10 Things You Didn't Know About Black Widow

9. Her Training Included Ballet...Maybe

There is some disagreement within Marvel comics (and now movies) about what Natasha's training actually involved. The first explanation we get for her origins has her being kidnapped by Baron Von Strucker in late childhood and trained as both an assassin and a ballet dancer (which was a useful cover for her). However, later accounts suggest she was trained in the Red Room - a soviet spy facility which specialised in weaponising young girls - from very early childhood. She was never actually trained as a ballerina but had false memories implanted in which she studied with the Bolshoi ballet. However, she still displayed dancing ability. Avengers: Age Of Ultron is Black Widow's most recent MCU appearance and it seems to suggest some combination of the two origins. Though she was being trained for as long as she can remember, it seems that her training included ballet, as did the training of all the other girls in the program. Hopefully future Black Widow outings will expand on this element of her back story.
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Contributor

Brydie is an Australian writer and performer living in London and she complains exactly the same amount about the weather as every other Australian living in London. Yes, that is her natural lip colour, no, she will not be taking any further questions at this time.