Red Guardian first appears in Avengers #43, dated August 1967 and on sale June 8, 1967, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema, under the title "Color Him... the Red Guardian!". Under the mask is Alexei Shostakov, a Soviet test pilot and husband of Natasha Romanoff, whom the KGB had pass for dead in order to make him the Russian equivalent of Captain America. He seems to die as early as #44. The name then passes to others: Tania Belinskaya (Defenders #35, 1976), Josef Petkus (Captain America #352, 1989), Nikolai Krylenko and still others. Alexei returns as Ronin (2011), then as Red Guardian alongside Yelena Belova (2020) and in the Thunderbolts of 2023. In film, David Harbour has played him since 2021, up to Avengers: Doomsday (December 18, 2026).
The film Red Guardian is a substitute father, boastful and tender, a tired former super-soldier. The comics one of 1967 is something else entirely: a grave adversary, a Soviet officer who dies saving the man he was fighting, and above all a husband whose absence explains why Natasha Romanoff became the Black Widow. The two versions share a name and a shield. They share almost nothing else.
This sheet starts from the 1967 issue and follows the name as well as the man. It is indispensable, because "Red Guardian" is a title that has changed bearer several times, and a collector looking for "Red Guardian's first appearance" must know which Red Guardian they are talking about. The paragraph devoted to the character in our file on the Thunderbolts and Avengers: Doomsday gives the issue; this one gives the complete story.
Dates, credits and first appearances were verified in the publisher's encyclopedic database. No price guide is put forward.
Avengers #43 and #44: the 1967 diptych
Avengers #43
In a secret military base in China, a device called a psychotron is able to cause mass hallucinations. The Soviet Union sends a general and his new costumed agent, Red Guardian, to negotiate its use. Natasha, who came on a mission, is captured; Hawkeye and Hercules follow her, then Captain America.
The fight between Red Guardian and Captain America occupies the heart of the story. The two men are presented as mirrors: same elite training, same shield, same national colors. #43 ends on the revelation that gives the character his depth: Red Guardian is Alexei Shostakov, the husband Natasha believed dead.
#44 closes the story. Just as Captain America is about to win, the Chinese officer electrifies the floor and puts him out of action. Red Guardian is outraged. Mortally wounded, he deflects the weapon that was going to kill his defenseless adversary. The explosion triggers a catastrophe in the base, and he disappears. For a first run, it is the end of a tragic hero, not a villain.
For this reason, the two issues form a whole. Having #43 without #44 is having the question without the answer.
Alexei Shostakov's story: why Natasha became the Black Widow
Alexei's past, reconstructed over several decades, sheds light on Natasha's. Alexei is one of the Soviet Union's most renowned test pilots, widely celebrated by the state press. He marries Natalia Romanova. The KGB judges that the couple would make excellent agents. During a mission, Alexei learns that he must have no further contact with his loved ones, and that his death will be announced.
Natalia, devastated, wants to prove herself worthy of her husband "who died a hero". The KGB anticipated this reaction and immediately puts her in training: she will become the Black Widow. Alexei, for his part, is trained to become Red Guardian, and the training makes him hard, cruel, very different from the man he was.
This past was completed in several stories: Amazing Spider-Man #86 (1970), where Natasha adopts her black costume; Amazing Adventures volume 2 #6; then the miniseries Black Widow: Deadly Origin, which takes it all up. Our sheet on the first appearance of Black Widow starts from Natasha's side; this one starts from Alexei's.
Alexei's returns: decoy, ghost, Ronin
Dead in 1967, Alexei comes back several times without really coming back.
In the graphic novel The Black Widow: The Coldest War (1990, Marvel Graphic Novel #61 collection), Russian agents build a robotic decoy in his image to make Natasha believe her husband is alive and force her to spy for Moscow. It is not him.
In Avengers Annual #16 (1987), then in Avengers #353 and #354, his appearance is used by two incarnations of the Legion of the Unliving. It is still not him.
The real return takes place in 2011, in the Widowmaker crossover, four issues. Alexei reappears as a killer under the name Ronin, a member of an organization called the Dark Ocean Society, surrounded by soldiers equipped with copies of the armors and powers of the former Soviet Super-Soldiers. The heroic Red Guardian of 1967 has become an enemy.
