User blog:Laquearius/Black Widow (Earth-616) vs Quiet (Metal Gear)



Sometimes, the greatest heroes start off as villains. Such characters often begin their stories with designs to bring the heroes to their knees, but instead we watch as they rise above their evil origins and find new purpose, using their skills and abilities for the side of good, while still treading a fine line between their new allegiances and the brutality of their old ways. Two examples of this are the Black Widow, the Soviet super spy who was freed from brainwashing and joined the Avengers, and Quiet, the XOF assassin who put aside vengeance to aid the Diamond Dogs! Let's find out which one of these redeemed assassins is DEADLIEST!

Black Widow


"This is what I am now. And you'll never know who I was before."

- Natasha Romanoff

'Natalia Romanova, anglicized as Natasha Romanoff, was born in the Soviet Union in 1928. Orphaned at a young age, she was adopted by a soldier named Ivan Petrovich. Petrovich taught Romanoff self-defense, and upon realizing her natural talent for combat, admitted her into a top secret KGB program called the Black Widow Ops. In the program's "Red Room", Romanoff was brutally trained, bio-technologically enhanced, and brainwashed with the goal of molding her into a deadly assassin. As the program's most successful agent, she was appointed as the Black Widow. Romanoff's missions in the United States brought her into conflict with the various members of the Avengers, one of which, Hawkeye, helped to break her brainwashing. Romanoff chose to defect and joined SHIELD, becoming an member of the Avengers. At the time of writing, Natasha is dead, having been killed by yet another evil version of Captain America at the end of Secret Empire, and the mantle of Black Widow has been taken up by her clone... but we all know that it's just a matter of time before she gets better.

Black Widow Gauntlets: Natasha wears a pair of gauntlets that contain a variety of useful tools, including small explosives, tear gas pellets, a tracking device, a switchblade, a spring-loaded retractable grappling hook, and:
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 * Widow's Kiss: Created by the Spetsnaz, the Widow's Kiss is an instant knock-out drug that can be sprayed in aerosol form, appearing as pinkish fumes. The drug can keep the average person unconscious for over twenty-four hours.
 * Widow's Bite: The gauntlets can release powerful electrostatic charges of up to 30,000 volts. These charges can also be delivered from range in the form of percussive energy blasts, which have a range of about 20 feet. The voltage level can be manually adjusted.

SIG Sauer P229: Natasha generally doesn't like using guns, because of their noise and limited ammunition, so unless she's preparing for a mission that specifically requires heavier firearms, she'll usually be going in with minimal firepower. One of her more favored guns is the P229, which comes with a 15-round magazine of 9x19mm rounds. Interestingly, despite disliking how loud gunshots are, Natasha only started using a silencer in the more recent issues, but her P229 will be equipped with one in this battle.

Suit: Natasha's custom-made suit is made of a synthetic stretch fabric that is abnormally resistant to small arms fire. There are also microscopic suction cups built into the soles and the gloves that allows the wearer to climb on walls and ceilings. The belt is made up of metallic disks which are actually containers for a variety of explosives.

Superhuman Physicality: As part of her training in the Red Room, Natasha was injected with the Soviet Union's version of the Super-Soldier Serum. Although it wasn't nearly as effective as the original, it still turned Natasha into a very impressive athlete. Reacting to bullets is a second nature for her, even when they're fired by famously skilled marksmen, like the Punisher. She can hit hard enough to crack concrete, break a man's neck with a single kick, and run at thirty-six miles per hour. But her most impressive superhuman stat is easily her durability. Superhuman blows, long falls, explosions, and gunshots are all among the things she has walked away from. She even once went through a major surgery without any anesthesia, which is a remarkable feat of pain tolerance.
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Master Martial Artist: Her brutal training in the Black Widow Ops and her tutelage under Wolverine made Natasha into an extremely skilled hand-to-hand combatant. She has mastered judo, aikido, sambo, boxing, and savate, and has used her skills to bring down huge groups of assassins and soldiers at once. Her skills have also been tested against other superhumans. Hawkeye, Lady Bullseye, and the Punisher are among the opponents she has defeated.

