Death Battle Predictions: Black Widow VS Widowmaker

“The female of the species is more deadly than the male.”

- Rudyard Kipling

When there is a need for plans to be sabotaged and lives to be taken, the world calls for wetwork, and the finest killers from lands far and wide answer. For them, there can be no such thing as serving a greater good or a just cause. Even if they did find the right ideals to fight for, little else matters to them. All that counts by the end of the day is the mission and fulfilling it by any means necessary, and very few are as talented at their shared profession as these two femmes fatales - a pair of arachnid-themed assassins who have patterned themselves after one of the deadliest animals in history, known for their frightening ability to end a man’s life in a single bite, and the merciless efficiency in which they dispatch their targets with.

Black Widow, Marvel Comics’ resident scarlet-haired international woman of mystery. Widowmaker, the literal cold-hearted sharpshooting nightmare from Overwatch. Beneath their emotionless facades and beguiling looks, Natasha Romanoff and Amélie Guillard have given new life to the above saying by amassing some of the largest kill counts in their respective worlds all thanks to the culmination of years of training and similarly deadly arsenals to complement that. For the next episode of Death Battle, these deadly queens of espionage have their sights set on each other in what is going to be the final mission for one of these women; which widow is going to ultimately succumb to the other’s venomous kiss of death?

(Editor’s note: Be prepared to read the word “widow” a lot.)

Background

Black Widow

"Don't step any closer... unless you've got a death wish."

The many accounts that detail the childhood of Natalia Alianovna Romanova are as varied as the lies she fabricated and the lives she has taken over the course of her career as one of the deadliest assassins in a post-Cold War age. Some say that she was left alone after a house fire claimed the lives of her parents, and grew up to become a celebrated ballerina. Others paint a grimmer picture, where these supposedly peaceful memories were artificially created while she was raised in the Red Room, a facility that groomed orphan girls into assassins for the Russian government. Regardless of her true origins, young Natalia’s immense physical prowess soon led to her becoming an agent for the KGB, and its most feared to boot: the Black Widow.

For as long as she could remember, Black Widow faithfully served her superiors to the letter, whether it involved eliminating enemies of the state or gathering crucial intelligence from the most dangerous of locales. However, she began to have second thoughts about where her loyalties truly lay when she was tasked with infiltrating Stark Industries in the United States. In her repeated attempts to sabotage it, the Widow teamed up with Hawkeye, a vigilante archer who she later began developing feelings for. When it became clearer that she was seriously considering a defection, the KGB ordered her assassination, leading to both of them seeking refuge by becoming members of the US’ premier superhero team: the Avengers.

Ultimately, Black Widow chose to not follow through after receiving an offer from a secret intelligence agency named S.H.I.E.L.D.; its enigmatic director Nick Fury had monitored her performance within the KGB for several years and saw in her an asset that his organization could use in safeguarding the world from any threats. The newly renamed Natasha Romanoff agreed when it became clear that S.H.I.E.L.D. would wipe her slate in her past life clean, and since then, she has juggled her role as a freelance spy for them along with being a part-time ally of the Avengers. She is currently deceased in the mainline Marvel canon after having sacrificed herself to save Miles Morales, although a clone of her has continued to uphold her duties since.

Widowmaker

“A single death can change everything.”

Amélie Guillard was once an ordinary French woman like any other: beautiful, vibrant and full of life. Having spent much of her early life raised on her ancestral family estate and being an accomplished ballerina, she later settled down with Gérard Lacroix, an agent for the peacekeeping organization known as Overwatch. While their married life was joyful, the couple became a target of Talon, a terrorist faction that Gérard was tasked with bringing down. Unable to prevent him from causing more damage, Talon chose to go after Amélie instead, and after days of experimentation and torture, she was reprogrammed into a sleeper agent and released back to Overwatch’s custody - the first step in dealing a major blow to their rivals.

Despite seemingly appearing normal upon her release, Amélie’s programming activated itself one night, leading to her killing Gérard in his sleep before returning to Talon’s command. The final phase of her transformation was about to be complete, as she received further training in the art of covert assassination. Further enhancements made to her body turned her skin a cold shade of blue, reduced the amount of emotion she could feel and eventually slowed her heart rate to a point where she could effectively snipe from long distances. With Overwatch eventually declaring her missing-in-action, Amélie Guillard was finally no more, and in her place stood her polar opposite: the ruthlessly efficient and stoic assassin known as Widowmaker.

Devoid of all feeling save for longing the thrill of killing, Widowmaker has since been sent by her superiors to volatile hotspots all across the world to enforce Talon’s agenda: making the human race stronger by fanning the flames of conflict and inciting violence wherever it may be. Whether it may be by herself, or with the aid of other agents such as the playful hacker Sombra, the biotic geneticist Moira, the anarchistic gunslinger Reaper and even Talon’s mighty leader Doomfist, Widowmaker has continued to court chaos with numerous high-profile assassinations, whether they may be respected religious leaders, weapons manufacturers and everyone else in between, making her one of Overwatch’s most notorious enemies to date.