The return as Red Guardian: Yelena, Winter Guard, Thunderbolts
Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova #1
Alexei is held in an Antarctic prison, resold after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. to a man who turned it into a training center for super-soldiers. He refuses to cooperate. Yelena Belova, sent there in a white costume, ends up freeing him.
The same year, Alexei is among Natasha's enemies who team up to implant a false memory in her, in Kelly Thompson's Black Widow series. Then he finds Yelena again in Winter Guard, four issues (2021), for a mission tied to an old Soviet operation.
The last milestone is the most important for those coming from film. In Thunderbolts #1, put on sale on December 6, 2023 and written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing with art by Geraldo Borges, Yelena warns Alexei that Bucky Barnes's team will attack the Red Skull's castle in Argentina. Alexei, eager to be done with fascism, joins them mid-mission, Red Guardian's shield on his arm. In #4, he single-handedly neutralizes the defenses of the Red Skull's last base, in Latveria. The publisher's database now classes him among the members of this team.
The other Red Guardians: who owns the name
The name Red Guardian has been carried by several characters, and the publisher's encyclopedic database lists at least six in the main universe. Here are those a collector meets most often.
Tania Belinskaya: Defenders #35
A Soviet neurosurgeon, Tania Belinskaya takes up the name and joins the Defenders, the loosely structured team run by Steve Gerber in the mid-1970s. She later carries the name Starlight.
Josef Petkus appears in Captain America #352 (1989), written by Mark Gruenwald and drawn by Kieron Dwyer, among the Soviet Super-Soldiers. He later carries the name Steel Guardian. The issue is moreover close to those that give birth to U.S. Agent, in the same series and under the same creative team.
Nikolai Krylenko appears in Iron Man #109 (1978), created by Bill Mantlo and Carmine Infantino, under the name Vanguard, which remains his main name. He carried that of Red Guardian in his turn.
Other, more occasional bearers exist: Krassno Granitsky, who appeared in Maverick volume 2 #10 (1998); a Red Guardian named Anton, seen in She-Hulk volume 2 #35; and Aleksey Lebedev, introduced in the miniseries Captain America: Patriot to give the name an earlier bearer. This last addition explains why some sources present Alexei as the "second" Red Guardian: it is a retroactive clarification. In publication order, Avengers #43 remains the first issue where the name appears.
From paper to screen: the substitute father
David Harbour plays Alexei in Black Widow (2021), then in Thunderbolts* (2025). He is part of the Avengers: Doomsday cast announced by Marvel Studios on March 26, 2025, with Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, Hannah John-Kamen and Lewis Pullman. The film comes out on December 18, 2026.
The gap with the comics is considerable, and our comparison of the Black Widow film and the comics details it. In film, Alexei is the fake father of Natasha and Yelena in a cover family in Ohio. On paper, he is Natasha's husband, and he never raised Yelena. The film keeps the character of Captain America's Soviet equivalent, the shield and the nostalgia for past glory, but makes him a comic character.
This shift had an effect on paper, visible in the dates: the meeting between Alexei and Yelena (2020), their joint mission in Winter Guard (2021), then their side-by-side presence in the Thunderbolts (2023) all follow the announcement or release of the film. The comics built after the fact the relationship that cinema had invented.
Building a Red Guardian collection
The 1967 diptych
Avengers #43 and #44. The first for the appearance, the second for the story's end. They are not separated.
Choose your scope
Alexei alone, or the name with all its bearers? In the second case, add Defenders #35 (1976) and Captain America #352 (1989).
Alexei's returns
Widowmaker (2011) for Ronin, Widowmakers #1 (2020) for the meeting with Yelena.
The link with the screen
Thunderbolts #1 to #4 (2023-2024), the only arc where Alexei, Yelena and Bucky fight together.
A practical piece of advice for the 1967 issue: at this age, the difference between two copies comes almost entirely down to condition. Corners, spine, whiteness of the pages, possible restorations: that is where value is decided, far more than in the character's recent fame. The Avengers page places this issue among the series' other milestones.