User blog:Rochman999/Black Widow LMD Theory

The following contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6.

In Endgame we all saw Black Widow fall off of a cliff on Vormir in order to sacrifice herself in an attempt for the Avengers to get the soul stone all undo the Decimation, which appeared to be the end of Natasha Romanoff. However, recent evidence in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 6 points toward a way that Black Widow may still be alive, as a Life Model Decoy or LMD for short. In the final scene of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season six finale, we found out that Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons used old data from the LMD program to bring Phil Coulson back using his old memories from the Framework and Chronicom hardware. As we know, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer following the same continuity or timeline as the rest of the MCU, but earlier seasons such as four and five still are a part of the shared universe. This final scene proves that not all data was deleted after Aida's and the Superior's deaths, but fragments of the old code were kept. This means that in the current MCU timeline with Endgame, LMDs around the world could still be active. But focusing on Natasha, there was one conversation on Vormir minutes before her death, that may prove that she is in fact, A life model decoy.

When Nat and Clint met Red Skull, he identified themselves by their first names, and the names of their parents. For Black Widow, Red Skull adressed her as "Natasha, son of Ivan" which would mean that her father's name is Ivan. Red Skull explains that he knows the destiny of all that journey to the soul stone, including their past, which explained why he knew the name of her father. However, Black Widow never knew the name of her father, but she thought that Ivan might be the name of her father, considering her Russian past. However, unless she has a single memory of her father's name in the back of her subconsciousness, which is very unlikely due to the fact that she was an orphan when she was very little, this would be very unlikely for Red Skull to know the name Ivan. Red Skull's new found powers deal with him being able to see into the soul of any being, which is shown when he adresses Hawkeye as "Clint, son of Edith" as Hawkeye had a very abussive father, and he barely considered his dad as his parent. This signifies that Red Skull can only look within, and physically into the past outside people's memories, but what if Ivan was not Nat's father, but her creator! The center of this theory is that Ivan actually is Anton "the Superior" Ivanov, and the latest LMD he created was one of Black Widow.

This theory starts in the Aftermath of Captain America: Civil War, when Black Widow became a fugitive shortly after Captain America rescued his team from the Raft. For the next two years, Cap's group of former Avengers went into hiding, and the United States government was after them, and at that time the U.S. Air Force was under the control of Hydra. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 we found out that General Hale, the last leader of Hydra, had been assembling a team to try to stop the Alien threat the Confederacy told them about, which turned out to be Thanos. Hale had been trying to capture S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to turn over Earth's gravitonium and inhumans to the Confederacy, in exchange for the Earth's protection. Hale had been trying to create a new super soldier fused with the gravitonium to protect the Earth from the alien invaders, and one of the people Hale assigned to help her with this task, was none other than Anton Ivanov. The Superior was threatened by Hale multiple times, as she had control over his physcial head and could kill him if she so wanted. General Hale had six months to continue her project, between the disapperance of S.H.I.E.LD. shortly after the attempted assasination of General Glenn Talbot and Leo Fitz's escape from prison, and in that time period Hale assigned Ivanov to create her new robotic soldiers, but when he finished, she may have had a second task for him.

Since Hale needed to stop Thanos, she knew that the Avengers would have had a huge part in it, and she would want to have very close tabs on them, and if possible, control over them. Hale's next move in this plan would be the capture of Natasha Romanoff, which she could have done with her being wanted by the government, and would have taken her into custody with her new robotic soldiers. From there on, Hale would have had Ivanov create an LMD of Black Widow with quantum brain data from the framework, and then release her back to the Avengers, with it being completely unnoticed. The Black Widow LMD would be very similar to the LMD of Melinda May, having secret programming inside of them active under specific circumstances, but still have all the same memories. Hale would have had the Superior give Hale Access over everything the Black Widow LMD sees, and can have control of her at any time. This would then allow Hale to have any information from the Avengers that she would have needed, and as for Nat, her fate would be unknown.

The Black WIdow LMD is different than any of the other Sleeper Mech soldiers the Superior created, as it would not be controlled by him, and have a full quantum brain. This would allow for the Black Widow LMD to stay alive long after Hale and the Superior's death. As for the name Ivan in the LMD, that would be because Hale would have had to give Anton military access in order to work under some of the projects, and would have had to change his name from Anton Ivanov to Ivan because of it, and exists in her programming. This is how the real Black Widow is still alive, and the other LMD sacrificed herself.