Black Widow Secretly Explained Why Zemo Never Attacked The Red Room

Black Widow’s exploration of the Red Room and its Widow agents showed why Baron Zemo had little interest in taking the organization down. Since his introduction, Zemo has been highly efficient in eliminating superpowered individuals by fracturing the Avengers, killing H.Y.D.R.A. and Flag-Smasher super soldiers, and preventing the creation of more super-soldier serum by killing Dr. William Nagel. However, he never tried to attack another organization that was producing deadly operatives: The Red Room.

General Dreykov’s Black Widow agents would seem to be prime targets for Baron Zemo as another form of super-soldier. Extensively trained since childhood, the Widows were highly skilled in combat and espionage. Chemical alterations to their brains kept them loyal to the Red Room as well as focused on completing their missions. Black Widows like Natasha Romanoff were even selected based on their genetic potential, suggesting an innate advantage over the typical soldier. Romanoff’s long career as a valued Avenger also showed that the skillset she gained from the Red Room was comparable to that of her enhanced and alien teammates.

While the Widows are high on the list of Earth’s deadliest combatants in the MCU, Black Widow shows that they are not superhuman but rather represent the peak of natural human potential. Zemo’s efforts were focused on eliminating artificial enhancements like the super-soldier serum. Lacking true superpowers in the strictest sense, the Widows did not pose the same extraordinary threat to humanity that Baron Zemo saw in the Avengers, the Winter Soldiers, and the Flag-Smashers.

Why The Red Room’s Widows Were Less Of A Threat

Black Widow illustrated the Red Room’s focus on training rather than improving its agent’s abilities unnaturally. The opening credits included instances of firearms and gymnastics training, and more Widows were seen practicing combat positions and perfecting their movements when Natasha’s team infiltrated the Red Room. The proclaimed uniqueness of the Red Room’s only super-soldier agent, Taskmaster, implied that her enhancements were not replicated in the Widows. Everything the Black Widows could do was learned, so potentially any human could become just as skilled with the right training and talent.

While showing just how dangerous the Widows were, Black Widow made them more vulnerable in comparison to their superhuman and non-human counterparts. When Natasha and Yelena Belova broke Red Guardian out of prison, he fell from a high wall but could still get up and start climbing again. During the earlier Budapest chase scene, however, one of the Widows pursuing Natasha and Yelena sustained enough damage from a high fall, including a broken leg, that Dreykov terminated her. Yelena’s comment that “I doubt the god from space has to take an Ibuprofen after a fight” further emphasized that despite all their training, the Widows still faced the human limitations of pain and physical injury.

The destruction of Sokovia convinced Zemo that superhumans had a greater ability to cause devastation and had to be stopped. He was not interested in stopping threats to global security but rather in stopping the increased damage done by people with superpowers. The Red Room used its Black Widow agents for incredible harm, but it was harm that humanity was naturally capable of. Black Widow made it clear that the Widows were too human to concern Baron Zemo in comparison with super-soldiers.