Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)

Black Widow
Name	Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanoff
Current Alias	Black Widow
Aliases	Natalie Rushman, Tatiana Sokolova, Alion Vans, Irina Zlataryova, Marya Konn, Audrey, Councilwoman Hawley
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Avengers (leader), ally of the Wakandans, White Wolf, S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E., Stark Industries, partner of Hawkeye, Black Widow Ops Program, KGB
Relatives	Ivan (father, estranged)
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5′5″ (1.65 m)
Eyes	Irises: Green
Hair	Red
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human; Former KGB and S.H.I.E.L.D. operative
Living Status	Deceased
Reality	Earth-199999
Place of Birth	Volgograd, USSR, Russia, Earth
Place of Death	Vormir
Personal Information
Identity	Public
Citizenship	American Russian
Occupation	Former adventurer, fugitive, and secret agent
Education	Graduate of the Red Room
Base of Operations	Formerly Avengers Compound, New York; Avengers Tower, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America; Triskelion, Washington, D.C.; S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier; Red Room, Russia
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Justin Theroux
First	Template:Md
First	Template:Md
Death	Template:Md
Death	Template:Md

 [I dreamed] that I was an Avenger. That I was any more than the assassin they made me. 

—Natasha Romanoff

History

Red Ledger

Natalia Romanoff was born in 1984, in Stalingrad, Russian SFSR, USSR and went on to become a world-class spy.

She began training towards the life of an assassin when she was just a child, after gaining the attention of a General Dreykov, who put her under the supervision of Madame B who managed the Red Room for him. She consistently excelled at her training, becoming their star pupil, but would intentionally show inadequacy in order to not proceed to the graduation ceremony, sterilization. However, she eventually passed all her tests and was forced to undergo tubal ligation. Her ruthless effectiveness in later years earned her the codename, "Black Widow."

This life underwent a dramatic change when she was targeted for assassination herself, and the agent sent to kill her was the similarly gifted soldier, Clinton Barton. Instead of killing her, Barton spared her life and the pair developed a lasting partnership from that moment on. Following Barton, the Black Widow was drawn into a new life as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Her past, however, would remain a touchy subject for her, and Widow tried to start a new life going by the name "Natasha Romanoff." On several occasions, she cited a desire to atone for past deeds, which she described as being "red on her ledger" that she wanted to wipe out. At one point she and Barton undertook a mission in Budapest, though the two would remember the details of the mission differently.

During a mission to escort a Nigerian scientist out of Iran, Romanoff was confronted by the ruthless Winter Soldier, who eliminated his target by literally shooting through Romanoff when she tried to shield him, which left a small scar on her hip.

Stark Industries

Years later, Romanoff was taking down a Ten Rings cell when S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury reassigned her to infiltrate Stark Industries and to keep an eye on Tony Stark after he signed his company over to Pepper Potts. Romanoff was also assigned by Fury to assess whether he was suitable for the Avengers Initiative, a plan to bring together a group of people with unparalleled talents.

After some time spent undercover as Natalie Rushman in the Stark Industries Legal Department, Romanoff seized an opportunity to meet Stark by poisoning the senior paralegal on her way to meet Stark. She immediately caught the attention of Stark and Potts when she briskly took down Stark's bodyguard Happy Hogan in a playful sparring match. Stark ran a search on her and discovered that she was fluent in French, Russian, Latin; and had done some modeling in Japan at some point. Romanoff then became Tony's new assistant and accompanied him while he was in Monaco. She also flirted with him at his birthday party when he started to get suspicious about where she had come from.

Working With Iron Man

Agent Romanoff posing as "Natalie Rushman".

When confronting Stark about his reckless behavior, Fury revealed to Stark her true name and affiliation. Despite this, he assured Stark that Romanoff would retain her undercover status in Stark's affairs to continue monitoring him as he worked on a cure for his palladium poisoning.

The next night, Romanoff attended the Stark Expo, where Justin Hammer of Hammer Advanced Weapons Systems unveiled his new Hammer Drones and the War Machine Armor worn by Lt. Col. James Rhodes. Stark also arrived uninvited in his new and improved Iron Man Armor to warn Rhodes about an impending attack from Ivan Vanko. It was then that Vanko surprised everyone by remotely gaining control of both the Hammer Drones and the War Machine Armor. While Stark led the immediate threat of the machines away from the Expo, Potts and Romanoff confronted Hammer demanding to know Vanko's location. Romanoff put him in a neck lock, which forced him to reveal that Vanko was working remotely from his nearby facility.

