sketchbook #1 (January 1998), Belova made her first appearance in Inhumans vol. 2 #5 (January 1999) by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee.[1] She was trained as a spy and assassin in the Red Room. Originally, Yelena was a foe of Natasha Romanova and was sent to kill her, but the two later became allies. She was also a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., Vanguard, and HYDRA; the latter organization changed her into a version of Super-Adaptoid. As Super-Adaptoid, she was one of the members of the High Council of A.I.M. After being freed from her Super-Adaptoid identity, Belova reverted to her old Black Widow identity before adopting the codename White Widow. She is the first confirmed asexual character in the Marvel Universe.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

Florence Pugh portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Black Widow, the miniseries Hawkeye (both 2021), and the upcoming film Thunderbolts* (2025); Violet McGraw portrayed the character as a child in the former film.

  1. ^ Brevoort, Tom (May 22, 2014). "New Brevoort Formspring". Tumblr. Archived from the original on December 18, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
  2. ^ Black Widow: Pale Little Spider #1–3 (June–August 2003) Marvel Comics.
  3. ^ Benten, Emma (July 20, 2021). "Marvel: 10 Characters You Didn't Know Were LGBTQ+". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on 2021-07-21. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  4. ^ Morse, Ben. "Writer Devin Grayson on Natasha Romanoff, Yelena Belova, and the History of 'Black Widow'". Marvel Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  5. ^ Devin Grayson [@Gothamette] (December 14, 2021). "Many of you have been asking me about #YelenaBelova's sexuality recently. Here are my thoughts on the matter: https://buff.ly/3dNHIP2" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ^ Grayson, Devin. "Yelena Belova's Sexuality". DevinGrayson.net. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  7. ^ Gailey, Sarah (July 1, 2023). The assassin's out of the bag: I'm writing Yelena Belova, the White Widow, in her own series at Marvel!!. gaileyfrey. Retrieved July 1, 2023 – via Tumblr. I love Yelena so much and I'm beyond excited to share her story with all of you. It's a wild honor to be trusted with the work of bringing the White Widow into her own world on her own terms. I can't wait to share what's in store [this November] – it's gonna be killer. – gailey #yelena belova #white widow #black widow #Sarah Gailey #comics #Alessandro Miracolo #David Marquez #marvel #the avengers #hawkeye #asexual #HERO is a strong word okay #i promise you she will have a blast tho #murdering whoever needs to get murdered