Black Widow

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything."

- Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff, also known as the Black Widow, is a former Russian spy and a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., the international counter-intelligence agency. Even in her short career at S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Romanoff has turned covert espionage into an art form. Armed with an extensive complement of "widow stings" and small cluster bombs, as well as a vast repertoire of martial arts and wushu training, Romanoff's skill-set seems to know no bounds. After Loki declared war on Earth, Natasha joined the elite hero team known as the Avengers.

Early life
"I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call."

- Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff was born on November 22, 1984. It is believed that her birth place was Stalingrad. Most of her youth is shrouded in mystery.

At some point in life, Natasha was recruited to the secret organization which worked as Russia's covert espionage facility. There, she endured both an education and indoctrination into the world of spycraft. Natasha excelled in this strict training environment and soon became regarded as a master spy and one of the world's greatest assassins. Her ruthless effectiveness in later years earned her the codename, "Black Widow".

Due to both her expertise and her growing threat to global security, Romanoff quickly appeared on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar, prompting Director Nick Fury to send Agent Clint Barton to eliminate her. Agent Barton disobeyed this order, recognizing her skill and recommending she be recruited for S.H.I.E.L.D. At the behest of Director Fury, Romanoff later defected from Russia and joined the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. From that moment on, she developed a lasting partnership with Barton.

Natalie Rushman
"God, you're good. You are mind blowingly close to this. How do you do it? You're a triple impostor, I've never seen anything like it. Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?" "Fallaces sunt rerum species." "Which means? Wait, what did you just say?" "It means you can either drive yourself home or I can have you collected."

- Tony Stark and Black Widow In 2010, Natasha was on one of her usual mission. She was sent to ruin an operation of the Ten Rings. She boarded the Ten Rings plane and caused its explosion. After that, she was sent by Nick Fury to infiltrate Stark Industries under the guise of Natalie Rushman. She was hired by Secretary Bambi Arbogast. Natalie Rushman worked her way at getting to Tony Stark including secretly making her co-worker, Samantha Carlisle sick in order to deliver documents to Mr. Stark.

The ulterior motive for her employment was for her to keep an eye on Tony Stark after he signed his company over to Pepper Potts. In reality, Romanoff had been assigned to assess whether he was suitable for a plan to bring together a group of people with unparalleled talents. 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 became Tony's new assistant while he was in Monaco, then when she flirted with him at his birthday party he started to get suspicious about where she had come from.

During Stark and Rhodey's battle in Stark's Malibu home, Natasha contacted Director Nick Fury and filled him on the situation. When he offered to come, she told him not to. Dressed in a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, she arrived at a meeting Nick Fury was having with Tony Stark in Randy's Donuts, where Fury revealed her true name. Natasha gave Tony a serum which postponed the effects of the Arc Reactor's radiation which was poisoning his body.

Later, Natasha, along with Fury and Phil Coulson, went to Tony's house and she was told by Fury that she was to remain in position as an assistant. Later at Stark Industries, while Tony was visiting Pepper Potts, Natasha walked in and requested for Potts to sign something. When Potts left, Tony started to grill Natasha and told her that he found it amazing that she does what she does. When Tony claimed that she could not speak other languages, Natasha replied in Latin, then repeated herself in English, telling him that he could, "Either get, or be collected."

At the Stark Expo, Natasha attended and when Ivan Vanko started to control Hammer's Drones, she went with Happy Hogan to go to Hammer Industries. Natasha changed into a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform during the car ride with Hogan trying to watch whilst driving. Natasha broke into Hammer Industries. Hogan took out one guy finding that Natasha took alot more than that. She managed to get control over James Rhodes's battle suit. She then retrieved Hammer Industries data before Ivan Vanko's bombs went off.

Big problems
"These are gods and monsters and machines of war we're mixed up with."

- Natasha Romanoff

Returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters with the data, she was given orders by a stressed Fury to go to Culver University and get eyes on Bruce Banner. She arrived and witnessed Banner get locked in the bridge by General Ross and his troops; Banner then transformed and a battle ensued. She called Fury and barely escaped uninjured. She revealed to Fury that she witnessed Emil Blonsky in action against the Hulk and that they enhanced him. Fury was forced to deploy Natasha to Empire State University after Ross revealed, in a short conversation, that he intended to capture Banner. She arrived too late, however, and informed Fury over the phone that Ross captured Bruce and was taking him away in a helicopter. Natasha was then ordered to make sure that Bruce didn't leave anything for Dr. Samuel Sterns, who he had recently been with, to work on. As she headed up the front steps, she witnessed Blonsky, now as Abomination, emerge from the building. She was buried in rubble, but still managed to make her way upstairs. She stumbled upon Dr. Sterns, who's mutation had greatened significantly, and his brain power had been augmented exponentially. After a brief dialogue with him, during which Sterns identified Black Widow's birth place from a hint of accent in her voice, Natasha shot him the leg.

She called in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cleanup team, and signalled her location on the roof with flares. She saw the chaos of Abomination and Hulk's battle in the distance. Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, she confronted Fury, stating that all of the events going on were too much to handle. Later, she was dispatched to Asia.

Back in Russia
"And...what do you get out of this if you "win"?" "Oh, I'm sorry--didn't I mention? If I win, I take over the mantle of "Black Widow"."

