Black Widow KILLED Tony Stark’s Butler Jarvis in The Comics

What do you do when you’re the member of the premier American superhero team and you reveal your betrayal while in bed with your billionaire fiancee who happens to be Iron Man? Why, shoot the disapproving butler when he brings you breakfast, of course! In Ultimate Marvel’s Ultimates 2, the Black Widow revealed her betrayal of the team to Iron Man and to really make her point, she shot his butler Edwin Jarvis in the head right before Tony Stark’s eyes.

In this alternate Marvel universe, the Avengers have fallen on some hard times. Once considered worldwide celebrities after saving the world, the Ultimates were rocked by scandal after scandal that quickly divided the team. By the time Ultimates 2 #9 was published, the Hulk had been executed, Thor had been committed for being mentally unstable, Hawkeye’s family was murdered, with Captain America framed and arrested for the crime, and Hank Pym had agreed to work with a mysterious traitor that sought to overthrow the entire group. In the issue by Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, Paul Neary and Laura Martin, it is revealed that the planned marriage of Tony Stark and Natasha Romanova, was the next thing on the list to go bad.

To help comfort a grieving Black Widow, Tony requests that his butler Jarvis prepare a special breakfast in order to cheer her up. Tony returns to bed, where the barely clothed Black Widow ignores talk about the wedding and suggests instead of attending the Ultimates’ meeting at the Triskelion, they can just stay in bed and “snuggle.”

But the cuddling session doesn’t last long, as the mysterious group the Liberators make their move against the Ultimates – and, essentially, the United States government. Armed with foot soldiers and superhumans, the Liberators destroy the Triskelion and disable much of the Ultimates’ military and superhuman forces.

Upon hearing of the commotion, Tony wants to suit up and help, but Natasha won’t have that and -revealing her treachery – puts a gun to her Starks’s head. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Jarvis’ timing with breakfast couldn’t have been worse as Natasha finally has had enough of his snark and puts a bullet between the servant’s eyes before Tony could even try to stop her.

After the Liberators round up the surviving members of Natasha’s former team, she is seen mocking Tony’s grief over Jarvis’ dead body. Making fun of the butler’s attitude and homosexuality, he was simply a victim of wrong time and wrong place, she says. While she’s eager to tell Tony why she betrayed the team, Tony reveals he actually holds the upper hand. Paralyzing her with the nanites in her body that were necessary to pilot the Black Widow suit Tony had created for her, he reveals that he’s been secretly keeping track of all of Natasha’s nefarious plans before knocking her out. Tony pushes past his grief over Jarvis’ death and Natasha’s betrayal and suits up as Iron Man.

Jarvis’ death was simply an act of cruelty on Black Widow‘s behalf, using their constant friction as some kind of justification when he was simply a victim of circumstance. Although the Ultimates were eventually victorious and Natasha got what she had coming, Jarvis’ death would send Tony into a downward spiral of depression and drinking. Tony would eventually get himself together and hire new assistants whom he would insist on calling Jarvis, even if that wasn’t their name (nothing weird about that).

About The Author