Yelena Belova

Yelena Belova is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is depicted as a spy and was the second modern-era character to use the Black Widow name. Created by Devin Grayson and J.G.

Jones for Marvel Knights: Wave 2 Sketchbook #1, Belova made her first appearance in Inhumans vol. 2 #5 by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee. She was trained as a spy and assassin in the Red Room.

Originally, Yelena was a foe of Natasha Romanova and was sent to kill her, but the two later became allies. She was also a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., Vanguard, and HYDRA; the latter organization changed her into a version of Super-Adaptoid. As Super-Adaptoid, she was one of the members of the High Council of A.I.M.

After being freed from her Super-Adaptoid identity, Belova reverted to her old Black Widow identity before adopting the codename White Widow. She is the first confirmed asexual character in the Marvel Universe. Florence Pugh portrays the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Black Widow, the miniseries Hawkeye, and the upcoming film Thunderbolts* (2025); Violet McGraw portrayed the character as a child in the former film.