Red Guardian (real name Alexei Shostakov) is one of the two tritagonists of the 2021 film Black Widow and one of the protagonists of Thunderbolts and Avengers: Doomsday. He was a former Soviet Armed Forces officer and super soldier who was the undercover ex-husband to Melina Vostokoff and the adoptive father of Yelena Belova and the superhero Natasha Romanoff (whose codename is Black Widow.) However, he and his family were split apart after three years of acting like a real one were exposed by S.H.I.E.L.D. since they were sleeper agents. After the returned to Russia, General Dreykov sent him to a Russian gulag. Shostakov was eventually freed by his adoptive daughters and joined them in stopping the Black Widow program. He considers his daughter Natasha's friends, Steve Rogers (also known as Captain America) as his arch-rival, due to Red Guardian going through a similar super soldier program in Russia meant to rival the one Steve weren't through. However, their rivalry is more one-sided because Steve is unaware of it.
