Black Widow’s Yelena Belova Is Teaming Up With The Winter Soldier

Warning: this article contains spoilers for Winter Guard #4!

While Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, tends to work with Captain America, he just got a new partner in the form of Black Widow‘s Yelena Belova, aka the White Widow. A longtime love interest of Black Widow, Bucky is now working with another Red Room graduate, as Yelena makes decisive moves in Winter Guard #4, from Ryan Cady and Jan Bazaldua.

Russia’s Avengers equivalent, the Winter Guard, have been hunting Red Guardian and Yelena Belova as they’ve acquired Soviet secrets that, if released, would throw Russia and even the world into chaos. In the issue, the Winter Guard capture Yelena and are interrogating her, trying to learn the whereabouts of Red Guardian and their secret files. After Yelena eventually escapes, she nevertheless tells the team where to find Red Guardian as she was betrayed by the super-soldier in the previous issue. The Winter Guard stops Red Guardian and leaves Yelena to die in Siberia, until she is rescued by the Winter Soldier. 

Even though Red Guardian’s plan is foiled, he still manages to make his escape, which leaves his story open to future continuations, but the biggest tease of a potential upcoming adventure is with Yelena and the Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier’s appearance in the final issue of the storyline came as a shock to fans as he had not been present throughout the run. Not only is Bucky present, but he is Yelena’s planned rendezvous, extracting her from Siberia. Yelena reveals to Bucky that she has some of the top secret information Red Guardian was trying to expose, meaning that she just involved him in her conflict with the Winter Guard. 

If Marvel decides to move forward with this potential team-up, it’s likely White Widow and the Winter Soldier will fight against the Winter Guard. Yelena is currently helping Natasha Romanoff start a new LA team over in Black Widow, as the Avengers’ superspy is still recovering from being brainwashed into a new, picture-perfect life with a husband and child that was subsequently destroyed. But while the White Widow is there for her Red Room sister, she clearly has goals of her own, and with Winter Soldier’s history as an unwilling Russian agent, the two make perfect enemies for the Winter Guard and the deadly new Red Widow.

Of course, fans will also be hoping the association between Winter Soldier and Yelena Belova hints at some new connection in the MCU, but it’s also exciting to see Marvel invest in its espionage comics. While its space- and magic-based heroes offer stunning narrative possibilities, characters like Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and White Widow are just as capable of saving the world, often with a unique sense of peril. As Marvel teases that Winter Soldier and Black Widow‘s Yelena Belova will be working together in future, it seems a safe bet that a major spycraft-themed story is coming fans’ way.

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