Skills and Abilities

Black Widow

Red Room Enhancements

As part of her training, Black Widow was biochemically enhanced with the Red Room’s variant of the same Super Soldier Serum responsible for transforming Steve Rogers into Captain America. While it may not be as potent as Dr. Erskine’s original formula, it still allows her to at least match the physical prowess of comparable figures such as the aforementioned Captain, the Punisher, Daredevil and her former mentor: the Winter Soldier.

For the most part, this means that Black Widow is simply several leagues stronger, faster, and tougher than the average person. She can lift up to 500 pounds, jump up 10 meters without a running start, survive falls from several stories, dodge gunfire from either long distances or point-blank range, and heal from injuries in a fraction of the time it takes normally.

The serum is also notably the reason why she retains a very youthful appearance. While comic book time does sort of muddy up her true age, much of Black Widow’s backstory with the KGB at least gives the implication that she could have been around for more than six decades while still looking like a 30-year old woman in the modern continuity. These are by far the closest she has to any notable superpowers, as by and large she is relatively human otherwise.

KGB Training

Since childhood, Natasha was groomed to be one of the KGB’s Black Widows, an all-female group of elite spies and assassin whose efficiency on the job made them on par, if not better than many black ops units. A large part of that was due to their training, making each Widow master multiple disciplines that their profession demanded from them.

For starters, Black Widow has earned expert-level proficiency in various martial arts, such as Karate, Sambo, Judo, Muay Thai and Ninjutsu, among others. She is also a master marksman on par with her best friend Hawkeye, capable of wielding any ranged weapon as excellently as she can in any situation possible. This extends to the use of any melee weapons she can get her hands on, even for those she improvises on the spot.

As a spy, she has honed her stealth capabilities to a tee, allowing her to remain undetected if need be. Even when caught and with no opportunities to fight her way out, Natasha’s training with the Red Room has made her an unparalleled manipulator of others; whether she chooses to seduce her targets, play to their emotions or even put herself in an assumed moment of weakness, she can easily turn the tables on her enemies if they show any emotional or logical vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

Widowmaker

Talon Experimentations

After Talon kidnapped Amélie, the terrorist organization subjugated her into an intense program of neural conditioning, breaking her will, suppressing her emotions, and reprogramming her into a sleeper agent. After killing her husband when she returned to him for two weeks, Talon had the experimentation and programming continue.

Through Talon’s experiments, Widowmaker was given extensive training in the covert arts, basic hand-to-hand combat, slight superhuman abilities, the inability to feel human emotions, and physiology altered her, making her skin turn blue and slowing her heart down. In the end, the results of Talon’s experimentations and programming have made Widowmaker a living weapon and the terrorist organization’s most effective assassin.

Infra-Sight

Using her recon visor, Widowmaker gains infravision and can therefore see the heat signatures of her enemies through walls and objects. This allows Windowmaker to set up ambushes, avoid flankers, and counter other snipers or enemies in stealth. It makes taking headshots easier and more successful as she can see her enemies come out of hiding. While she can share this ability with allies, Widowmaker won’t be able to do so in a one-on-one fight. Additionally, the visor gives her the ability to read broad range electromagnetic radiation and detect enemies in the area around herself through the visor’s various extrasensory cameras.

Equipment

Black Widow

Spy Suit

Black Widow has had various spy suits throughout her career, but most of them share common traits. Said suits are made from a synthetic and flexible fabric which has been augmented to be highly resistant to things that would normally kill a person, such as bullets, bladed weapons and extreme temperatures. It has claws that allow her to scale walls and cling to ceilings. She also has a White Suit that allows her to make her invisible to cameras, as well as using oil to blind others. Her Glider Suit allows her to glide in the air, as well as having a parachute. Her spy suit also has armored gloves which are strong enough to bend steel. She also tends to carry around goggles, which can figure out where a person is going as well as see in infrared.

Gauntlets

Gauntlets worn around both of Black Widow’s wrists. They were originally just normal bracelets, but after deciding to fight for the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D., she was inspired by Spider-Man to put his and her own abilities into them. After being upgraded, they contain all sorts of equipment and abilities.

Widow’s Line

A retractable grappling hook that is connected to her gauntlets and is able to ensnare enemies as well as be used as a means of disarming them before finishing them off. It is made out of a material strong enough  to choke people. The Widow’s Line cable reaches up to 100 feet.

Widow’s Bite

A function in her gauntlets that allow her to create electrical blasts that reach up to 30,000 volts. They are basically tasers, though sometimes she has shown to be able to fire energy. They are strong enough to be able to take out Captain America with a point-blank shot, as well as being capable of melting metal. Also, if we take Natasha’s word, they are strong enough to take down 10 men at once. They can be fired from close range or a far distance.