Master Markswoman: As expected of a master assassin, Natasha is capable of some nigh-superhuman feats of accuracy with all kinds of weapons, including sniper rifles, pistols, knives, darts, and even Hawkeye's signature weapon, the bow. Her most impressive feats of marksmanship might come from a time she tried to stop Hawkeye from assassinating a target, which involved her cutting Hawkeye's bowstring with a sniper rifle and shooting a thin cable with a pistol while she was on a moving motorcycle.

Master Spy: Obviously, as a former KGB assassin, Natasha knows all the tricks of the spy trade, including stealth, infiltration, and espionage. Her talent for spywork enabled her to become the top agent in the Red Room and one of SHIELD's highest ranking agents.

Quiet


"No, that was no language at all. That's why I chose the language of gratitude instead, and go back to silence."

- Quiet

The woman who would come to be known as Quiet was initially an assassin in employ of Skull Face, the leader of XOF. In 1984, she was sent on a mission to assassinate Big Boss, which failed, and Quiet was left badly burned and on the verge of death. By infecting her with a species of parasite known as "the one that covers", XOF saved Quiet's life and turned her into a unique form of "Skull" with several abilities, one of which was superhuman perception. These abilities made her the perfect sniper, and XOF let her loose in Afghanistan to eliminate Soviet officers who opposed XOF's goals. She came into conflict with Venom Snake, the man who Big Boss had set up to temporarily take his identity and serve as his body double, but was defeated by him and brought back to Snake's mercenary group, Diamond Dogs. Shocked by the mercy Snake showed her, and gradually falling in love with him, she agreed to fight with him, and became one of his closest allies.

Wicked Butterfly: Quiet's favored firearm is the Renov-ICKX, which is based off the real world Vz. 54, a more modern iteration of the Mosin Nagant. Her personal Renov, nicknamed Wicked Butterfly, was personally customized by Quiet to her preferred specifications. Among other modifications that improve ease of use and reliability, it is outfitted with a powerful scope, a laser sight, and a suppressor. It's one downfall is it's limited ammunition; there's only five rounds per magazine.
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AM D114: Quiet's sidearm is a Arms Material Delta-114 Combat Pistol, which is essentially a combination between the M1911, the Browning Hi-Power, and the CZ-75. The end result is a moderately powerful handgun with a magazine of seven rounds of .45 ACP. Quiet never actually uses her pistol during the events of The Phantom Pain, but she does use similar weapons with great accuracy, so we can assume that she's just as skilled with it as any other gun.

Frag and Stun Grenades: Especially useful for covering her when she's changing sniping locations, Quiet carries a couple grenades on her belt. One of her more unique tactics with her is to use her superhuman speed to rush up to an opponent, drop a grenade at their feet, and flee as the grenade explodes, disorienting and/or wounding her enemy and leaving them vulnerable to Quiet's rifle.

Combat Knife: And for last resort, Quiet has a standard combat knife. Even when she was still a human, she was very handy with knives, and the same is true as a Skull. She knows how to use it effectively and efficiently, but she can also be extremely brutal with it when angered...

Skull Physicality: The parasites Quiet was infected with to save her life turned her into a unique type of Skull, one of XOF's superhuman soldiers. While she lacks the outlandish archaea abilities of other Skulls, she instead gained vastly improved strength, reflexes, and durability. She is strong enough to kill a man with a single kick to the chest, and send soldiers flying with casual shoves. She's tough enough to survive a grenade, a later a tank shell, exploding right in front of her, although the latter did knock her out for a few minutes. As for reflexes and agility, she can jump a dozen feet in the air and evade gunfire. But what's uniquely impressive is her enhanced eyes; her vision is so sharp that she can see each blade of a helicopter, and each of her eyes operate independently, allowing her to see in multiple directions at once, so she can aim her rifle with one eye while watching her surroundings with the other.
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Parasite Abilities: Like the other Skulls, Quiet can change her body into a gaseous substance, which allows her to travel at speeds high enough for her to leave afterimages for a few dozen meters in any direction. The two downsides of this are that she can only do it in bursts, and at least one second must pass before she can do it again, and that it makes a lot of noise. Additionally, Quiet can turn her entire body invisible at will. However, Quiet has never been seen using a gun or any other weapon while invisible, leading me to believe that she cannot, or she simply chooses not to.

