Black Widow & Hawkeye Return… (With a Symbiote Upgrade)

Two iconic Avengers get their own series celebrating their 60th anniversary next year when Marvel launches Black Widow & Hawkeye. Written by Stephanie Phillips (Contest of Chaos) with art by Paolo Villanelli (Captain Marvel: Dark Tempest), the four-issue series promises to build off the duo’s history of secrets and spycraft. However, it will include Black Widow’s newest development – playing home to a symbiote called Widow.

Marvel Editor-in-Chief CB Cebulski announced the miniseries at the Lucca Comic and Games festival in Italy. Often embroiled in espionage, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff are used to being able to trust no one but each other. When Hawkeye is accused of an assassination attempt, Black Widow leaps to his aid, with her new Venom powers in tow.

To clear Clint’s name, the two have to revisit things they’ve done in their pasts so that they can save their futures.

Black Widow’s Venom Is the Most Dangerous Spy

Natasha has the skills of an unpowered assassin, matched with an intergalactic symbiote

Black Widow bonded with her symbiote just this summer in Venom #23 by Torunn Grønbekk, Ken Lashley, and Ramón F. Bachs. Compared to others like Venom or Carnage, her symbiote is relatively young and curious; Natasha felt its emotions and let it join her on her investigation of the terrorist organization NoName. Her symbiote began calling itself Widow, and has been very useful to the spy – it can eat the memories of victims, meaning Natasha has access to more intel than ever before in her missions. She also gets along very well with her symbiote, meaning she’s not dealing with a dark side, like the Hulk. As always, Black Widow has everything around her under control.

Clint Barton’s Hawkeye, on the other hand, hasn’t been up to as much in the comics recently. Matt Fraction and David Aja’s character-defining Hawkeye run ended almost ten years ago, and the Hawkeye characters more frequently seen are Kate Bishop and Lucky the Pizza Dog. Even after the Disney+ Hawkeye live-action series, fans were more interested in Kate and Yelena than the archer himself. This new miniseries will put him back on the cover alongside his partner-in-fighting-crime, and explore the history that makes him a character worth knowing.

Clint and Natasha Have a Strong History On and Off the Page

Where Black Widow goes, Hawkeye isn’t far behind

Black Widow and Hawkeye both first appeared a few issues apart in Tales of Suspense in 1964, written by Stan Lee with art by Don Heck. Natasha was at first a Russian spy femme fatale, less likely to physically fight than to flirt. Clint was a sideshow archer who decided to step up his game by creating a codename and dressing in his famous purple hero’s outfit. The two met, both while fleeing from Iron Man, and the rest was history. They’ve occasionally been in love, sometimes in disagreement, but always have each other’s backs. Now, with the Widow symbiote in tow, the Black Widow and Hawkeye will be near unstoppable together.