BORIS & NATASHA

Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale are agents with the Pottsylvania Secret Police.

The Secret Police is just an assumption on my part. We do not really learn what the organization is called but that would be fairly standard for an Eastern European country run by a dictator. We know that the country is fairly small from a map we are shown of it but it at least enjoys a coast which several sister countries do not. The power resides in the hands of the Fearless Leader who looks very much like a stereotypical fascist usually seen in a starched blue military officer's uniform with black jackboots, a monocle in his right eye, a nasty long saber scar on his right cheek, a permanent scowl on his face, and perpetually holding a cigarette in a long holder. He certainly does not look friendly nor does he ever act it, especially to his underlings.

Boris and Natasha (their last names are almost never used) are two of his main underlings. Since we do not see any others, ever, they may be the only two around but that is pure speculation.

Boris is a very short, wide man constantly dressed in a black trenchcoat (unless in disguise) and sporting a black hat with two peaks on it. He sports a very small mustache which is large on both sides of his upper lip and none (or none visible) under his nose. When we first meet him, he seems a bit taller than he does in later adventures. He perpetually sports either a frown or a sneer.

Boris loves to go into action while in disguise. His personas are pretty lame and hardly worth the make-up and props he uses but they do seem to continually fool his chief target, Bullwinkle J. Moose. His other talents include safe-cracking and bomb-making, although the later tends to not work out so well for him. Boris refers to himself as the "world's greatest no-goodnik" and he has never performed any action to indicate otherwise.

Natasha is the gorgeous, tall, femme fatale (as befits her last name) companion and partner of Boris. Like him she hails from Pottsylvania and talks with an Eastern European accent. It sometimes nears Germanic but usually lies closer to Russian in sound. Her height is, while not extreme, is still high enough to be above most of those she encounters. Certainly she towers over the diminutive Boris. She has long black hair falling below her shoulders and is quite curly at the ends.

While she too will be seen from time to time in disguise, she does not seem as inclined to do so as her partner. She is usually shown to be the equal to Boris even if he does yell for her to "sharrup you mouth" a lot but it would not be hard to imagine that she is the smarter of the two, especially considering that she does not blow herself up as often as he does.

Both Boris and Natasha swear allegiance to the Fearless Leader but they are not above deceiving him over and over, especially if it keeps him from punishing them.

I want to believe that any fan of spy fiction would give at least a small smile to the inclusion of Boris and Natasha in any compendium devoted to spy series fiction. I mean, really! Who are more spy-nasty and iconic and stereotypical than these two? They were created specifically for this and they both play it wonderfully.

I had a blast going back to my childhood when these no-goodniks first showed up. One thing that occurred to me as I reminisced was that so much of what I watched had to have gone over my head and I didn't notice and obviously didn't care but now as a somewhat older (albeit only marginally more mature) individual, watching them again and reading the comics and especially enjoying the heck out of the comic strips, I am still a huge fan.