Marvel Entertainment and director Jon Favreau are reportedly scouting for an actress to play Soviet superspy 'The Black Widow' in the Paramount sequel "Iron Man 2", with Emily "The Devil Wears Prada" Blunt emerging as a front-runner.
The character 'Natasha Romanoff', aka 'The Black Widow', was created by writers Stan Lee, Don Rico and illustrator Don Heck, debuting in Marvel Comics "Tales of Suspense" #52 (April 1964), introduced as a "gorgeous new menace" for 'Iron Man'.
Natasha appeared for the first time in a skintight black costume in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #86 (July 1970).
Born in Stalingrad, she trained as a spy/martial artist for the Soviet's 'Black Widow Ops' program, becoming 'bio-technically' enhanced.After falling in love with the 'Winter Soldier', Natasha is deployed with false memories and marries test pilot 'Alexi Shostakov, aka the 'Red Guardian'.
Her gear is equipped with an arsenal of high-tech weaponry, including a pair of wrist-mounted energy weapons called the 'Widow's Bite'.
"Iron Man 2", scripted by Justin Theroux will start production this spring for a summer 2010 release by Paramount... 