Romanoff takes on Justin Hammer's security forces.

Once at the site, Romanoff left Happy to deal with a lone security guard while she penetrated deep into the facility and systematically disabled many more of the security force. Vanko had already abandoned his control systems and left by the time Romanoff found them. She quickly restored control of the War Machine Armor to Rhodes and was also able to radio tactical data, warning Rhodes and Stark of an incoming wave of drones and another armored battlesuit, this one worn by Vanko. She then proceeded to steal Hammer's development projects and fled before the police came to the facility, just as it exploded.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Work

Two days later, Fury assigned Romanoff to tail the fugitive scientist Bruce Banner because the agent previously assigned to the case had been redeployed to Puente Antiguo. She first came across Banner during the military siege at Culver University, where he transformed into the monstrous Hulk right before her. Fury ordered her not to let General Ross take the Hulk into custody, but the Hulk's destructive force prevented her from doing anything more than report on his fight with Captain Blonsky.

She later followed Banner to Harlem, New York to continue S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attempts to prevent Banner from being taken by the military. However, she had arrived too late as Ross had already taken Banner into custody. Fury sent her to meet Dr. Samuel Sterns and make sure Banner left nothing he could work with. She found Sterns trapped under debris after an encounter with another big monster. His head had become grotesquely deformed and he began raving, which caused Romanoff to incapacitate him by shooting his kneecap.

Having caught a glimpse of the Hulk's highly destructive battle with the Abomination in the distance, she reported to Fury that the entire situation (involving not only the Hulk, but also Tony Stark's inventions and the Asgardians' arrival in Puente Antiguo) had become too much for S.H.I.E.L.D. to handle as it was.

Pursuing missing Starktech, Romanoff was undercover in Moscow. She attempted to get information from illegal arms dealer Mikhail Fjodorov, but he was assassinated right in front of her. She fled the scene when authorities accused and pursued her. Shortly after her escape, she was attacked by hired mercenaries who put her in contact with "Sofia," the mysterious woman who killed Fjodorov. Romanoff learned that she was a "fan" and that she wanted to claim the mantle of the "Black Widow."

Going off S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar to pursue Sofia, Romanoff encountered her in person in Sochi. She was nearly killed by Sofia, but she was saved by Coulson. Coulson informed her that the missing Starktech had been located on a boat owned by Fjodorov's associates. Romanoff infiltrated the boat and met with Agent Markov to retrieve the tech, but Sofia beat her once again and killed Markov. An enraged Romanoff managed to place a tracker on Sofia and followed it to a Sojourn Enterprises building in Vladivostok. Romanoff discovered Sofia was hired by Sojourn owner Richard Frampton, who, along with Fjodorov, was in business with the Ten Rings. She tracked them to a missile launch site near the Russian border. She confronted Sofia, who revealed she idolized the killer nature of the Black Widow ever since she was saved by her when she was 14. Resenting the now "soft" Black Widow, Sofia engaged Romanoff in combat but was ultimately killed in an explosion. Fury and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents arrived to quell the situation.

Around a year later, Natasha was working deep undercover in Asia.

Assembling the Avengers

Not long after, while in the middle of interrogating Georgi Luchkov, Romanoff received a call from Agent Coulson informing her of her next mission. She was to approach Banner, who had retreated to Calcutta, and enlist his aid in locating the Tesseract, a dangerous object that had been stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D. by the Asgardian Loki, who had also taken Agent Barton. Even though the thought of Banner's immensely powerful alter ago terrified her, Romanoff carried out the assignment with aplomb and soon had Banner on board.

Her next assignment was to apprehend Loki with Steve Rogers (aka "Captain America"). The mission was successful, although it took the combined skills of Rogers, Tony Stark in his Iron Man armor, and Natasha herself at the gun controls of a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet to subdue him. On the return trip, they also encountered Loki's brother Thor, who had plans of his own to retrieve Loki and the Tesseract.