Widow’s Kiss

An aerosol instant knock-out drug that Black Widow fires from her gauntlets and has been shown to be able to knock out anyone for 24 hours. When they are affected by it, it usually makes them feel like they are drunk before knocking them out. Aside from the Widow’s Kiss, she also has tear gas stored in her gaunlets.

Guns

Given her profession, Natasha was trained to be proficient in handling any firearm she came across upon. While she doesn’t have a set default loadout to carry on any assignment, she does have a few guns of note throughout her history as an active operative:

• Makarov PM: The Markov PM is a semi-automatic pistol. During her training with the Red Room, Natasha trained with this gun.
• Walther PPK/S: Natasha's original gun of choice. She used it to stop Ivan Vanko.
• Heckler & Koch USP Compact: Semi-Automatic pistols - while in combat - Natasha tends to dual wield these.
• Glock 26: Romanoff replaced the Walther PPK/S for a pair of Glock 26 handguns as her weapon of choice. The Glock 26 has short recoil, semi-automatic pistols that are capable of easily piercing through the human body.
• Glock 19: The Glock 19 pistol is the standard sidearm carried by STRIKE in the MCU. She used it in the Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, and Civil War.
• Uzi: In the comics, Natasha has dual wielded Uzis, submachine guns often considered to be machine pistols.
• SV-98 Sniper Rifle: Natasha has been trained in sniper rifle use and can easily snipe a target or an enemy sniper from a distance.
• Glock 17: Romanoff used this gun to kill a mercenary that was working for Crossovers.
• Colt M4A1 with a M203 Grenade Launcher: A fully automatic carbine and the standard weapon used by S.H.I.E.L.D. It is outfitted with a grenade launcher and she used it on the Winter Soldier.

Bombs

There are many types of explosives stored in Black Widow’s gauntlets, which include:

• Bombs: She has bombs stored in her gauntlets which can be shot out as projectiles. These bombs are capable of creating explosions, as well as being capable of injuring armored enemies such as the Crimson Dynamo.
• Grenades: Bombs stored in her gauntlets which are capable of creating a large explosion.
• Flash Bombs: Bombs that are easily capable of temporarily stunning the enemy by creating a bright flash.
• Smoke Bombs: Bombs which she can use as a means of escape by releasing a cloud of smoke or temporarily confuse and disorientate an enemy.
• Micro-Bombs: Very small bombs that are stored underneath her fingernail. These don’t do quite as much damage as a regular bomb, but can still be deadly if used right.
• Adhesive Bombs: Bombs that are able to stick to any surface and when triggered can completely destroy what it’s attached to. This is shown when Black Widow used these bombs to shatter a pane of glass.

Discs

Black Widow has discs that she can fire out of her gauntlets. Usually, she uses two different types of discs:

• Taser Discs: Discs that create an electric shock. They are able to knock out guards as well as being able to disabling electronic equipment.
• Explosive Discs: Discs that are capable of creating an explosion equivalent to four pounds of TNT.

Batons

These batons are uses to batter enemies, and are able to be charged with the same electricity as Black Widow’s gauntlets. These batons are used more for incapacitation rather than killing, though it can be used to finish opponents off as shown when she used them to take down dozens of Ultron Sentries. They also have a secondary feature, in that they are able to be combined together to make a staff weapon, which she used against the Black Order.

Radio Transmitter

In her gauntlets she keeps a radio transmitter that allows her to see where a person is heading. This can be used to get the jump on her enemies.

Widowmaker

Widow's Kiss

Widowmaker’s primary weapon in battle. It comes equipped with two modes, which she can switch depending on the situation at hand. As a submachine gun, Widow’s Kiss is similar to Soldier 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle, but with less accuracy and a larger magazine. Despite that, the submachine gun mode is useful if she ever finds herself in a short to mid-range firefight. As a sniper rifle, Widow’s Kiss allows Widowmaker to show off her expertise as a professional sniper and a deadly adversary for anyone on the battlefield. Quite a useful weapon in taking headshots.

Venom Mine

Since snipers tend to be less skilled at close-range, they make up for it by setting traps for opponents who try to get close. This goes the same for Widowmaker with her Venom Mines. These mines can attach to nearly any surface, and detonate a poisonous gas onto enemies if they’re within range of the Venom Mine’s motion trigger. The gas knocks them down once inhaled and can potentially be deadly. Only the presence of Widowmaker herself doesn’t trigger it. Due to being able to be shot at a far distance, a Venom Mine can be used like a grenade. She can shoot it at a group of enemies she’s flanking and then weaken them with the poison.

Grappling Hook

Widowmaker can swing towards buildings using a wrist-mounted grappling hook that impacts a solid, scalable surface. The grappling hook is a linear projectile with a maximum range of 20 meters and is strong enough to crack stone. Even when arriving to her location, Widowmaker still maintains some of her momentum, which she uses as a sort of “high jump” to use her sniper rifle on targets normally out of her line of sight. In addition, she uses the grappling hook to gain a better view of the battlefield and evade or flank her opponents.

