This is more of a random question than anything else, but do you know why the (canon version) fem!Tony Stark is named Natasha Stark? (Antonia/Toni seems like the obvious choice, especially considering that there's already a Natasha, the Black Widow). Am I unreasonably bothered by this (probably)?
I don’t know if anyone knows -- given it was written by Hickman there was probably some deep philosophical convoluted masturbatory super-boring reasoning behind it, but I don’t know what it is.
You have to remember that Natasha Stark shows up in literally one panel of one single issue of a comic (Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2, for those wondering). Earth 3490 was meant to be a throwaway line -- Reed is just looking in on other Earths and happens to see 3490, where Natasha Stark marrying Steve Rogers prevented Civil War.
The fact that she’s given a name at all is actually kind of miraculous given that she’s basically there to fuck the Civil War out of Captain America.
Contextually, Black Widow was very much a background character at the time (she shows up in I think one or two scenes in all of Civil War, for example) and also Hickman didn’t understand that this would be the panel that launched ten thousand gendershifts.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making excuses for Hickman, I don’t like him enough to try and excuse him of anything. But that’s the historical setting. We’re looking at it post-MCU going “I’m almost definitely going to write a story about her where Natasha Romanoff is a key or supporting player, goddammit, why two Natashas,” and Hickman’s looking at it going “Hey isn’t someone else named Natasha? Oh well, it’s just one panel” possibly with “what are the odds two women would be in one story anyway?” thrown in if he got that far.
But I think it’s also important to remember that just because one female Stark is Natasha doesn’t mean all of them have to be, especially if you’re not writing about the prevention of Civil War. Even if you are, this is one specific universe, 3490 -- you can put a female Stark in whatever damn universe you please. :D