Natasha's skills as an interrogator made her a prime choice for extracting information from Loki once S.H.I.E.L.D. had him in custody. She adeptly tricked the trickster into revealing that Loki planned on releasing the Hulk on the team, although his manipulative responses had also hit their mark (citing unspecified incidents presumably from past missions involving Sao Paulo, the daughter of an individual named Dreykov and a hospital fire), and Romanoff became increasingly obsessive about finding restitution for her past. Foremost in these thoughts was her need to wrest Agent Barton from Loki's control, but she found that she didn't have to search. Instead, Barton, under Loki's control, came to them. Barton, leading a commando team against the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, caused an explosion that collapsed part of the ceiling on Romanoff and Banner. This triggered Banner's transformation into the Hulk and rapidly escalated the problem of enemy infiltration to a chaotic two-front war, with Romanoff barely escaping the Hulk's ferocity with her life. During the chaos she also encountered Agent Barton, and engaged him in a lengthy brawling duel that only ended when blows to his head knocked him unconscious.

Battle of New York

Loki's escape presented a fresh problem for the survivors of the attack. Romanoff attended to her old partner while others counted their losses, but she was quick to join them once they had resolved to go on the offensive. Following Loki to Manhattan, Romanoff and the others were confronted by the sight of a huge dimensional rift above the city. Loki's army, a horde of Chitauri warriors, came pouring through and Romanoff found herself again battling in close quarters, this time against an alien foe bent on world domination.

The martial arts skills and small arms of the Black Widow were ideal for battling the Chitauri in the streets, and when her own weaponry was spent, she made good use of Chitauri armaments turned on their previous owners. Eventually she captured one of their aircraft and used it to reach the top of Stark Tower where she was instrumental in dealing with the device that held the portal open, thus sealing the rift and barring the amassed forces still waiting to pass through.

When the battle was over, Romanoff gathered with the others to see off Thor and the captive Loki. The threat had been neutralized and for a time the world would have little need of its protectors. The others went their separate ways, while Romanoff and Barton returned to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Spies and Soldiers

Captain America and Black Widow

Black Widow became a frequent comrade-in-arms of Captain America when they were assigned on missions together. They became the co-leaders of the counter-terrorist team S.T.R.I.K.E.. On one mission, S.T.R.I.K.E. was able to prevent a terrorist group from releasing the Zodiac virus upon Willis Tower in Chicago, due to Romanoff infiltrating the group weeks prior.

During one rescue mission of a hijacked S.H.I.E.L.D. ship, Nick Fury assigned Black Widow a secret side task to retrieve confidential protected S.H.I.E.L.D. files in a flash drive. The data was more sensitive than she could have guessed, and once it was handed over to Fury he became the target of an assassin. When Romanoff heard that Fury had been gunned down she went to the hospital to keep vigil, and watched helplessly as he was declared dead. Based on Steve's description of the shooter, she identified the killer as the Winter Soldier.

After hiding details of Fury's death, Steve became a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D. under the orders of Secretary Alexander Pierce. Natasha joined him to help him retrieve the confidential files from the flash drive, which Fury had already given to Rogers. Natasha tried to hack the protected files but could only discover the location from where they were created, Camp Lehigh.

The Hydra Conspiracy

There, Steve and Natasha discovered a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base where the consciousness of Arnim Zola revealed that after World War II, he had been recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D., and that he and other German scientists had furthered Hydra's plans for world domination through numerous projects, including the infiltration of and influence on S.H.I.E.L.D.. Romanoff interrupted Zola's lengthy exposition of Hydra's activities when her PDA alerted her to an incoming missile. She and Rogers narrowly escaped the resulting blast, and then left the scene before S.H.I.E.L.D. could find them.

On the run from S.H.I.E.L.D.

The following day, Steve and Natasha sought help from Sam Wilson, who they then pulled into their circle of allies by recovering a flight-exoskeleton for him. The trio then captured and interrogated Agent Sitwell to find out about the conspiracy festering within S.H.I.E.L.D. Under pressure, Sitwell revealed his allegiance to Hydra and that Hydra planned to use Project Insight to massacre the millions of people identified as threats to Hydra's new world order.

Taking Down S.H.I.E.L.D.

Natasha, Steve, and Sam were later attacked by the Winter Soldier and a team of Hydra double agents, led by their former S.T.R.I.K.E. teammate Agent Brock Rumlow. Natasha suffered a bullet wound to her shoulder while trying to elude the Winter Soldier, and Steve was left stunned by the revelation that the Winter Soldier was his old friend Bucky Barnes. With the fight taken out of them, the three heroes were easily captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., but while being transported under guard they were rescued by a disguised Agent Maria Hill who brought them to a hideout where Nick Fury was alive and recuperating. Fury revealed a plan to prevent Pierce from launching Project Insight, involving the replacement of the controller chip of each one of the helicarriers.