Feats

Black Widow

Accomplishments

• Assisted in Nick Fury’s Secret War to overthrow Lucia von Bardas as dictator of Latveria
• Temporarily led S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Civil War event
• Fought against Wolverine as a child
• Defeated 100 men
• Has defeated the Punisher, who is one of the deadliest street level Marvel heroes
• Defeated the highly trained mercenary Crossbones
• Able to match the Winter Soldier
• Has stalemated one of the deadliest assassins in the Marvel universe: Elektra
• Defeated Lady Bullseye, who previously has defeated Daredevil
• Defeated El Jaguar, who was able to fight evenly with Daredevil
• Nearly killed Nick Fury and murdered her way through multiple S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with ease
• Took down an entire warehouse full of armed drug dealers
• Able to match a bloodlusted and brainwashed Hawkeye
• Defeated a brainwashed Captain America with help from Diamondback
• Matched the Red Skull, who was in Captain Amercia’s body at the time (though she didn’t win)
• Defeated Yelena Belova, one of her successors as the KGB-endorsed Black Widow
• Often regarded as one of the top graduates of the KGB’s Red Room program
• Represented the Avengers in their battles against the X-Men
• Infiltrated Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts

Strength

• Broke a man's neck with one kick
• Kicked the Punisher through a carnival game
• Shattered a bunch of wooden boards
• Sent a man flying with one hand
• Hurt Spider-Man with a kick
• Sent a man flying with one punch
• Slammed a man into the ground so hard that he cracked the concrete

Speed

• Has shown bullet timing
• Has managed to evade automatic gunfire
• Evaded a shot from the Punisher
• Evades a point blank laser
• Has evaded lasers
• Dodged fire from a well known game hunter and assassin
• Has evaded gattling gun fire
• Has dodged a blast from Iron Man
• Dodged projectiles from Bullseye, and keep in mind that Bullseye never misses
• Dodged blasts from Electro, who has massively hypersonic attack speed

Durability

• Fell out of a building and survived
• Survived a grenade explosion
• Took a hit from the Scorpion who has managed to defeat Spider-Man on some occasions
• Survived a brutal beating from a Russian super spy
• Took a hit from an A.I.M. robot, who have managed to hurt the likes of Spider-Man and get right back up
• Stood perfectly still during a major surgery despite having no anesthesia
• Survived a blast from Doctor Doom (though she was knocked out by it)
• Got hit in the stomach by Cap’s shield thrown by Daredevil and got up fine
• Survived a helicopter explosion
• Took a beating from an android who is strong enough to lift cars

Widowmaker

Accomplishments

• Assassinated Tekhartha Mondatta, the Omnic leader of the Shambali
• Fought off Tracer and managed to damage her chronal accelerator
• Engaged in a sniper duel with Ana Amari, one of the founding members of Overwatch, and managed to shoot out her cybernetic eye
• With Reaper, battled Tracer and Winston during a heist attempt targeting Doomfist’s gauntlet
• Assisted Doomfist’s faction in defeating a Talon splinter group led by Vialli

Strength

• Knocked a man out with one punch
• Took down a team of armed security guards with ease
• Cracked stone using her grappling hook
• Fought evenly with Winston, who fought Doomfist

Speed

• Dodged Tracer’s pistol fire
• Dodged a shot to the head from Tracer’s pulse pistol
• Backflipped across an alley and swung the rest of the way on her grappling hook, all while avoiding gunfire from Tracer
• Dodged gunfire from armed security

Durability

• Took a punch from Doomfist’s gauntlet and survived
• Survived a shot to the head (though thanks to her armor)

Weaknesses

Black Widow

As with most street-level Marvel heroes, Black Widow may be capable of feats far greater than any normal person, but she is still very much human in the end of the day. As such, regular human weaknesses still apply to her as well as the appropriate limits, especially given that she’s… well, currently dead.

Widowmaker

Widowmaker’s sadistic nature often takes over at the worst of times, as she can choose to play around with a potential target or shift her focus to a new one instead of killing them outright. Her loadout is also not terribly suited for a close-quarters battle, as she prefers to snipe foes from a distance.

Summary

Black Widow

“How many more jobs... How long will it take…? I don't know if I can do it... Even if I could forgive myself, this is what I am now. And you'll never know who I was before.”

Advantages:

• Possesses superior CQC skills.
• Most, if not all, of her arsenal is more varied and deadlier than Widowmaker’s.
• Track record shows that she has not only been active far longer than Widowmaker, but is more accomplished to boot with decades worth of experience trumping her opponent’s.
• Should boast the better stats overall through scaling and feats.
• Grappling hook and speed should allow her to close the distance if Widowmaker retreats to alternate sniping positions.

Disadvantages:

• Lacks in default long-ranged weaponry to deal with Widowmaker from a distance.
• Whatever that horrible romance subplot was in Age of Ultron.
• Also just want to point out that the Marvel wiki lists her inability to get pregnant as a weakness. What.

