Warning: The following contains spoilers forSecret Invasion.ThoughSecret Invasionhas made it clear that no Avengers are coming to save the day against the rebel Skrulls, the series also hasn’t been shy about highlighting connections to the Avengers, and Black Widow in particular. Episodes ofSecret Invasionare full of Easter eggs that connect to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, and connections to Black Widow keep popping up in the series.
InSecret Invasion, with a rebel group of Skrulls intent on causing chaos on Earth and taking the planet for their own, they already have several human beings that the audience knows are held captive. The Skrulls are able to pretend to be those humans to infiltrate governments. They’ve also experimented with alien DNA to give some Skrulls superpowers. Fury made sure that Skrulls can’t get their hands on the DNA of the Avengers, but he’s been doing so with a lot of teases related to Black Widow.
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All The Black Widow References In Secret Invasion
In just five episodes ofSecret Invasion, there have been three overt Black Widow references. Two of the references to the MCU hero come in the same episode.
Dreykov’s Men:Episode 3 ofSecret Invasionsees Nick Fury and Varra meet up in 1998 before they become a couple. She passes on information to him about Dreykov. Dreykov is the man who runs the Red Room, the training program that conditions little girls to become assassins. It’s the program that creates Widows out of Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova. What’s interesting is that the information is passed in 1998 while Natasha is still in the Red Room, just a few years after she and Yelena have been on an undercover mission in the US as children. It would be another decade before Natasha would even defect to SHIELD.
Rick Mason:Episode 5 ofSecret Invasionfeatures a surprising cameo with a Black Widow connection. Rick Mason, last seen as a contact of Natasha Romanoff’s in theBlack Widowmovie, is who Nick Fury gets to fly him to Finland. This is one of the more surprising connections in the series since fans likely didn’t expect to see Rick Mason again.
The Widow’s Veil: Also featured in Episode 5 ofSecret Invasionis a piece of technology first featured inCaptain America: The Winter Soldier. A screen placed over the face that can change a person’s appearance comes in handy for a spy. Natasha Romanoff is the first MCU character to use, but it’s also been usedby Sharon Carter inThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier,Melina Vostokoff in theBlack Widowmovie, and now, by Nick Fury. It even gets a name, the Widow’s Veil, implying that it’s something originally developed for Black Widow, or possibly, a piece of technology originally developed for the Red Room that she took with her.
Why The Black Widow References Are Unusual For Secret Invasion
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe began linking up its characters inThe Avengers, the common saying at press events from producer Jeph Loeb was, “it’s all connected.” As a result, the MCU has never been shy about sneaking in references to characters and events in different movies. Most of those references, however, are usually very broad, like referencing the formation of the Avengers team, or Captain America’s time with the Howling Commandos, or tragedy in Sokovia. The references inSecret Invasionhave included those broad statements, but they also included things specific to Natasha Romanoff’s Black Widow.
This is unusual for the series mainly because Natasha is long gone. Natasha died, sacrificing herself on Vormir, during the events ofAvengers: Endgame. Despite her being gone, it’s her connections Nick Fury is using. Rick Mason is someone Natasha contactsin theBlack Widowmoviewhen she’s on the run from the government, one of the few people she trusts not to turn her over, but it’s never indicated that he and Fury even know one another.
Natasha’s also the kind of character that often ended up playing backup to the people who could deal with the bigger threats. She was secondary to Iron Man and Captain America in their respective stories, able to do the street-level things they might not have been as good at. Alien threats were not exactly her forte.
It’s entirely possible, however, that the callbacks to Natasha’s time as the Black Widow are simply being employed because, despite the threat of the Skrulls,Secret Invasionis a spy thriller. Black Widow’s best entry in the MCU remainsCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, the movie most closely aligned with spy thrillers in the franchise. It makes it seem like it’s unlikely that the Black Widow teases are leading to any kind of payoff in the series, but that doesn’t mean that MCU fans might not be in for a surprise. Thefirst mention of Dreykov occurred inThe Avengersand wasn’t paid off until theBlack Widowmovie, so teases can come back.
Could Secret Invasion Reveal A Widow Is A Skrull?
Scarlett Johansson has been very clear that her time as Black Widow is done and that she felt like she completed that character’s journey after filming theBlack Widowmovie. There are, however, other Widows in the MCU. WhileYelena Belova is the most prominent, Melina Vostokoff also appeared in theBlack Widowmovie. Likewise, there are many Widows trained in the Red Room that Yelena was busy trying to free from the Red Room’s control when the Snap happened.
Former Widows have been shown to be living normal lives (inHawkeye) or fighting in underground cage matches (inShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). It’s entirely possible that all the references to Black Widow mean that members of the Red Room training program could still appear in the series, potentially as human beings kidnapped and held by Skrulls. Yelena or Melina would be the ones the audience would have the most connection with and would make the most sense.
After all, there are at least one hundred Skrulls who have been pretending to be humans according to the show. It stands to reason that James Rhodesand Everett Rossaren’t the only recognizable characters to have been taken over. The season finale ofSecret Invasioncould still give fans one more surprise.