Natasha infiltrated the Triskelion disguised as Councilwoman Hawley of the World Security Council and was taken hostage with the other councillors by Pierce as soon as Captain America revealed over the public address system the truth about Hydra controlling S.H.I.E.L.D., and Pierce being their leader. Black Widow eventually dropped her cover and subdued Pierce. She then revealed Nick Fury's survival, and forced Pierce to help Fury release the secrets of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra to the public, as two top-level agents were required to do so. As the files were being uploaded, Pierce activated devices in the security badges of the rest of the Security Council, which killed them. He then attempted to use Natasha for leverage to escape, but she used a micro-EMP device on herself, disabling the badge, and giving time for Fury to shoot Pierce, killing him. The two then escaped the Triskelion in a helicopter to rescue, also rescuing Sam when a helicarrier crashed into the building.

Going Off The Grid

Natasha later appeared before a Senate subcommittee, in which she defended the dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D. When asked by military officials as to why they shouldn't imprison her for the newly-revealed crimes that she had committed against the U.S., she responded that people like her were needed to defend the world.

She later approached Fury's "grave" to say goodbye to Steve, stating that with all of her covers blown, she had to find a new identity. She encouraged him to romantically pursue Agent 13 before passing him a dossier on the Winter Soldier.

Avengers Reassembled

With the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D., Loki's Sceptre, which had been in the midst of so much conflict during the Battle of New York, fell into the hands of Hydra's Baron Strucker, and Romanoff soon rejoined her Avengers teammates in trying to recover it. During this time, she developed a particular connection with Bruce Banner, to the extent that she came to develop the 'Lullaby' system, where she would calm the Hulk down after the immediate mission had been concluded so that he could return to Bruce Banner. Their mission took them to Strucker's Hydra research base in Sokovia where the alien device had been used in experiments to create enhanced soldiers. Romanoff herself helped fight a multitude of Hydra soldiers outside the base while Tony Stark penetrated the old castle and recovered the sceptre.

Fresh from victory, the Avengers returned to the newly remodeled Avengers Tower in New York and threw a party to celebrate. Late in the evening when most of the guests had gone home, the men tested their worthiness trying to lift Mjolnir, but each of them were unsuccessful. The game was interrupted when one of Tony Stark's Iron Legion robots made a surprise appearance, and after admitting that it was the result of Stark's Ultron program mixed with his research into the sceptre, it and several more like it, attacked the group. Romanoff took cover behind the wet bar and drew a pistol concealed there to help with the fight, interrupted briefly at one point to drag Dr. Banner in after her. The attack was a diversion however, and one of the robots made off with the sceptre while the Avengers and their friends were engaged in battle.

Age of Ultron

When reports of robots attacking sources of Vibranium began surfacing, the Avengers raced to a coastal scrapyard in Africa where Stark believed that a substantial quantity of the rare metal might be stored. They arrived shortly after Ultron and its two enhanced allies, twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. A fight broke out with the Avengers trying to stop Ultron taking Vibranium from the site, and Romanoff found herself incapacitated by Wanda's power to instil nightmare visions. She languished in a scene from her childhood while the fight carried on around her and the enemy made their escape.

Still haunted by the ghosts of her past, Romanoff had a welcome respite when Barton took the group to his farm, and the laughter of his two children welcoming their "Aunty Natasha" helped to wash away her troubles. She also had time to speak privately with Banner and discuss their feelings for each other, even suggesting that they could depart together, but Banner was quick to point out that there was nowhere that she could be safe with him. Nick Fury also arrived at the farm and spoke with the group at length about stopping Ultron.

After Banner made the observation that Ultron was trying to evolve, the remaining Avengers split into two groups with Black Widow joining Captain America and Hawkeye in a bid to stop Ultron from obtaining cellular regeneration technology in South Korea. The trio raced for their objective, and found that Ultron's plan to create a new android body for itself were already well underway, but the Avengers' arrival caused it to grab the body and flee. Barton located Ultron escaping in a truck trailer in heavy traffic, and when a window of opportunity presented itself Romanoff dropped to the streets on a motorcycle to pursue it herself. She and Rogers managed to jointly fend off a number of Ultron sentries, and although Romanoff was successful in delivering the dormant android to Barton, she was captured by the robots shortly thereafter.