Martial Artist: Quiet does have some skill in hand-to-hand combat, but she seems to rely mostly on her superhuman abilities to use it effectively. Against Venom Snake, a highly skilled CQC user, without using her full powers, Quiet was subdued relatively easily, showing that there are clear limits to her skill.

Master Markswoman: Thanks to her superhuman perception of space, Quiet can pull off incredible feats of accuracy with almost any kind of firearm. Most notably, she could fire a revolver through the spinning blades of a helicopter, precisely redirect thrown grenades by shooting them, and kill the pilot of a fighter jet with a rifle, while both the jet and the helicopter she was on board were flying at top speed and performing evasive maneuvers.

Photosynthesis: A final effect of the parasites caused Quiet to have photosynthetic properties, much like her predecessor, the End. She needs nothing but water and sunlight to survive, and she breathes through her skin. If her skin is covered too much, she will suffocate, and she will weaken if deprived of sunlight for too long.

X-Factors
Experience

Thanks to her slowed aging, Natasha is well over ninety years old, and has had an extremely long career as both a spy and a superhero. She's been a member of dozens of superhero teams, even leading the Avengers and the Thunderbolts one two occasions. She's taken on just about every comic book enemy you can imagine, ranging from assassins, mercenaries, mutants, ninjas, robots, and other heroes, like Hawkeye, the Punisher, and even some of the evil versions of Captain America.

Next to nothing is known about Quiet's time as an assassin for XOF, except for the fact that she was experienced and skilled enough to be chosen for the mission to assassinate Big Boss. After her transformation into a Skull, she was only active for a few months before her disappearance. Her initial mission was to assassinate certain dissenting Soviet officers, and after defecting to Diamond Dogs she accompanied him on his frequent missions in Afghanistan and central Africa.

Tactics

Hand-to-hand combat is almost always the first thing Black Widow tries when a combat situation arises. Whether it's because she's confident in her close-combat abilities or because she wants to test the waters and see what she's dealing with before planning her next move, hand-to-hand is where she starts. After that, if she can't knock her foe out with her martial arts skills, she'll apply her gadgets where appropriate. Firearms is usually a last resort, only using them if she needs to attack from a very long distance or she's outnumbered and outgunned.

When operating solo, Quiet frequently holds back from using the full power of her powers, preferring to initially stick with pure sniper tactics, attacking from a distance with her rifle, and relocating when she's discovered. She can even be quite arrogant in this state, turning on her laser sight to give away her position and taunt her opponent into trying to find her. However, once angered, Quiet becomes much more savage, using a combination of weaponry and brutal hand-to-hand moves to eliminate her enemies, while also using her frightening abilities of speed and invisibility for psychological tactics.

Training

As I've already stated, the training from the Red Room that Natasha went through was brutal. Its students were heavily trained from childhood in martial arts, use of weapons, and assassination techniques to make them into the deadliest spies in the world. Few recruits even survived training, and it's a testament to Natasha's resolve that she came out alive. On top of that, Natasha was also trained in combat by the Wolverine, after he rescued her from the Hand.

In this category, Quiet again suffers from a lack of backstory. XOF training is tough, especially for a high-ranking assassin like Quiet was. But as a Skull, considering the short time frame between the failed assassination of Big Boss and Quiet's appearance in Afghanistan, she likely had only a short time to master her new Skull abilities, but it was plenty to make her an incredibly deadly opponent for both the Red Army and Venom Snake.