15 surprising facts you didn’t know about Black Widow

Black Widow’s comic counterpart has superhuman abilities

In Marvel’s comic series, part of Natasha’s ability to age without truly aging has to do with her superhuman powers. Despite the MCU introducing her character as one of the few Avengers dependent on physical prowess and combat skills to get by, the comics grant her abilities on par with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). In fact, she even gets them in a similar fashion.

During Natasha’s training in the Red Room, she’s given the Russian equivalent of Super Soldier Serum. This increases her speed, strength, and stamina, and it helps explain her aging process. (If Steve and Bucky can go from World War II to the early 2000s without a single grey hair, why not Natasha?)

Natasha’s superhuman abilities also grant her protection against certain illnesses and injuries, expanding her lifespan further. The MCU’s Natasha may be susceptible to broken bones and the flu, but the comic version of her is far less vulnerable to such things.

It’s unclear why Marvel Studios decided against including this aspect of Natasha’s comics character in the film franchise. Perhaps it would have required the movies to delve too deeply into her backstory — or maybe the MCU simply has enough Super Soldiers already. (Baron Helmut Zemo sure seems to think so.)

Whatever the reasoning behind this choice, Johansson’s Natasha has more than been able to hold her own against superhuman threats over the course of the MCU. She’s proven not all heroes need superpowers to make a difference — and that’s something her comics counterpart simply can’t say.