Black Widow

"Nothing lasts forever."

- Black Widow

Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanoff, better known as Black Widow, is one of the best spies and assassins in the world. Originally an agent of the Russian KGB, she later became a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., the international counter-intelligence agency. She has extensive training in martial arts and armed with her Widow's Bite, Black Widow is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most talented agents. When Loki declared war on Earth, Natasha joined the Avengers and helped to defend New York City. After the Avengers defeated Loki, she continued her work with S.H.I.E.L.D., this time working with fellow agent Captain America. After the S.H.I.E.L.D. Civil War which resulted in all of her morally dubious history being revealed to the world, she dropped off the grid to begin rebuilding her cover.

Early Life
"I have a very specific skill set. 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 a young age, Romanoff was recruited to KGB. There, she endured both an education and indoctrination into the world of spy-craft. Romanoff 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 code name, "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.

The Winter Soldier
"Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot at my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me."

- Natasha Romanoff to Steve Rogers

In 2009, when she was assigned to protect a nuclear scientist, she was attacked by the mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier, who was sent to kill the scientist. Though she and the scientist were pushed over a cliff to fall to a certain death, Romanoff managed to save both herself and the man she was protecting. Seeing this, the Winter Soldier fired a single round through Romanoff's stomach and into the scientist, effectively killing him.

Natalie Rushman
"I'm surprised you can keep your mouth shut." "God you're good. You are mind blowingly duplicitous. 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 et hominum spes fallunt." "Which means? Wait, what did you just say?" "It means you can either drive yourself home or I can have you collected."

- Black Widow and Tony Stark

In 2011, Romanoff was on one of her usual missions. 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 as a notary public 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, and Latin and had done some modeling in Japan at some point. Romanoff became Stark's new assistant while he was in Monaco; then when she flirted with him at his birthday party, he started to get suspicious about her origin.

During Stark and Rhodey's battle in Stark's Malibu home, Romanoff contacted Director Nick Fury and debriefed 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. Romanoff gave Stark a serum which postponed the effects of the Arc Reactor's radiation which was poisoning his body.

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

At the Stark Expo, Romanoff attended and when Ivan Vanko started to control the Hammer Drones, she went with Happy Hogan to go to Hammer Industries Headquarters. She changed into a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform during the car ride with Hogan trying to watch whilst driving. Romanoff broke into Hammer Industries. Hogan took out one guy finding that she 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 Nick Fury to go to Culver University and get eyes on Bruce Banner. She arrived and witnessed Banner get locked in the bridge by General Thaddeus 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 Grayburn College 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 in the leg.

She called in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cleanup team, and signaled 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 in Sochi, 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 Yuri Klementiev one of General Starodoub's business partners, where she met Sofia again, an encounter which cost them the life of agent Gennady Markov.

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 destabilizing 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." "Bohze moi!"

- 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 A.K.A Hawkeye was compromised as incentive. Natasha immediately freed herself and captured Luchkov and his men.

She traveled to Banner's hidden location in Kolkata, 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
"Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian, or I was." "And what are you now?" "It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out." "Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital fire? Barton told me everything."

- Black Widow and Loki

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

Battle of New York
"Just like Budapest, all over again." "You and I remember Budapest very differently."

- Black Widow and Hawkeye

Black Widow was prepared to fight Loki beside the other Avengers and his extraterrestrial army, though being a spy and not a soldier. When the others arrived, she obtained one of the Chitauri's aircrafts and went to Stark Tower where the portal to their dark world was open. She closed the portal for good.

After all of the trouble was dissipated, the Avengers went to the Shawarma Palace. They were interrupted by War Machine, who arrived too late to help in the battle. After the Avengers went their separate ways, she and Barton took off together to an unspecified place.

Zodiac
"A lie, yes... but well intentioned."

- Natasha Romanov

After participating in the Battle of New York, Natasha became partners with Captain America and they ran many operations together. One such operation occurred upon the theft of the Zodiac weapon from S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha infiltrated the terrorist cell of a man named "Baker" using the alias "Audrey". Posing as Audrey, Natasha spent several weeks undercover determining what Baker's plan for Zodiac was.

Upon discovering Baker's plan to release the Zodiac in the Willis Tower in Chicago during the height of the day, killing all within, Natasha alerted Captain America.

Romanoff, Rogers and Agent Brock Rumlow confronted Baker's cell in the Skydeck of Willis Tower, and after a brief combat, subdued the terrorists, and recovered the Zodiac.