- Natasha Romanoff and Sofia

Once again on a mission, Natasha arrived in Moscow, Russia, where she searched for missing Stark Industries technology. Disguised as Tatiana Sokolova, she worked at a night club. While trying to interrogate Mikhail Fjodorov, one of the world's most successful illegal arms dealers, Fjodorov was killed by an unknown woman and Natasha was forced to leave the club via the roof, fighting several security men. After she returned to a hotel, she was attacked by a team of masked mercenaries, but she defeated them and received a SIM card to reach the mysterious woman she has seen in the night club. Later, Black Widow talked to the woman named "Sofia", and learned that she is a "fan" and wants to take over the name "Black Widow". Natasha agreed to meet with Sofia and broke all her contacts with S.H.I.E.L.D.

A few days later, Natasha confronted Sofia in a sport hall, where she almost drowned in cold water, but she was saved at the last moment by Phil Coulson, who was following a pair of goons working for the arms dealer General Starodoub. Coulson gave Natasha the necessary equipment to infiltrate the yacht belonging to one of General Starodoub's business partners, where she met Sofia again, an encounter which cost them the life of one more S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

When Coulson discovered that Sofia's employer was the billionaire Richard Frampton, Natasha infiltrated his headquarters in Vladivostok. She discovered that Frampton works for the Ten Rings terrorist organization and that he has made a Jericho missile that would explode near the border between Russia and North Korea, greatly destabilising the world peace. Natasha infiltrated the launching area and destroyed the missile. Both Frampton and Sofia were killed in the explosion.

Interrogation
"I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy." "Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me." "Oh, I've got Stark. You get the big guy."

- Phil Coulson and Black Widow

Natasha's next target was Georgi Luchkov, the corrupt Russian general who illegally sold weapons to the highest bidder. Natasha allowed herself to be captured by Luchkov's thugs. While Luchkov interrogated her, he unknowingly spilled all of his secrets to her. Phil Coulson then called to inform her that she is to collect Bruce Banner, letting her know that Clint Barton aka Hawkeye was compromised as incentive. Natasha immediately freed herself and captured Luchkov and his men.

She traveled to Banner's hidden location in India. She gets a child to act as if her father is sick and lead him into an abandoned house. Natasha is able to convince Banner to come into S.H.I.E.LD. and ordered the agents outside to stand down.

Attack on the Helicarrier
Natasha approaches the enemy, demigod Loki, in his cell, putting on an act by breaking down her barriers and revealing her emotions for Barton, for whom she owes a life debt. Using this tactic, Romanoff is able to trick Loki into revealing that he plans on unleashing Banner's monstrous alter-ego, the Hulk. Afterwards, after an argument between the group, Barton, under the control of Loki, detonates a bomb on the S.H.I.E.L.D ship which traps Natasha and causes Banner to transform into the Hulk. Natasha attempts to fend herself off from the Hulk and barely does and is subsequently knocked out. After waking up, she is forced to take on Barton in hand to hand combat and is able to knock him out, breaking Loki's hold off of him.

Battle of New York
"I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." "Do it!"

- Black Widow and Captain America

Natasha is prepared to fight Loki beside the other Avengers and his extraterrestrial army, though being a spy and not a solider. When the others get there, she takes one of the Chitauri's aircrafts and goes to Stark Tower where the portal to their dark world is open. She is the one who is able to close the portal for good.

After all of the trouble is dissipated, the Avengers go to a shwarma restaurant and are interrupted by War Machine, who arrived too late to help in the battle. After the Avengers go their separate ways, she and Barton take off together to an unspecified place.

Powers and Abilities
Natasha Romanoff has no superhuman powers but 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 martial arts. She has mastered karate, judo, aikido, savate, boxing, lucha-libre style wrestling and multiple styles of kung fu. Combined with her strength, speed and agility, she was able to take down nearly a dozen of Hammer security guards with ease and without being hit at all. Arguably one of the most famous scenes in The Avengers, she was able to fight three men while tied to a chair and broke it on one of them to free herself and eventually finish them off. She was able to defeat Agent Barton in combat when he was under Loki's spell. She was also shown to defeat scores of Chitauri soldiers as well with no problems.
 * 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, Chinese, and various other languages.
 * Gifted Intellect: Natasha's intellect seemingly puts her on par with Steve Rogers and Clint Barton. She possesses the ability to quickly process multiple information streams (e.g., threat assessment) and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations.
 * 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 to bust him out of his cell (although not without Loki getting to her first; nearly frightening her). She was able to do a "reverse interrogation"; while she seemed to be in danger, in truth, she was getting all the information she wanted to know.
 * 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 fight 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 using her beauty. Iron Man is the main example and living proof of this.
 * 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 a special agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Equipment

 * Widow's Bite: Prototype laser weapons that fire from two shaped bracelets from Romanoff's hands.
 * Handguns
 * Walther PPK/S (in Iron Man 2)
 * Glock 26 (in The Avengers)
 * Taser disks
 * Flashbangs
 * Garrote
 * Daggers

Relationships

 * Nick Fury - S.H.I.E.L.D. director and commander
 * Phil Coulson - Fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent
 * Maria Hill - Fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent
 * Hawkeye - Fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent and Avengers teammate
 * Captain America - Avengers teammate and team leader
 * Iron Man - Avengers teammate
 * Thor - Avengers teammate
 * Bruce Banner/The Hulk - Avengers teammate
 * Justin Hammer - Enemy
 * Whiplash - Enemy
 * Georgi Luchkov - Enemy
 * Loki - Enemy
 * Chitauri - Enemies

Video game only

 * A.I.M. - Enemies
 * Kearson DeWitt
 * Crimson Dynamo