When she awoke, Romanoff found that she had been transported back to Sokovia, where Ultron made a show of demonstrating his latest upgrade before confining her to a cell. She turned to using old Cold War-era communication techniques in a bid to expose her location without being detected, but could do little else but sit and wait.

Barton did indeed receive her signal, and eventually she was treated to the welcome sight of Bruce Banner sneaking in alone to free her while the other Avengers, and their new allies, made a show of confronting Ultron outside. Romanoff forced Banner's transformation, and then they too joined the fight to stop the robot.

The Avengers fought hard to break the ranks of Ultron's amassed robot force in the Sokovian city. As the battle wound down, Romanoff and Barton turned their attention to evacuating the civilian populace, but soon she received the call to "sing a lullaby" to the Hulk, and calm him back to his more human state. Her calming technique was interrupted by Ultron, at the controls of the Avengers' very own quinjet, raking the Hulk with gunfire. The Hulk grabbed Romanoff and bore her to safety on a newly arrived S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier before leaping after Ultron to vent his rage. Romanoff soon learned that the Hulk had won over Ultron in the departing quinjet and appealed to him through a video link to disengage the plane's stealth technology, but the Hulk simply severed the connection.

After Ultron's defeat, the Avengers returned to New York. Abandoning the city, they began setting up a new base in Upstate New York for a significantly restructured team, after several Avengers chose to either retire or depart Earth. Romanoff- although mourning Bruce's departure- joining Rogers in welcoming the four new Avengers - Sam Wilson, Col. James Rhodes, Wanda Maximoff, and the Vision.

Sokovia Accords

While working with the new Avengers, Natasha took a particular role in training Wanda in tactical observation, which Wanda attempted to put into practice as the Avengers tracked Brock Rumlow, who had managed to survive the fall of the Triskellion and was looking for revenge upon Captain America. Going by the alias "Crossbones", Rumlow attacked a research lab in Nigeria. Although Widow and the other Avengers were able to stop him stealing a biological weapon, Rumlow triggered his suicide vest, and Wanda's action of throwing him away from Rogers resulted in the destruction of a building and the death of twelve members of a Wakandan outreach program.

The following month, Thaddeus Ross (now Secretary of State) and Tony visited the Avengers base to inform them of the Sokovia Accords, a U.N. legislation that would make the Avengers directly answerable to government authority. Steve openly opposed the documents, while Tony didn't dismiss the idea of regulation. To the surprise of the team, Natasha sided with Tony. Opinions on the Accords divided the team, but before they could argue any further, the team was notified that founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. Peggy Carter had passed away. Natasha attended the funeral because she felt that Steve needed comforting.

By the time the leaders of the world coming together in Vienna for a ratification of the Accords, Natasha, Tony, Rhodey, and Vision had signed to abide by the accords. At Vienna, Natasha briefly conversed with King T'Chaka of Wakanda and his son T'Challa before the assembly began. The assembly was interrupted due to a bombing which killed several people, including King T'Chaka, with the Winter Soldier being named as the apparent perpetrator.

Following the explosion, Natasha attempted to console T'Challa, but T'Challa was firm when he declared that he was going to kill the Winter Soldier himself. Similarly, Steve expressed his desire to bring Barnes in personally, to which Natasha tried to persuade him against the decision.

Civil War

Natasha, along with Tony and Rhodey, reported for duty under the orders of Everett Ross and the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre in Germany. Steve, T'Challa (who had assumed the mantle of the Black Panther), Barnes, and Sam were soon apprehended and detained to the facility. Natasha was watching Barnes' interrogation when suddenly, the facility went through a complete loss of power. Barnes escaped his cell, so Natasha, Tony, T'Challa, and Agent Sharon Carter tried to prevent him from escaping, but they were unsuccessful. Natasha and Tony soon learned that Steve and Sam escaped along with Barnes. Tony requested for 48 hours from Secretary Ross to bring Steve in peacefully, before agencies started treating him as a fugitive.

Tony decided to assemble his team with Natasha. He needed to travel to Queens, New York for the final member, while Natasha recruited King T'Challa, who still intended on killing Barnes himself. Tony's team, which comprised Natasha, War Machine, Vision, the Black Panther, and an enhanced teenager known as Spider-Man, took to Leipzig/Halle Airport and confronted Captain America, who had assembled his own team of enhanced individuals, which included the Winter Soldier, Falcon, Wanda Maximoff, an enhanced individual who went under the alias of Ant-Man, and Hawkeye, whom they brought out of retirement.