Brooklyn
"My work for S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken me all over the world...and that is, without a doubt, not just the best milk shake in Brooklyn...but on the whole darn planet."

- Natasha Romanoff to Steve Rogers

After receiving intel that Nobel prize winning scientist Sana Amanat was going to be abducted. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury dispatched Romanoff and Steve Rogers to Rogers old Brooklyn neighborhood on protection detail.

Under the guise of Steve showing Natasha the places that he grew up, they managed to draw out the Cadre mercenaries that had set-up in multiple locations throughout the neighborhood. Tracing the mercenary that had abducted Amanat through a maze of alleyways, Cap succeeded in taking out the last mercenary with a little help from Amanat herself.

Fighting the Pirates
"Doing anything fun Saturday night?" "Well, all the guys in my barbershop quartet are dead, so no, not really."

- Black Widow and Captain America

Two years after the battle of New York, Natasha and Captain America were sent with the STRIKE team to liberate the Lemurian Star, the S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel in the Indian Ocean that was highjacked by pirates led by Georges Batroc. However, Natasha's real mission was to retrieve confidential protected S.H.I.E.L.D. files in a flash drive.

On the Run from S.H.I.E.L.D
"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." "What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" "The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

- Arnim Zola and Natasha Romanoff

After the supposed death of Nick Fury, Natasha took Fury's USB that Captain America left hidden in the hospital. When Steve arrived later, she told him the masked man who killed Fury was a spy known as the Winter Soldier and she had encountered him once before. She decided to follow Cap. They went to an internet café to see if there was any valuable information on the drive. But they, as Fury did, found nothing. However they did find the location where the USB could be unlocked. Brock Rumlow and his team attempted to find them but failed to do so. On the way out Natasha made Captain kiss her to make on coming STRIKE agents avert their gaze.

They stole a car and drove to Camp Lehigh where Steve trained during World War II. There, they found a secret storage room full of old computers inside an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. office. In there they found a more modern looking USB slot and they put the USB in. The computers powered up and someone began to talk to them.

It was Arnim Zola who told them that he was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. after World War II and that he helped to rebuild HYDRA, inside S.H.I.E.L.D. In the 1970s, after his being told he would soon die, he transferred his mind into a computer. He had been working on an algorithm that HYDRA wanted. He told them that some of the deaths of S.H.I.E.L.D leaders had been due to HYDRA, showing them a picture of Howard Stark, implying that his death might not have been an accident. Natasha learned Zola was also involved in the Winter Soldier program. But before Rogers and Romanoff could get any more information out of Zola, S.H.I.E.L.D showed up and blew up the place. They survived the explosion and sought refuge with Sam Wilson.

They went back to Washington, D.C. and interrogated Agent Jasper Sitwell who was a HYDRA agent. Sitwell told them that HYDRA was going to use Project Insight as a weapon to eliminate what they saw as threats against the world.

Return of the Winter Soldier
"We have to stop the launch." "I don't think the Council's accepting my calls anymore."

- Natasha Romanoff and Nick Fury

Romanoff, Captain America and Falcon attempted to infiltrate the Triskelion but were attacked by the Winter Soldier and his men. A battle broke out and Romanoff fought the Winter Solider and was shot in the shoulder. Cap, Black Widow and Falcon were taken into custody, but were rescued by Maria Hill. Agent Hill took them to a secret facility where an alive Nick Fury shocked Romanoff. Hill and Fury revealed that there was a plan in place to stop Project Insight.

To stop Project Insight, Romanoff used a Photostatic Veil to disguise herself as Councilwoman Hawley, a World Security Council member. After Captain America revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. was compromised, the council was held by STRIKE until she took them down. She then proceeded to dump all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files on the internet, pausing only to summon Nick Fury, to help her get around the encryption on the files. She then picked up Falcon in a helicopter after his fight with HYDRA infiltrator, Brock Rumlow.

A New Start
"You're not gonna put me in prison. You're not going to put any of us in a prison. You know why?" "Do enlighten us." "Because you need us. Yes, the world is a vulnerable place, and yes we help make it that way, but we're also the ones best qualified to defend it. So if you want to arrest me, arrest me. You'll know where to find me."

- Natasha Romanoff and Wenham

Natasha Romanoff was present at a government inquiry into the HYDRA affair. At the inquiry Natasha stated that her and the other agents that fought against HYDRA in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Civil War would not be arrested because they are the best qualified to protect the world. Now that her secrets were revealed to the world, she needed a new identity.