Widowmaker

"When I was a girl, I had a fear of spiders. I was told they felt no emotion, that their hearts never beat, but I know the truth. At the moment of the kill, they are never more alive..."

Advantages:

• Sniper rifle and mines give her a tremendous range advantage and the ability to keep away from Black Widow if need be.
• Is in possession of certain… assets.

Disadvantages:

• Outmatched in a hand-to-hand fight.
• Lacks experience in comparison to Black Widow’s resume.
• Less impressive stats.
• Black Widow’s better mobility makes it difficult for her to continuously fall back on sniping, leaving her with very little opportunities to use her more powerful long-distance game.

Verdicts

ramonzer0

(Every day this show goes without No More Heroes in it is suffering.)

This right here, ladies and gentlemen…

...is what true justice looks like. (This verdict was also supposed to have some kind of “core values” joke in here somewhere, but at the same time I wonder if that’s going to somehow bite us all in the ass somewhere. Thanks, Tecmo!)

Actually, wait. This at EVO…

...is also what true justice looks like.

Also, cool - a Marvel VS Not!DC fight, and it’s a match-up I can sorta get behind by based on thematics alone, although this does sorta bring me to one particular issue this fight brings to the table. You guys might remember Tracer showing up to fight the Team Fortress 2 Scout from a few years back; there was something of a concern that Tracer - and really, Overwatch as a whole - was being used too early since the series only had a literal handful of feats to pull from.

Now, whether you think that her win was the right call is up to you, but even three years removed from the release of Overwatch and the additional trailers and comics and such that popped up in the interim, Widowmaker is sort of facing a similar problem: she only has so much stuff to go through, and the issue is compounded further knowing that she’s fighting a Marvel character. Natasha being around for like 40+ years does not help. At all.

Even worse: this is a Marvel character who pretty much embodies who Widowmaker is supposed to be and more… which I guess is my weird way here of saying that the other guy-- er, gal should be taking this fight pretty handily. How so, you may ask? Again, literally being better at almost everything in this fight that actually matters. Time for the list:

Experience? Again, we got one fighter who’s only been around for 3 years and a handful of material to possibly comb through against another who has done a shitton of stuff over multiple decades inside one of the craziest and most long-running canons of all time. Considering what she’s accomplished and the types of heroes and villains she’s had to face in that time period, it’s no surprise that Black Widow utterly trounces Widowmaker here.

Stats? Sort of close, but still in Black Widow’s favor handily. The prior experience advantage helps Natasha here in that the peeps she’s fought and can be considered comparable to grant her better scaling opportunities as against anything seen in Overwatch thus far. That said, let’s go blow-by-blow for each category:

With speed, this isn’t a contest; again, comic book character’s present here. Both Nat and Widowmaker have dodged a fair amount of fully-automatic gunfire on occasion, and the latter gets some decent scaling off Tracer, who could use her time shenanigans to boost her own movement speed and outpace rockets headed straight for her. Cute, but consider the individuals Black Widow’s been portrayed as relatively equal to: Spider-Man, the Punisher, Wolverine, Hawkeye, Daredevil, Captain America, Winter Soldier - all of whom have made it their personal mission in life to dodge things that people on their level should never dodge: laser fire, lightning/electricity, sniper fire from long distances that feasibly should not make any sense, etc.

That last statement’s pretty important considering what Widowmaker’s entire sthick is. Natasha’s fought her fair share of superhuman snipers in the past, and pretty much has the means to reliably never get hit at all while advancing. Granted, her default equipment as it is doesn’t allow her to engage in a proper sniper duel, but this does sort of nullify arguably the biggest advantage Widowmaker should have going into this fight. (I’ll get back to this later.)

In terms of durability, the most notable feat Widowmaker has is taking an attack from Doomfist’s gauntlet, which was stated to be capable of leveling an entire skyscraper. Issue for Amélie here is that it was a kid and not Doomfist himself that was responsible for that, plus that building they were in didn’t crumble apart when the attack landed, so it can’t be considered fully comparable to it. Aside from that, she’s capable of surviving a headshot from Ana, and… not much else really - again, there’s literally only so much we can go through for Widowmaker here. With Black Widow, you have feats such as surviving a blast made of dark matter, energy attacks from Sentinels and Doctor Doom, falling off a rooftop, tanking the odd explosion here and there - all of which happen at an more consistent frequency than anything Widowmaker’s gone through.

Strength is a similar story, except that Black Widow has a bunch more here that help solidify her advantage over Widowmaker. Amélie’s fights with Tracer and Winston show that she can deal with them pretty well, and considering the latter’s fought Doomfist and is also very comparable to him, that’s a bonus. However, Nat isn’t a slouch, capable of ripping apart giant robots with her bare hands, and again, just simply being comparable to many of the heroes I’ve listed above.

