Super Sunday Special: The Costumes Of The Black Widow

(because listing all the costumes of the Wasp would have taken forever)

Nowadays, Natalia "Natasha" Alianovna Romanova owes a lot of her popularity to her portrayal by Scarlett Johansson in the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, she's actually one of Marvel's oldest characters, dating all the way back to the Silver Age and debuting in Tales of Suspense #52 (1964).

Originally, the Black Widow was a Soviet spy with very little combat training. More of a femme fatale than a fighter, she would rely on her beauty to steal state secrets or manipulate others into doing so. For this reason, her original outfits were regular dresses, albeit glamorous and elegant, complete with jewellery and accessories. She was also a smoker, occasionally seen with a cigarette holder, and her hair was black instead of red.

Iron Man: "Hawkeye, The Marksman!"

Tales of Suspense #57 (1964)

By Stan Lee, Don Heck

So, What Happens? After a misunderstanding, Tony Stark takes Pepper Potts out on a date to the carnival on Coney Island, where one of the attractions is Hawkeye the marksman. Suddenly the flying pinwheel goes out of control, forcing Tony to switch to Iron Man and fly to the rescue. He makes short work of it, but Hawkeye is jealous for having been upstaged and decides to become a more famous hero than Iron Man. Overnight, the archer prepares several trick arrows and a costume, confident that his great skills will make him the equal of any other hero. He almost immediately prevents a robbery, but the arriving police believe him to be the culprit and force him to flee. He is rescued by the spy known as the Black Widow and is immediately taken by her beauty, quickly agreeing to defeat her enemy Iron Man to impress her. Later on, he breaks into Stark's factory and attacks Iron Man with rusting arrows, forcing him to flee to replace the damaged parts of his armour. Hawkeye leaves to analyze the parts left behind, but a furious Iron Man intercepts him for round two and quickly gains the upper hand. A final demolition arrow accidentally injures the onlooking Black Widow, so Hawkeye runs away to take her to a doctor while the fog prevents Iron Man from following.