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“Now, your average Joe ain’t gonna get how big the universe is unless you tell ‘em with the right perspective. For example, the Earth is thousands of miles wide, but it’s millions of miles from the Earth to the Sun. And there’s a million other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy with our sun, and hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe with our galaxy. And that’s just in our universe. Now try to image even more universes all stacked up in a row with our universe. Makes ‘ya feel like you’re less than dust, don’t it?”

“Something like that,” the Black Widow said as she looked around. Very little could surprise her after being lost in the timestream, thrown 25 years into an apocalyptic future, then winding up in some primordial past* and now standing here in some quiet meadow or public park. The clearing was surrounded on all sides by green, leafy trees. The grass was long and untended. The wooden gazebo right next to her looked old and worn and its white paint peeled. And the boy with her who only looked to be 12, the only person she had seen since materializing here, kept talking to her about the universe and checking his pocket watch.


Not knowing what else to do, and not caring to discuss astronomy or philosophy or wherever the stranger was trying to take his argument, the Black Widow only half-listened to him as she circled the gazebo and watched the tree line for signs of anyone else…which was why she was completely taken off guard when a second man showed up right next to her out of nowhere.

“Bonjour!” Batroc the Leaper exclaimed, smiling broadly at her.

The Black Widow stepped back into a fighting stance. “Batroc the Leaper?” she asked as if this was the last person she had expected to see. “I’ve seen pictures of you.”

“I ‘ope ‘zey were good ones, Madame,” Batroc said with a nod. Perhaps out of supreme confidence, he did not adopt a fighting pose and continued talking in a jovial manner. “I ‘ave seen pictures of you as well, n’est-ce pas, Black Widow? Only with shorter ‘air and a gray costume instead of black. And, ah, who else could have possibly snatched me away to ‘zis place ‘zan you, eh?” Batroc added, turning to nod to the young stranger with the pocket watch.

“Hello again, Batroc,” Tommy Tyme said in a greeting.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on here,” the Black Widow said, “but if this is some sort of reunion, I think an invitation was sent to me by mistake. And if this is going to be a fight, I’d rather get it started and get this over with.”

“Don’t worry, toots,” Tommy said. “This Batroc has lots of respect for superheroes like the Avengers.”

“All ‘ze times ‘zey ‘ave saved ‘ze world, how could I not?” Batroc asked with a shrug. “Not ‘zat I ‘ave not done ‘ze same ‘zing myself from time to time…” he added with barely disguised self-admiration while seemingly only examining his glove.

“You were a hero?” the Black Widow asked. “When?”

“When and where – those are the big questions I was trying ta’ explain to ya’ before Batroc got here, toots,” Tommy said.

Turning to Tommy, the Black Widow asked, “What did you mean by ‘this’ Batroc?”

“Now you’re getting there!” Tommy said, pointing to her. “This ain’t even the same Batroc you’ve seen pictures of, but another Batroc from another universe.”

“I trust I am more ‘andsome than any other,” Batroc chimed in. “And, for my part, I ‘ave been given cause on occasion to step in when no heroes were – shall we say – up to ‘ze task. N’est-ce pas, Tommy?”

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For the rest of this story, you’ll have to wait for the Marvel Lab: the End miniseries. But for the wrap-up to our amazing year of the Black Widow’s 1970s adventures, you’ll only have to wait one month until issue #12 – “The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face”

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