Warning: Spoilers for Black Widow & Hawkeye (2024) #4 ahead!Thanks to a most unlikely source, Black Widow and Hawkeye have made a major breakthrough in their tumultuous on-again, off-again romance. The two spies have managed to break old patterns and strive for a healthier relationship moving forward, but in a way that technically makes Natasha’s symbiote the third party in their relationship.

Black Widow & Hawkeye #4 by Stephanie Phillips, Paolo Villanelli, Mattia Iacono, and Joe Sabino, proves to be a reflection on routines of self-destructive behavior set against the backdrop of the final showdown between Hawkeye, Black Widow, and their long-time enemy, Damon Dran. The newfound resolve that Clint and Natasha have to trust in each other takes the form of Natasha passing her symbiote to Clint while she makes a play to disable Damon Dran’s countermeasures.

The ploy works; in the aftermath, Clint and Natasha hold the symbiote between them, resolving to stop sacrificing themselves for the other and to instead face the future together.

Black Widow And Hawkeye Have A Unique Symbiote

This is fascinating behavior from one of Marvel’s symbiotes, as the species is notoriously possessive in regard to their hosts. Venom, Marvel’s most famous symbiote, bore a legendary grudge against Peter Parker for rejecting it, and would carry this trait with it to subsequent hosts. Before Venom and Eddie Brock properly reconciled, a not-uncommon gambit for dealing with Venom was for Peter to offer himself back to the symbiote to prompt it to abandon its current host.

Natasha’s symbiote notably displays this same possessiveness when it first encounters Hawkeye. In Black Widow & Hawkeye #2, sensing the self-destructive behavior of Natasha and Clint’s previous attempts at a relationship, the symbiote lashes out at Hawkeye; likewise, in a fit of jealousy, it deliberately refrains from warning Natasha about a sniper taking aim at Clint. It’s significant, then, that the symbiote only flows freely between them once they’ve acknowledged and confronted their self-destructive behavior, becoming a visual metaphor for their relationship.

Hawkeye And Black Widow Take Symbiote Bonding To New Levels

Black Widow’s symbiote is an excellent way to visually express the ebbs and flows of her and Hawkeye’s relationship, but Marvel has made it very clear in the past that the symbiotes are their own entities – meaning that the symbiote is as much a part of the relationship as Clint and Natasha. It’s a compelling angle that both explores the bond between Hawkeye and Black Widow while simultaneously offering a new direction for symbiote behavior that hasn’t been explored. Hawkeye, Black Widow, and the symbiote are ready to face whatever comes their way – the three of them, together.