Battle of the Week: Green Arrow vs. Black Widow

It's a big week for Oliver Queen, a.k.a. Green Arrow! It's his first week as our latest Character of the Month and the third season of his CW show will begin this Wednesday. The hero has a lot to be happy about, but it won't be an easy ride for him. Being the Character of the Month also means we're going to put his abilities to the test each and every week against a hero or villain. His first challenger: Natalia Romanova, a.k.a. Black Widow.

Will Ollie's accuracy and trick arrows allow him to defeat the Marvel character or will Romanova's skills as an assassin grant her the edge in the fight? Who do you think should win? Keep in mind that the poll is open until Friday morning (ET), so that's plenty of time to gather your thoughts, spread the word, and root for a specific character.

Match Rules

• Combatants are in character.
• This is a random encounter (aka no prep for either side).
• Black Widow has standard gear.
• Green Arrow has his New 52 gear. For simplicity's sake, pre-52 feats are applicable.
• They're fighting in a generic downtown city setting. It's unpopulated, at night and all standard city lights remain on. Assume they start roughly 30 feet apart and visible. However, there is a good amount of cover in the location (parked vehicles, bus stops and such) and the entire area is on limits (alleys, rooftops, building interiors, the sewer, etc).
• Incapacitation, knockout or death all count as elimination. Making a tactical retreat counts as a loss, too. "What's a tactical retreat?" It's leaving the fight with the intention of not returning to the battle in the immediate future. Going to another spot in the environment to catch your breath for a moment or two or for a tactical advantage is not a tactical retreat.
• Hey, you know what would be really cool? Treating everyone else in the debate with respect. If you think someone's saying something that just isn't true, go ahead and stick to the facts to point out why. There's no need at all to drop insults just because you disagree with someone. Seriously, this is just talking about a fictional fight, there's no need for immaturity and mudslinging.
• If you think the poll isn't going how it should, making an informative post about why a character is being underestimated and spreading the word is far more useful than complaining. Just saying.
• One more thing: you don't need to write an essay to have your post highlighted in Friday's article. Sometimes concise posts can be way more effective than a flood of paragraphs.

Check the homepage this Friday for an updated article with the following:

• Thoughts from the staff.
• Viner Arguments for both characters.
• If we're lucky, blurbs from industry talent.

Want to suggest a match for an upcoming Battle of the Week for Green Arrow? Tell us below or share it via twitter.

...ends in...

This'll be a good one.

This gunna be good. Looking forward to reading the debates.

Green Arrow would take it The new 52 version has improved a lot especially in h2h. I feel like even if Black Widow's h2h is a little better, Ollie would still win due to better gear.

Isn't this basically Black Widow vs Hawkeye? I'm not an expert but I'd be surprised if that's never happened.

Too close to call for me.

If it comes down to H2H, I can see it ending in a stalemate. To end the fight quickly, I can see Ollie taking an arrow and jamming it through her eye or through her leg to incapacitate her lol.

...the bedroom

Wow this is close.

Green Arrow. Black Widow has never been that impressive in fights against other heroes, and Ollie's trick arrows really take the edge here.

Don't let any Green Arrow fanboys hear you say that.

GA all da way!

GA all da way!

@k4tzm4n

Green Arrow has his New 52 gear. For simplicity's sake, pre-52 feats are applicable.

Is there any specific way that his New 2 gear differs from his original gear?

I know its a little different but hasn't there been a TV Arrow vs Movie Black Widow battle already? Either way I will give it to Green Arrow.

I'm trying not to be slightly biased (I'm a sucker for anybody who uses swords or bows), but I feel like I'm leaning towards Ollie for two reasons.

1) This would be a close fight even with pre New 52 Ollie. As I've come to understand, his hand-to-hand skills seem to have increased in New 52.

2) Natasha, being a spy, thrives on knowledge of her opponents. I'm not saying the lack of prep time would actually be a drawback for her, but I think she would be lacking a bit of the edge she has in a lot of her fights.

