Winter Soldier and Black Widow’s relationship that Marvel actually forgot. Scroll down to know the details!
Love stories have always fascinated mankind. Be it thine fictitious Romeo and Juliet or the real-life criminal love-birds Bonnie and Clyde. Either a tragedy brings them together or their love ends in a tragedy. As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the theme of tragic love stories seeped into the comic books in the 20th century. Be it the destruction of Krypton bringing Lois and Clark together resulting in an otherworldly romance or the butterfly-effect of Uncle Ben’s murder bringing Peter Parker and Mary Jane closer, tragedies always end up giving birth to love. But sometimes it is the opposite; two love-stricken people end up in tragedies, just like the real world. Such is the story of Bucky Barnes and Natasha Romanoff, or as the world knows them: Winter Soldier and Black Widow.
The tragedies that brought Winter Soldier and Black Widow together
In the comics, before Winter Soldier was Winter Soldier, he was Bucky Barnes. He was to Captain America as Robin is to Batman. And just like the second Robin, Bucky too had a brush with death during World War 2. Fortunately or unfortunately, he was found by the Russian Hydra members. After being brainwashed and experimented on, he was transformed into a killing machine carrying out various political assassinations.
Natalia Alianovna Romanova aka Natasha Romanoff was orphaned as a child during an attack on Stalingrad. She was entered in USSR’s “Black Widow Ops” program where she was to be brainwashed and trained into an assassin at a secret facility called Red Room.
Enter Winter Soldier. Bucky, who has lost all his memories and went by the name Winter Soldier, was brought in to train the potential future Black Widows. It is here that these two lost souls found each other. Two people whose innocence was stolen away from them at a time when they were most vulnerable were brought together after a series of tragedies.
The love of Winter Soldier and Black Widow ended in tragedies
As with most comic books, the revamps and retellings diverge the storyline into various possibilities and the same happened with this unlikely duos. Their relationship in books got tossed around by the writers like an invisible hand of destiny pulling the strings and making them dance to the tune of readers who don’t believe in happy endings for dark characters.
Their recent stint in the comics
In a perfect world, Natasha is living a life she never thought she would have or probably she deserved. A fiancé, James, who loves her to the moon and back, a two-year old son named after Captain America, Steve, and this probably seems too good to be true. Well, it’s not. Natasha discovers that she has been brainwashed which leads to a confrontation with villains which ends in Natasha witnessing the death of her fiancé, James (making her an actual widow) and her artificially conceived son Steve.
With the help of Hawkeye, the villains are quickly taken care of. Enter Winter Soldier. It is revealed that Winter Soldier has actually saved James and Steve as it was the hologram projection of two that got shot. This was done so Black Widow’s family wouldn’t be pursued by the villains again but the catch is Natasha can never see them again. It is further revealed that only Bucky and Natasha know about this arrangement. The issue ends with Natasha mournfully breaking down in Bucky’s arms.
With Avengers: Endgame basically confirming the death of Natasha Romanoff and Winters Soldier moved on from his time with the Avengers, it is safe to say that MCU missed a chance to portray a beautiful love story of two unlikely souls from different time and place coming together to form a connection.
Scarlett Johansson starrer Black Widow is set to release in theatres on 29th April 2021 as a solo backstory that bridges the gap between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
Sebastian Stan is set to reprise his role as Bucky Barnes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+ streaming service with its first episode airing on 19th March 2021.
“Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
