Black Widow Retcon Made Infinity War Even More Heartbreaking

Do you remember a green vest that Yelena Belova bought right after she escaped from the Red Room program? The one with lots of handy pockets, some of which Yelena modified herself. This particular piece of clothing is actually hard to forget, considering how much attention Black Widow gave it.

From being the centerpiece of Natasha and Yelena's hilarious car dialog to the symbol of love between the long-lost sisters, the vest definitely played a big role in Yelena's character development. But it also reflected who Natasha was.

As you may recall, Yelena gave the vest to her sister as a parting gift at the end of Black Widow, and in Avengers: Infinity War, Natasha is seen wearing it.

When fans first discovered this connection between the Avengers movie and the prequel, the Internet was abuzz with fan theories. Some said that Natasha in Infinity War was actually Yelena in disguise, while others speculated about Yelena's possible death in Black Widow. But the reality was less dramatic and much more heartwarming.

Natasha wore the vest after being reunited with her Russian family as a sign of her love for Yelena and their renewed bond. It was as if she'd taken a piece of her sister with her to give her extra strength and security.

But after the 5-year time jump, the vest seemed to disappear from Natasha's wardrobe. The events of Hawkeye confirmed what many fans had theorized all along. Yelena was blipped. This probably means that Natasha, who thought the blipped were lost forever, didn't want to mess up the one thing she had left of her sister and stopped wearing it.

Wow, it is almost hard to believe that all this deep emotional meaning was added to the vest retrospectively.

Marvel's director of visual development, Andy Park, revealed in the recently released book about the making of Black Widow that the vest started out as a detail to change Black Widow's appearance in Infinity War.

But while creating designs for Black Widow, Park decided to incorporate the vest and eventually realized how meaningful it would be to make Yelena its original owner.

"And it worked really well with [Yelena's] white suit," Park added.

All of this makes Yelena's vest probably the most significant retcon in the MCU. Good job, Marvel, good job!