Black Widow’s New Thunderbolts Costume Explained: What That Yellow Symbol Could Be

Thunderbolts is providing Yelena Belova’s Black Widow with a new costume, including an intriguing new logo. The Thunderbolts are the MCU’s next hero team, consisting of characters like Winter Soldier, U.S. Agent, Ghost, Taskmaster, Red Guardian, Valentina Alegra de Fontaine, and Yelena Belova herself. As evident, Thunderbolts has a large cast of characters from across the MCU, though little of the film has been revealed since its announcement.

That said, Thunderbolts has recently begun filming. Through a Thunderbolts set video by Florence Pugh, Yelena’s actor, several first-look reveals have been provided for the 2025 MCU film, including a completely new title card. One such reveal came in the form of Yelena’s new Black Widow outfit, one that is notably different from her previous costumes in Black Widow and Hawkeye. Furthermore, Belova’s costume featured an intriguing yellow symbol on its right arm, begging the question of what the logo signifies.

The Yellow Symbol On Black Widow’s Costume Could Be The Thunderbolts Logo

The easiest solution for the symbol is that it belongs to the titular team.

The most likely possibility for the yellow symbol is that it represents the Thunderbolts’ logo. The film will naturally depict the coming together of the various aforementioned heroes to form the new MCU team. Like The Avengers before them, the Thunderbolts will need a defining logo to help differentiate them from other MCU teams. As such, it would make sense for each individual member of the Thunderbolts to have their own costumes, only with a defining symbol alerting audiences and other in-universe characters to their Thunderbolts allegiance.

This possibility also has some support from Marvel Comics. In the comic books, the Thunderbolts logo is often depicted as a yellow circle with a black background and a yellow thunderbolt shooting through the middle. While the logo in the set video does not look exactly like this, it could easily be a worn-down version of the logo. Regardless, the yellow of Yelena’s symbol links to the yellow of the Thunderbolts logo, meaning the set video by Pugh has potentially provided a first look at the new teams’ emblem.

Other Explanations For The Yellow Symbol On Black Widow’s Costume

Some other possibilities present themselves for Yelena’s yellow symbol.

While the yellow symbol being the Thunderbolts logo is admittedly the most likely outcome, there are a few other possibilities for the new sigil. As has been made clear by all of Yelena’s past MCU appearances, she is an expert at infiltration. Trained as a superspy alongside Natasha Romanoff, Belova does not find it difficult to infiltrate other organizations or areas. This could lead to the possibility that the symbol is one of another organization, specifically one she is trying to infiltrate.

This would track with her appearances in Black Widow and Hawkeye, as she could still be working for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Val has been slowly recruiting the Thunderbolts members since 2021’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, including Yelena. Hawkeye made it clear Yelena was working for Val, meaning she is likely being sent on various undercover missions for the CIA director. The costume in the Thunderbolts set video could be one she is wearing to aid her infiltration, explaining the unknown symbol on her right shoulder.

One other potential, albeit unlikely, theory is that the symbol will provide a connection to Captain America: Brave New World. Originally, the film was titled Captain America: New World Order, with many thinking the titular villain team would appear in the film. Despite the title being changed, it is likely that elements of the NWO will still appear in Brave New World. For a while, rumors and reports have stated that Captain America 4 and Thunderbolts will be heavily connected.

One theory states that Yelena is infiltrating the New World Order. This would mean the yellow symbol on her arm is that of the MCU’s New World Order. The film could include the organization similarly to how Avengers: Age of Ultron included HYDRA from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Steve defeated the head of HYDRA in the latter, yet the former included the Avengers taking down remnants of the group. This could be exactly the same with New World Order only with Thunderbolts replacing Avengers 2 and Captain America 4 replacing Captain America 2 in this theorized scenario.

How Yelena’s New Black Widow Costumes Compare To Natasha Romanoff’s

The links between Yelena and her sister are still evident.

Since Yelena took over as the primary Black Widow in the MCU, her costume has shared similarities to Natasha Romanoff’s and vice versa. The events of Black Widow tied into Avengers: Infinity War with the former providing Black Widow her tactical vest for the latter. Concerning Yelena, her costumes have also been inspired by Black Widow’s. In Hawkeye, Yelena was often shown wearing a black tactical suit. This looked similar, but admittedly more realistic, to the earlier suits worn by Natasha Romanoff.

The suit Yelena is wearing in Thunderbolts is proving to be similar. Still an all-in-one suit but with much a more militaristic design, the costume emulates those worn by Natasha only with more practicality for the task at hand. Yelena has been depicted as a much more tactical version of Black Widow, more aligned to characters like Val and the CIA than the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, and the Avengers as her sister was. Therefore, it makes sense for Yelena’s Black Widow costumes to be more spy-like than superhero-coded.

How Yelena’s New Black Widow Costume Compares To The Marvel Comics

Thunderbolts’ Black Widow seems to be taking elements from the source material.

Perhaps the most interesting reveal from Florence Pugh’s Thunderbolts set video is how Yelena’s new costume compares to Marvel Comics. For the most part, the MCU making comic-accurate Black Widow costumes for both Natasha and Yelena has been relatively straightforward. The comic version of the character has long worn simple black all-in-ones, with the MCU adding qualities like Natasha’s wrist gauntlets or electric batons to make the character align more with her comic book counterpart.

With Yelena, it seems Thunderbolts is taking this one step further by adding an element to her new suit that matches Marvel Comics. In one of the various Thunderbolts comic book issues, Yelena appears wearing a similarly sleek Black Widow costume that is green as opposed to the usual black or white. Marvel Studios is adapting this with Yelena’s Thunderbolts outfit as it possesses a lot more green than usual. The new suit is entirely a muted green color, emulating the version of Yelena Belova seen in the comic books on which Thunderbolts will presumably be based.