Black Widow’s also the more skilled assassin by a country mile. Unlike Widowmaker, she is on record as having mastered multiple fighting styles and has defeated many of the Marvel universe’s best martial artists in a one-on-one fight, something Widowmaker can’t counter since we rarely see her go up against as many skilled hand-to-hand fighters in her own universe, nor do we have any insight into her own CQC training. This sort of ties back into experience as I’ve mentioned above: Natasha has been an active combatant for the better part of several decades, even going so far as to literally been raised as an assassin all her life; again, Widowmaker can’t compare by account of only becoming a Talon operative in her 30s without any known combat record beforehand, and we can’t say for sure that her shorter time training with them could match the same level of intensity as her opponent’s, at least enough to give her an edge..

Arsenal-wise, Widowmaker may have the range game locked down with Widow’s Kiss, and can rely on its assault rifle mode and Venom Mines to ensure Black Widow can’t close in on her. Again, not an issue since Natasha’s still leagues faster, and part of the serum administered to her reduces the effectiveness of toxins, so even tripping a mine wouldn’t hurt too much. Her grappling hook counters Widowmaker’s own so the latter won’t be able to repeatedly fall back and utilize the more powerful sniper configuration, and the amount of options hidden within the Widow’s Bite gauntlets are enough to cause some serious damage, whether it involves administering fast-acting knockout sedatives, sending 30,000+ volts to toast Amélie inside out if not temporarily stunning her, or disorienting her with explosives and tear gas bombs. Granted, any stealth tactics she’ll try to pull off can theoretically be nulled by Widowmaker’s Ultimate, but at the same time, Natasha did manage to sneak up on Spidey despite one of his powers literally being a safeguard to avoid that very situation, so...

I mean, what else is there to say about how much better Black Widow is at this assassin business? ...actually, loads more, to be perfectly honest. Even if we simply limited this to skills they’d be able to feasibly rely on in a fight, Nat’s already a better tactician by virtue of having led both the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. on multiple occasions, a better marksman by making insanely accurate shots that can often put Hawkeye to shame, a better manipulator given how many times she’s tricked others - including Loki, the actual god of it himself - into doing her bidding even while she’s at a supposed disadvantage and is probably going to factor in given how sadistic Widowmaker is…

Dear Lord, how deeper is this hole in the ground going to be and why can’t we just toss Widowmaker’s corpse into the incinerator instead of drawing this out further? I can’t even make some weird pun or crack at this; this fight is literally Nat’s to lose. Black Widow takes this.

Malcolm Belmont

(Should have been the Sniper VS Widowmaker.)

So, what’s the next DEATH BATTLE- *sees Black Widow VS Widowmaker*...

In all seriousness, I am kinda mixed on this matchup personally, and think that Black Widow VS Kim Possible would have been a better matchup, but since this is happening I might as well give my thoughts and opinions on how I think this fight will turn out.

A lot of people say that Black Widow has the obvious advantages and you know what, they aren’t entirely stats. In terms of stats, Black Widow easily scales to the rest of the Marvel street level characters, which easily puts her at massively hypersonic speed and town level DC and durability. Widowmaker is building level at best and has hypersonic combat speed, which is a very obvious step down from Black Widow. So in terms of stats, Black Widow obviously wins, but what about Widowmaker’s weapons/items - surely they would help her win..well not really. While Widow’s Kiss is a cool weapon in that it has a sniper mode and can go fully automatic, compared to Black Widow’s long arsenal of weapons, including guns, knives, escrima sticks, and her gauntlets, they aren’t really comparable.

Even including her Venom Mines, while they could potentially slow Black Widow down slightly, Black Widow has built up a resistance to poisons and toxins due to the modifications done on her body. So while I don’t think she could completely resist the poison’s effects, I don’t think she will die from it. And while the grappling look is useful for Widowmaker, Black Widow can easily cut it or shoot at it while Widowmaker is reaching for a higher location. In general, Black Widow has effective counters for all of Widowmaker’s tools. If she doesn’t want to get sniped, she gets in close range with her own grappling hook, tools, and speed (she has dodged sniper shots before). The chances that she could get sniped are highly unlikely and even if she plays Widowmaker’s game and fights at a distance, she has the tools needed to prevent Widowmaker from outsniping her.

And of course, there’s experience. Widowmaker is 30 at most and while certainly has had her fair share of successful missions, it doesn’t quite compare to Natasha, who has lived since the Cold War and has done hundreds of missions. She’s trained extensively in martial arts, becoming almost as skilled as Captain America when it comes to close quarters combat. While Widowmaker likely has had some training in hand-to-hand combat, it’s likely not nearly as extensive as Black Widow’s. She’s also extremely intelligent, having received extensive training to the Red Hood which should ease out Widowmaker’s Talon training. So Black Widow has the superior gadgets, tools, has more experience, has the better stats, and even if they play the sniping game, Black Widow has the tools needed to fight Widowmaker and eventually, once she gets in close, it’s all over for Widowmaker. While there may not be that massive a stat gap between the two, Black Widow has a lot of clear advantages that put her as the obvious winner in this fight. Looks like Black Widow has a little more bite to her then Widowmaker.