Tony and Natasha initially tried to reason with Steve, but a fight soon broke out between the two groups. The battle was evenly matched at first, but as it progressed, it became clear that Steve's allies were losing. Ant-Man, had the capability to shift the density of his molecules, which allowed him to grow to an enormous size. With Iron Man's team momentarily shocked and distracted, Steve and Barnes used the opportunity to make their escape on a quinjet. Black Panther chased after them, but Natasha attacked him before he could prevent their escape. Tony confronted her later at the Avengers Facility, from where she departed to go in hiding. Natasha later reunited with Steve and Sam, and continued fighting terrorism from the shadows.

Infinity War

Two years later, Natasha was contacted by Steve to help Wanda and the Vision. Arriving in Scotland, Natasha, Steve, and Sam saved Wanda and Vision from aliens known as Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive. Taking Wanda and a badly injured Vision with them, the group returned to Avengers base, violating the Sokovia Accords. The group encountered Banner, who had been sent from deep space to warn the Avevngers that an alien warlord Thanos was looking for the Mind Stone in Vision's head. Natasha and the rest of the team departed for safe haven in Wakanda.

At Wakanda, while T'Challa's sister Shuri worked to extract the Mind Stone from Vision, Natasha helped the Avengers and Wakandans fend off Thanos's forces, even helping Wanda and Okoye battle Proxima. Their efforts were ultimately in vain, as Thanos himself arrived, killed Vision, and retrieved the Mind Stone, which allowed him to snap half of the universe's population away through the use of the Infinity Gauntlet. Natasha was one of the survivors.

Endgame

While taking stock of the casualties on Earth, the Avengers encountered Carol Danvers when they were investigating a mysterious pager Nick Fury had on him when he died. Not long after, Danvers rescued Tony and Nebula from outer space. Pooling together all the information they had on the Mad Titan, Natasha and the Avengers tracked down Thanos to his hiding spot in the Garden. They hoped to get the Infinity Stones and bring back the fallen. When they arrived, they learned that Thanos had destroyed the stones, which led Thor to kill Thanos in rage.

Over the next five years, Natasha led the Avengers in reforming the world after the snap. Aware that Clint, who had lost his family to Thanos, had become a vigilante, she often sent Rhodey to look for him, to no avail. One day, while casually conversing back at headquarters, Steve and Natasha were surprised by the sudden appearance of Scott Lang, who was believed to be one of the fallen, at their front door. Scott, who was trapped in the Quantum Realm for five years but experienced it in five hours, proposed that the Avengers could travel through time using the Quantum Realm to retrieve the stones.

Accepting the idea, the Avengers decided to experiment. Tony, who had started a family, was unwilling to go through the idea, while Bruce, who had since merged his mind with the Hulk's body, accepted the idea. After Banner's tests failed, Tony (having changed his mind) arrived and perfected time-travel. Meanwhile, Natasha went to Japan, where she convinced the rogue Clint that there was still a way to save his family.

Death and Legacy

With the Avengers reassembled and Clint's testing of time travel successful, the team brainstormed a way to get the Infinity Stones across time. The team spent months going over appearances of the Infinity Stones throughout history. Traveling to 2014, Natasha and Clint went to Vormir for the Soul Stone, where they met the Stonekeeper, who explained that the Avengers needed to sacrifice someone dear to them for the Stone. Though Natasha wanted to sacrifice herself due to her past, Clint wanted to sacrifice himself to save his family. The two battled each other to be the sacrifice but ultimately it was Natasha who sacrificed herself for the Soul Stone. The grieving Barton returned to 2023, where the team was able to unite the Stones and bring the fallen back to life.

Natasha's sacrifice left a deep impact on the Avengers, who mourned her after they returned with the stones; Rogers even said (in response of Stark asking if she had family) she "had us". Banner in particular tried to resurrect her when they assembled the stones in a gauntlet and resurrected everyone slain in the snap, but failed.

Attributes

Abilities

Natasha Romanoff is a high level trained combatant and S.H.I.E.L.D. operative. She is fluent in multiple languages including Russian, Italian, and Latin. She also possesses high level computer training and psychologist training. She is deceptively strong, though not superhuman. The Black Widow is a master martial artist, an expert marksman, a natural actress, an infamous seductress, and a gifted veteran spy.