Finally paying attention to the COTM articles now, Cyclops is not my cup of tea but Green Arrow is. Leaning towards Ollie thus far based on his superior marksmanship compared to her not that much better H2H skill.

Natasha (ill make a fully worded response for Viner argument later)

for a few reasons

her stop start speed is insane... look at the coffee cup

Gallery

shes blocked Sniper Bullets from Punisher and is not without her own ranged weapons... Ollies arrows would be slow to her...

she'll be able to close the distance (the battlefield also heavily favors her) and use Stealth to her advantage...

Leaning toward Widow. I feel like she would manhandle Hawkeye and Green Arrow shouldn't be too much more trouble. I do think Green Arrow's New 52 H2H is better than Hawkeye's, but not enough to surpass Widow. It's also important to keep in mind that she knows Hawkeye extremely well so she is extremely familiar with an archetype that's incredibly similar to Oliver's. Oliver has not faced someone as similar to Black Widow as she has to him.

i can make several cases against that but they all rely on something that Hawkeye has but Ollie does not

@serrure: Fraction has probably given me a bad impression of Clint haha.

Can go either way.

Black widow vs Green arrow? wasn't this already a battle months ago?

widow probably kicks his butt, im voting ollie bc when is a obscure character going to be CotM again?

no its his Spatial Awareness (allows Hawkeye to bounce arrows and do fancy stuff) i can make a case for Hawkeye to beat Black Widow with his spatial awareness giving him the win

seriously that seems legit... you're what gives legitimacy to people who claim "This is a popularity contest"

black widow wins this battle due to the way she dodges alot. she could dodge green arrow's arrow. she has enough gadjet that will take down green arrow. she is sneaky, and more of a skilllful fighter than green arroe

I gotta pick Ollie here.

I admit that my knowledge of Natasha comes mostly from animation and movies rather than reading about her in Comics, but I have read plenty of Green Arrow. And I know he's got an impressive arsenal, tons of trick shot feats, and tenacity second only to Batman. (Well maybe third to Batman and Slade. Doesn't matter)

So yeah, Green Arrow, 7/10.

@serrure: awww thanks!

Ohh, this is a good one...

Not that Green Arrow is that much of an obscure character anyway. We've already had Moon Knight who is more obscure in my opinion.

@surfingthehighway: This is true , besides a few games, i don't recall him having that much exposure .

I'd say G.A...Natasha may be the better fighter, but G.A has trick arrows...so, theres that.

There should be an ends in sex option lol...

I would like to put it out there right now. I personally think new 52 GA is a better at H2H then Marvel Now Hawkeye. That being said I still think Ollie wins this by wearing Natasha down with his superior gear.

I want punisher vs Green Arrow lol

@digitalshooter9: i doubt she will give-up the @ss for ollie and again this is ollie so HELL YEAH, that is after an hour of frustrating battle.

Black Widow has had to fought Hawkeye before? Right? I would be shocked if that hasn't happneded before.

@Tparks

What kind of Arrows does new 52 have? I would like to see a list?

I think I'm going to have to go with Black Widow on this one.

GA is good but I have to give it to Widow. On top of her training from the Red Room, she's had all that experience working for SHIELD and Avengers. And people in the Marvel U tend to rub off on each other or at least do more training together. Like Cap trained Stark in hand to hand combat, Spidey learned Kng-Fu from Shang Chi, etc. So I don't think it'd be a stretch to say she's sparred with and traded moves with some of the best combatants in the MU like Cap, Wolverine, Shang Chi and Iron Fist, and most likely Hawkeye. And therein lies my point. She has experience against a very accomplished bowman! So I think in the end Widow would pull out the win.

I like Green Arrow but against black widow i will lose after a very difficult fight she's too skill for him and too fast and she has the experience of working with a better archer and marksman(Hawkeye) than Oliver she takes it 7/10

TOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CLOSE TO CALLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Z'

I can see Nat taking this, as I feel she is a little more used to dealing with archers than Ollie is with spies. And when that spy is the best of the best... no boxing glove arrow can save you.