Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Earth-616)

History

Early Life

Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Russian: Иван Петрович Безухов) rescued the young Natasha Romanoff when the infant was thrown to him from a burning building during World War II by her mother. Ivan became the infant's father figure and protector. ^[1]

Baron von Stucker

While under Ivan's protection, many adversaries attempted to attack her. Baron von Stucker abducted Natasha and presented her to the Hand in Madripoor. There, she was to become their Master Assassin until Captain America, Logan, and Ivan saved her.^[2][3]

Red Room

Ivan took the young girl to the Soviet government to join the U.S.S.R.'s "Black Widow Ops" program. She was taken along with other 28 young female orphans, where she is trained in combat and espionage at the covert "Red Room" facility. There, she is bio-technologically and psycho-technologically enhanced. She never really trained in ballet in the Bolshoi Theatre, having instead artificial memories.^[4] During her training, Romanova was contacted by the Enchantress, who manipulated her simply for the sake of it suggesting that Romanova may be freed only to prevent her from escaping - however, Romanova's effort attracted attention of the program's organizers, who would had otherwise "discard" Romanova.^[5] When she was ready she Ivan was placed as her handler. Ivan received the same age retarding Serum as Natalia in 1956. It was provided by Winter Soldier to save Ivan's life who was mortally wounded in exchange for both Ivan's and Natalia's loyalty. Ivan wanted to refuse but Natalia accepted for them both as Ivan passed out^[1]

Handling Black Widow

Much later when the Black Widow moved to New York City, Ivan continued to be her protector and chauffeur. ^[6]

Daredevil

When the Widow moved to San Francisco with Daredevil, Petrovich also moved into their mansion.^[7] He continued to travel and accompany the Widow, moving back to New York City with her.^[8]

Champions of Los Angeles

He travelled with her to Los Angeles where he befriended her teammates the Champions.^{[9][10][11][12]} It was while with the Champions that he was confronted by his son Yuri, whom he had believed dead. Yuri had become the new Crimson Dynamo and captured first the Black Widow and then the rest of the Champions.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]}

Ivan helped Widow in her battle against Snapdragon.^[20]

Ivan worked with Widow, Matt Murdock and Spider-Man in the investigation to find help and innocent man sent down for a crime he did not commit. ^[21]

Ivan assisted Black Widow when she discovered that her husband, the Red Guardian, may be alive. But before she can see him, the Russians demand that she betray the US.^[22]

Red Skull

Ivan helped the the Black Widow and the Avengers by informing them of a mysterious energy pulse detected in the Canadian Northwest Territories. She assembled the Avengers, who were attempting in vain to break the mysterious trans-temporal door they discovered in the Avengers Mansion, and jet north to investigate. They discovered a two mile diameter crater and descend into its depths only to find the Red Skull and his prisoner Ivan Bezukhov.^[23] However with the help of the Avengers Red Skull is defeated and Ivan was rescued.^[24]

... ^[25]

Becoming a Cyborg

Ivan subsequently disappeared for years after realizing that the Widow would never reciprocate his long unexpressed romantic feelings for her, seeing him purely as a father figure. He eventually resurfaced having gone insane and had himself transformed into a cyborg monster. ^[1][26][27]Black Widow was forced to kill him in order to stop him unleashing nuclear devastation on the world.^[28]

Notes

• Ivan Petrovitch enjoyed lifting weights and watching old movies. His exposure to classic movies led to him having an unusual dialect. One acquaintance described him as a Russian who sounded like "Bogart".

Links and References

• 66 Appearances of Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Earth-616)
• 2 Minor Appearances of Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Earth-616)
• Media Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Earth-616) was Mentioned in
• 9 Images featuring Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Earth-616)
• 5 Quotations by or about Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (Earth-616)

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Footnotes