Before Black Widow was humanized on screen in the MCU Gulacy did it here with this portfolio. She's not a superhero in these images. She's a spy. She's not leaping from building tops, she's holding a flashlight standing next to a tree. She's not firing off wrist blasters. She's wearing a trenchcoat holding a .38 revolver. While there's not a deliberate visual cue in any of the pieces, these images feel very much of the Cold War era. Natasha looks like she could be the lead character of a series of knockoff Le Carré novels. Possibly she could be a James Bond-type character, but even these images feel more pedestrian than the sometimes cartoonish Bond. The black-and-white, mostly graphite (maybe charcoal) give this series a Noirish feel as well. I'd guess Gulacy was working from some pretty specific photo reference as well. These are quiet images as opposed to the usual generic, bombastic panels found on superhero pages. All of this puts the character in more in our reality than her comic book world. It's an interesting decision for Gulacy to choose this approach.
All artwork by Paul Gulacy