Red Widow

Origin

The girl who’s would become the Red Widow was abducted by the Red Room at the age of 7, where she was starved and tortured into becoming their newest assassin. Red Widow was appointed as a member of the new Winter Guard, where she actually calls the shots from the shadows despite Crimson Dynamo being the official leader.

Creation

Red Widow was created by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness and first appeared in Avengers Vol. 7 issue 10 (or the 700th issue of volume 1).

Major Story Arcs

International Super-Tension

The Russian superteam, The Winter Guard, was revived due to increased international superhuman activity. The Avengers were now answering to Wakanda and operating from the North Pole, while Namor led the Defenders of the Deep against the surface countries. Russia’s last straw was when the Defenders attacked Russian submarines in the Black Sea. Her teammates included:

• Crimson Dynamo
• Darkstar
• Vanguard
• Chernobog
• Perun
• Vostok
• Ursa Major

During a possible vampire uprising, Darkstar and Vanguard were placed on the border of Russia and Ukraine to stand guard. There, they were approached by an emaciated Dracula looking for sanctuary. The siblings had Dracula locked up until Widow could perform the interrogation. Dracula ultimately makes a deal with Moscow to turn the irradiated land of Chernobyl into a new vampire nation.

Enter the Phoenix

At the heart of much of the Avengers new problems was Mephisto. His centuries old manipulations, starting with a stone-age version of the Avengers made up of the first bearers of their planet's oldest heroic mantles, were finally coming to fruition. As such, one of those mantles, The Phoenix Force, nested on an island near Avengers Mountain and forced a number of superhumans, including Red Widow, to fight in a tournament to be the next Phoenix host.

Each fighter was given a fraction of the Phoenix Force to prove their mettle. Widow beat Howard the Duck in Greenwich Village, Black Knight at Stonehenge, and Shanna the She-Devil in New York Harbor. She had almost made it to the final victor. However, the winner will not become the new Phoenix host, but, rather, one of the fallen will prove an emotional strength worthy to be the host. Thus, Echo becomes the new Phoenix.

Manhunt for Red Guardian

Red Guardian teamed up with Yelena Belova to retrieve four hard drives containing records linking the USSR to corruption. Alexei was previously tasked with destroying them, but instead, he hid the hard drives where he could retrieve them later if he ever had to leak them to the Russian people. The two were consider high priorities by the Russian security council, so when they crossed the border it got the attention of Russia’s current super team, The Winter Guard.

Alexei narrowly escaped his first encounter by sabotaging Crimson Dynamo’s suit and sowing dissent by claiming to have a mole on the team. Unfortunately, when he arranged to retrieve the drive from Dracula, Dracula had invited the Winter Guard as well, hoping to play both sides. He was able to convince Dracula with his patriotic musings, but once he had the drive, he betrayed Yelena, leaving her behind to deal with the Guard while he ran off with his "populist fantasy."

With a lead from Yelena, Vanguard and Red Widow catch up with Alexei as he is leaving the country from Lukomorye State Park, near the Mongolian border. Although Alexei has the drop on both of them, Vanguard is able to use his shield to destroy the case containing the hard drives. Despite Alexi getting away, Vanguard is still given a hero's welcome for securing his nation's secrets.

World War She-Hulk

With the help of Gorilla-Man, who Widow had turned into a mole, the Winter Guard are able to arrest She-Hulk for crimes against Russia. Gorilla-Man sabotages the security system of Avengers Mountain and activates the teleporter, letting the Russians in. In exchange, Widow agreed to kill Gorilla-Man, who had grown tired of his immortality. Instead, Widow tried to kill her teammate, Ursa Major, instead. Ursa had been working as a mole for the Avengers, and she gleefully left Gorilla-Man to his immortal burden.

They rushed She-Hulk through a trial and locked her up in The Red Room so they could turn her into an asset. However, this was all part of Jen's plans. The Agents of Wakanda had collected intel that political upheaval in Atlantis was caused by Russia, and they had a plan to use their mole in the Avengers to kidnap She-Hulk and turn her into their patsy. Jen, ultimately, volunteered to go through Red Room training, confident she could not be broken.

During She-Hulk's escape, Widow is shackled by her right arm. To make her own escape, she cut it off and had it replaced with a cybernetic one similar to the one Winter Soldier has. She then continued with her mission to drop a gamma bomb on Atlantis. When Jen attempted to take her out, Widow used a gamma failsafe on herself turning her into The Widow Hulk. She was still no match for Jen, who abandoned their fight to absorb the gamma radiation from Widow's bomb, undoing Russia’s plans for global upheaval.

Russian Fugitive

After the failure in Atlantis, Widow's teammate Crimson Dynamo, injured during the manhunt for Red Guardian, turned state's witness against Widow to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. She laid low in the Ural Mountains in Western Russia.

She was approached by the Hyperion of the Squadron Supreme of America, as influenced by Mephisto. He wanted Widow's help freeing him of Mephisto's programming. During the process, she was found by what remains of that Squadron Supreme: Doctor Spectrum, Blur, and Power Princess. Spectrum intended to arrest her for America, but Power Princess killed Spectrum instead. Both she and Blur agreed to work with Widow.