ThankSwalot

(People can make heavy metal out of anything.)

Someday my sweet child, you will return to EVO, and I will Izuna Drop everyone.

Let’s just forget that 2016 grand finals ever happened. But hey, UNIST got in from a dedicated community, so that gives me hope for the future.

Anyway, now that I’ve expressed my hopes and dreams getting crushed (and probably will next year too), this fight thematically is pretty good, so it’s caught my interest. Though, when you take a character who has been around much much longer, both in how long they have appeared in the duration of their series and in canon time, with another character who has only been around in only a small fraction of that, you get a match-up that can only end so many ways. Sometimes the character that’s been around shorter has some crazy shenanigans going on (Ness is kinda dumb), but this isn’t the case here, so I’ll just up and say right now that Black Widow should win this.

First, let’s talk stats. For strength, Amélie doesn’t have much, but has fought off Winston, who in turn fought Doomfist, which is pretty neat. But then there’s Natasha being a comic book character like she is, fighting many heroes from their that she can scale from, all of whom are stronger than what Widowmaker’s faced. The same sort of logic of not having much applies to durability as well. The toughest hit Widowmaker has taken came from Doomfist’s gauntlet, which can level skyscrapers. Even assuming that the kid using it was bringing out that much power, Black Widow has survived many explosions, taken attacks that hurt other incredibly strong heroes, and just taking hits from powerful characters in general, like the Scorpion and Daredevil.

For speed, Widowmaker has dodged gunfire, gunfire, and even more gunfire, but so has Nat, who has also dodged even faster stuff like Electro’s blasts. This big speed advantage will also make it much easier for Nat to close the gap between her and Amélie when she tries to snipe her from afar, along with her experience that, in comparison, makes Widowmaker look like some sort of newbie assassin. Like I said before, Nat’s been around much longer, both in appearances in her series and in actual canon time. She’s waaaaay more skillful when it comes to CQC, and has taken down many other incredibly skilled characters like the Punisher, Yelena, and Elektra.

And it only gets worse for Amélie when you compare their equipment and how they affect each other. Not only does Black Widow have a more variable arsenal than her, but some of the things Widowmaker has, Nat also has in some form, even if they don’t work exactly the same. She has sniper rifles and submachine guns (although admittedly not as the same weapon like Widowmaker’s), a grappling hook (which is longer), and a way to see in infrared. Also, while Nat’s Widow’s Kiss and Amélie’s Venom Mines obviously affect people differently, I’d still say the drug would be the more useful gaseous weapon in a one-on-one fight. This is mostly due to the aforementioned speed advantage Black Widow has, allowing her to get in before Widowmaker could realistically make use of her Venom Mines, and the fact that Natasha has a resistance to toxins.

There are other tools Nat could use to finish Amélie off too, such as her other guns, her myriad of bombs, or the Widow’s Bite to shock her with 30,000 volts. All in all, Black Widow has pretty much every important advantage in this fight: stats, experience, and equipment. Amélie is about to meet her maker.

VampyreNVRmore

(Finally, another Overwatch character in Death Battle, but it isn’t Reaper. Oh well. At least enjoy his music.)

It’s been what, how many years since Overwatch had a character in Death Battle? Looks up Tracer VS Scout: Sep 7 2016. Almost exactly 3 years. Anyway, while I’m sad it isn’t Reaper in Death Battle, I am excited that an Overwatch character is finally in the show again. Unfortunately for Widowmaker, this match against Marvel’s Black Widow won’t end in her favor.

As everyone else has pointed it out, Natasha has practically almost every advantage over Amélie. In terms of physical stats such as strength, speed, and durability, Black Widow has the advantage in all of them due to have far more and better feats than Widowmaker while also scaling to other street level characters in Marvel. And we all know how strong Marvel likes to make those characters. It also doesn’t help with how much little feats Widowmaker has and how minuscule they are.

In terms of weaponry, Natasha has a much larger assortment than Amélie, who only has four (including her visor). Not only that, Widow’s own equipment won’t do much for her. Black Widow has dealt with submachine guns and sniper rifles before, and there’s nothing about Widow’s Kiss that makes it any different. While the Venom Mine has always been a reliable trap for Widowmaker, it’ll only delay the inevitable in this episode due to Black Widow having a resistance to toxins. As for the grappling hook, it can just be cut and Amélie only uses it as a means to escape.

Close combat will only get Widowmaker killed. The safezone for a sniper is long range distance as they’re normally weak in close range. And while Amélie somewhat has training in combat, she’s an assassin first and relies on quick strikes and sneak attacks. It also doesn’t help that Natasha is far better in close combat due to her training.

Speaking of which, the last advantage for Black Widow is experience. Natasha started training at a young age and fought in the field of battle for many years (part of which because of her long comic book history). As for Amélie, she became Widowmaker after a few weeks (or a couple of months) of brainwashing and has been on the field for a couple of years (since the relationship between the ages of Overwatch’s characters and the history of the lore is a bit shaky).