Master Martial Artist: Natasha is an expert in the field of multiple martial arts. Using a series of non-lethal weapons she was able to take down nearly a dozen of Hammer security guards with ease, and without being hit at all. She was able to defeat Agent Barton in combat when he was under Loki's spell. In all out war, her skills yielded similar results, allowing her to dominate numerous Chitauri soldiers in close quarters.

Expert Acrobat: She is an Olympic class athlete, gymnast, acrobat and aerialist capable of many difficult feats.

Expert Marksman: Natasha is a very accurate marksman skilled in sharpshooting and knife throwing.

Multilingual: She is fluent in Latin, Russian, English, French, German, Italian, and various other languages.

Expert Tactician: She is a very effective strategist, tactician, and field commander.

Master Interrogator: Agent Romanoff was able to trick Loki into telling her about his plan to use the Hulk against the Helicarrier. Her most effective tactic is to allow her target to believe they are guiding the conversation (At one point allowing herself to be captured and tortured) so that their questions and comments will provide her with the information she is looking for.

Talented Hacker: Natasha can hack into most computer systems without tripping any firewalls or security. She use this talent to help Rhodes regain control of the War Machine armor and enabled him to help Stark fought the rest of the attacking Hammer drones.

Master Seductress: She is an expert in the field of seduction. Natasha has been infamously known to bend many different men to her will and sometimes even get them to do her bidding for her.

Expert Spy: Natasha is a dangerous secret agent trained in espionage, stealth, disguise, infiltration, and demolitions. Her talents and years of experience have enabled her to reach a high ranking as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Weapon Adaptation: While she usually excels in pistols and her martial arts skills, she can adapt to using weaponry she is not used to, as shown when she uses a Chitauri weapon to lethal efficiency.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Combat suit

Photostatic Veil

Weapons

• Black Widow's Gauntlets
• Black Widow's Batons
• Electro Disks
• Mace
• Two Glock Pistols
• Smoke Bombs
• EMP Devices
• Wire / Garrote
• Spray
• Stun Sticks

Notes

• Scarlett Johansson portrayed Black Widow in the films Iron Man 2, Marvel's The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Johansson additionally makes an uncredited appearance as Romanoff in the mid-credits scene of Captain Marvel. Johansson will reprise the role in the standalone film Black Widow, which is set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
• Catherine Campion provides the voice of Black Widow for the video game adaptation of Iron Man 2.
• While Marvel's The Avengers was in an early phase of development, Johansson's participation in the film was in question. Rather than recast the character, Joss Whedon's earliest script included Wasp in her place.
• While Black Widow does not appear directly in Thor: Ragnarok, Thor attempts to adapt the 'lullaby' to calm the Hulk down when he first encounters his fellow Avenger on Sakaar, and a recording of Natasha stored on the Quinjet's computers later manages to awaken Banner from within the Hulk.
• In Captain America: The Winter Soldier Arnim Zola addresses Natasha by her full name "Natalia Alianovna Romanoff". Later in Avengers: Endgame the name of her father is revealed to be Ivan, the proper patronymic form for which would be "Ivanovna". However, this is not a continuity error, as in Russian culture it is customary to assign a patronymic to all children, choosing an arbitrary one when the identity of the father is unknown.

Trivia

• The "orientation," a high-powered lie-detector, is said by Eric Koenig to have been based on Natasha's skill as Nick Fury wanted to create a machine that "even Romanoff couldn't beat."
• Natasha and Clint Barton were the only agents in S.H.I.E.L.D. history to not need an extraction team when they went on missions, an example could be seen during her mission that involved Georgi Luchkov.
• During a conversation with Bruce Banner, Natasha revealed that she cannot have children as part of her 'graduation' from training involved an efficient sterilization to ensure that there would be one less thing for agents to 'worry' about outside of missions.

See Also

• 38 appearance(s) of Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)
• 7 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)
• 34 minor appearance(s) of Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)
• 16 mention(s) of Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)
• 212 image(s) of Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)
• 3 quotation(s) by or about Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)
• 2 item(s) used/owned by Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999)

Links and References

• Natalia Romanoff on Marvel.com
• Natalia Romanoff on Wikipedia.org
• Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999) on the

• Natalia Romanoff (Earth-199999) on