After 10 years of being in the MCU, 2020’s Black Widow will finally reveal all about Natasha Romanoff’s mysterious past. We know that she was originally trained as a Russian assassin before defecting to S.H.I.E.L.D. and becoming a superhero, but all the dots are about to be joined together in Scarlett Johansson’s first solo outing in the Marvel franchise. What’s more, this new theory suggests the film will drop a major revelation we never even guessed at.
ScreenRant’s Thomas Bacon has looked at the evidence and speculated that Black Widow will reveal that Nat is secretly a recipient of a super-soldier serum similar to the one that gave Captain America his powers. We know that the Russians have concocted their own version, hence David Harbour’s Red Guardian, who is essentially the Soviet Cap in the comics. And there’s a precedent for a super-powered Natasha, as well.
In 2004’s Black Widow miniseries from Richard K. Morgan and Bill Sienkiewicz, it’s revealed that Natasha and all Red Room agents have had their abilities heightened with biochemical experiments. This fact is hidden from all Black Widows, however, to stop the enemy from finding out. The Widows are mentally conditioned to forget the process, with their memories replaced with fake ones of ballet lessons.
The big clue that this could be the case in the MCU, too, is that Nat has been shown to have ballet-related flashbacks in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The same clip was shown in the Black Widow trailer. If Nat’s a super-soldier, though, then what exactly are her powers? Well, in the comic book miniseries she’s told: “Your wounds heal four, maybe five times as fast as a normal human’s would… You hardly get sick, you don’t age as fast… Your hair doesn’t fall out [and] your skin can take wind and sun…”
This would explain a lot about how Natasha has been able to stand alongside the super-powered members of the Avengers all this time. Because she’s much more of a superhero than she – or we – ever realized. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see whether May’s Black Widow makes this theory official, but it’s definitely got us thinking.