The only advantage Widowmaker has over Black Widow is range, but it wouldn’t last long. In the end, Amélie’s going to be all webbed up in this Death Battle.

It would be miraculous if Death Battle brings in another French character into the show. Someone with lady magique et lady chance.

Venusaurus

So after watching the absurdness that was the Megaman Battle royal, seeing this preview had me with one of two reactions. First being

And second being

For real though as excited as i am for this fight because after looking into it, this is a pretty good match up, it's still just a fight that i don't think anyone of us expected to see here,except for the people that did know of the match up.

So i figure a good amount of people are just going to be saying, “ohhh clearly Black Widow is going to win, she's a comic book and marvel character and Widowmaker is just an overwatch character with barely any feats, such a stompy match. Give us our Galactus vs Unicron fight REEEEEEEEE.” I won’t lie, i at first thought this was going to be an outright stomp as well, considering that Black Widow has a lot more material to work with than Widowmaker, so I can see why some call it an Immediate stomp. But with looking at stuff for the two spider babes here, it honestly does seem to be a lot closer than you could think. While Black Widow is a Marvel character, having hundreds, potentially thousands of comics she's been in with material to work with, she isn't some overpowered god with a hammer that has a storm in it or a millionaire with suits that can shoot laser beams, she's more like your average day human than anything. Granted, though, she is enhanced with a super soldier serum like good old captain america was, but nowhere near as extreme as that one.

Not only does Black Widow have this super soldier juice(which should totally be something marvel sells as a drink, just sayin) she also has her special KGB training which gives her a huge leg up in this fight, as well as her arsenal. Black Widow is packing bombs, pistols, her special gauntlets that are honestly like mini bat-belts on her arms with the functions they have, her grappling line, batons. She has a lot more than i honestly though she took into battle. To top that off she is an Avenger, interesting enough the last of the main six avengers (talking movie verse here) to be brought into a Death Battle, and one of the best agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. she has fought many of marvel's greatest assassins, like bullseye and elektra and has either beaten them or has had a draw.

Now why am I starting this when it was clearly up above and you have probably read it all there unless you just scrolled down to here and read the verdicts first? (if that's the case hello, how ya doing?) Well honestly, Widowmaker doesn't really have much against Black Widow in these regards. Sure her weapon is pretty unique, being both a sniper and machine gun, but the only other thing she has is her grappling hook which does not have the range that Black Widows has, and her little poison mine which may be dangerous for Black Widow, but I'm sure with her training and abilities she would be able to avoid any damage from it.

Now to be fair, I am only talking about this by analyzing their weapons. Widowmaker has some pretty good feats to her by being able to keep up with both Tracer and Winston in a fight, and also taking a hit from Doomfists Gauntlet is nothing to sneeze at, though, it was a little kid using the gauntlet and not Doomfist himself. And her ultimate ability of being able to wallhack is very useful and i can see that playing a huge role into helping her track down Black Widow in the fight, but unfortunately, Widowmaker just does not have the feats to back her up like Black Widow does. (cause overwatch thinks lore is useless apparently) Ya know, this matchup is a lot like season 4s Scrooge McDuck vs Shovel Knight. This is a fight between two characters where one of the characters has decades of information and source material at their disposal to use for feats and whatnot, and the other character of from a game made a few years ago that really doesn't give her much stuff to work with since lore is very very scarce in Overwatch. This matchup is a great idea to be honest but just seeing the fact that Black Widow has way more experience, strength, durability, and weapons at her disposal really just makes this a win for her. I guess you can say….im not good at making puns so *insert clever pun about Widowmaker losing here*

Brobuscus

I’m not sure what there is to say here that the others haven’t said, so I’ll just kinda make this brief.

So, on one hand, we’ve got Natasha, who can dodge automatic gunfire and even Electro’s lightning, and keep up with other Street tiers who have the famous microsecond feats, and has fought people like Hawkeye and Bullseye, both of whom are expert marksmen.

On the other hand, Widowmaker can dodge Tracer’s shots, keep up with her physically, and can land a shot from several feet away, making her a very skilled marksman.

If you don't get where I'm going with this, look at it this way: Black Widow has fought and defeated people who fight with guns and can dodge gunfire, and she's defeated expert marksmen. Does any of that sound familiar? To Natasha, Widowmaker is basically Bullseye, if Bullseye was slower, not a CQC fighter, but had infrared vision. And she can keep up with Bullseye normally, so I imagine she’d do pretty well against someone who was basically him but worse in practically every way.

I imagine Widowmaker would have a good shot(no pun intended) if she was able to keep her distance away from Natasha and manage to put a bullet in her, but the problem is that Black Widow’s speed feats show that she can avoid practically anything Amélie could throw at her, and would have no problem getting up close to the weaker and less hand-to-hand trained Widowmaker.

And that's really all I gotta say. Black Widow wins this hands down.