That Time Black Widow Found an Infinity Stone in a Toilet

 Last week in this space, I declared my disdain for spoilers. I'm not going back on that, but if you don't want even the smallest technical spoiler about the Black Widow movie, stop here, because I'm about to tell you something that doesn't happen in the first new Marvel Cinematic Universe film since 2019.

Black Widow does NOT find an Infinity Stone in a toilet.

(from Infinity Countdown #1, art by Aaron Kuder, with a word blacked out by me)

The Marvel movies will have to find new MacGuffins in Phase Four, but the comics circle back to the Infinity Thingamabobs (first they were gems, now they're stones) every few years. That was the case in 2018 when Gerry Duggan penned “Infinity Wars” around the time “Avengers: Infinity War” was due to hit theaters.

Before the main series, we got an “Infinity War: Countdown” limited series in which various characters were attempting to possess the stones.

Perhaps the most interesting was Daredevil's perennial informant Turk Barrett having the Mind Stone, but Turk's not starring in the biggest movie since COVID-19, so we're not talking about him today.

When the series-before-the-series opened, the Space Stone – which allows the wielder to teleport across great distances – was in the possession of a recently returned-from-the-dead Wolverine. But while preparing to star in roughly three dozen limited series exploring the mystery of his return before resuming his regular schedule of appearing in roughly three dozen monthly titles, Logan decided to farm out this particular problem to an old friend: the recently returned-from-the-dead Black Widow.

As with any care package of cosmic import, Wolverine completed this transfer through the secure process of a dead drop the Widow had set up years before. So, in Infinity Countdown #1 (written by Duggan, art by Aaron Kuder, cover by Nick Bradshaw), he left one-sixth of the most powerful weapon in the universe in a toilet tank in Madripoor.

The lead-up to Infinity Wars expanded into multiple one-shots, including “Infinity Wars: Black Widow” (written by Duggan, art by Nik Virella and Brent Schoonover, cover by Yasmine Putri). In it, Natasha tries to keep the stone out of the hands of Jamie Braddock, brother of Captain Britain. Usually a battle between those two would be rather one-sided, because Braddock wields reality-warping mutant powers. But he didn't have them for some reason and was using magic. Natasha wielded the Space Stone with deadly efficiency to stop Jamie and his cult from using children to do their dirty work.

I read the main Infinity Wars series a while back but don't remember a lot of it. I may revisit it down the line, but for now, I figured I would just share one of the odder moments in Black Widow history with you.

For more Black Widow coverage, I wrote about the character's history for people who may not be familiar with her comic book origins as part of my day job. I'm also talking about the 2009 limited series Black Widow: Deadly Origin on an episode of the Source Material Live podcast.