One Last Favour
"That thing you asked for, I called in a few favors from Kiev. Will you do me a favor? Call that nurse." "She's not a nurse." "And you're not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

- Natasha and Steve Rogers

At the request of Captain America, she contacted some of her acquaintances in Kiev who sent her an old Russian top secret document about the Winter Soldier. Later, she stopped by Fury's fake grave to give the document to Steve and kissed him goodbye. A few months later, after Phil Coulson's reorganization of S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha was called by Agent Melinda May.

Personality
The entirety of Romanoff's character is hard to distinguish based on how she lies and tricks people for a living. She's capable of convicingly portraying friendly and flirtatious, timid, vulnerable and scared. For the most part, she's a level headed, strong-willed and independent woman. She normally maintains a controlled, almost emotionless persona to keep whatever she's thinking a secret unless she's around people she absolutely trusts. Although she's more than willing to rush into deadly battle and other unnerving missions for S.H.I.E.L.D., she is not completley fearless as she was visibly frightened of the Hulk.

Although a very serious agent, Romanoff is by no means stuffy and has a good sense of humour which is mostly when she's with Captain America & Hawkeye with whom she seems comfortable. Romanoff is very smart and loyal which is displayed when she made good on the debts she owed Clint & the Captain (saving the former from Loki's mind control and trying to protect the latter during a highway assault). While tough and at times ruthless, she is still a good person and can be quite heroic in her own right. These qualities are usually brought out by her other Avengers, mainly her missions with Steve Rogers.

Abilities
Natasha Romanoff has no superhuman powers but is in peak physical condition. She 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.


 * ​Peak Physical Condition: She can endure a long period of time in battle without getting tired.


 * Peak Human Strength: Her physical strength is at the peak level of natural physical limits for a woman of her age.
 * Peak Human Speed: Her speed is also trained to the peak of human capability. Romanoff is as fast as a human can be without being classified as superhuman.
 * Peak Human Agility: Romanoff's natural agility level is greater then that of an Olympic gold medalist.
 * Master Martial Artist: Romanoff is an expert in the field of martial arts. She's S.H.I.E.L.D's best martial artist. She has mastered, , , , , and multiple styles of . 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. During one altercation she was able to fight three men while tied to a chair, breaking 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. In order to save the World Security Council, she easily overpowered several members of STRIKE. She was able to take out three armed pirates and hold her own against the Winter Soldier.
 * Expert Acrobat: She is an Olympic class athlete, gymnast, acrobat and aerialist capable of many difficult feats.
 * Expert Marksman: Romanoff 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: Romanoff'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. 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. Romanoff's skills are so legendary that Nick Fury created a Lie Detector that he hoped she could not deceive.
 * Talented Hacker: Romanoff can hack into most computer systems without tripping any firewalls or security. She used 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. She used this skill again to access the location of Camp Lehigh from the USB Steve Rogers received from Nick Fury.
 * Master Seductress: She is an expert in the field of seduction. Romanoff 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: Romanoff 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.

Weapons

 * Black Widow's Bite: Prototype laser weapons that fire from two shaped bracelets from Romanoff's hands.
 * Chitauri Staff: Temporarily procured and used during the Battle of New York.
 * Chitauri Staff: Temporarily procured and used during the Battle of New York.
 * Chitauri Staff: Temporarily procured and used during the Battle of New York.

Uniform

 * S.H.I.E.L.D. Uniform: Black Widow's first uniform was a bluish-black catsuit. It zipped up the front and had fingerless gloves with a S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on the shoulders. It had two belts one of which had a red hourglass symbol on it and the other had lots of different pouches. It also had a thigh holster.
 * Avengers Uniform: Her second uniform was a slightly modified version of her earlier one. It was now grey and seems to be made out of a different material. The red hourglass was brighter and the belts were slightly different. The only major difference was the inclusion of built in wrist tasers.
 * Stealth Uniform: Her third uniform was worn while working on S.H.I.E.L.D. missions with Captain America. Her uniform became black with grey webbing, a S.H.I.E.L.D. logo on her right shoulder and her trademark red hourglass over her stomach. It also features her Widow's Bite, a utility belt, and two thigh holsters.
 * The Fourth Uniform: The fourth uniform worn by Black Widow was similar to her second. She wore a black suit with black padding at the shoulders, knees, and elbows. Her suit also contained a more powerful verison of her Black Widow's Bite which when used caused piping on the suit to light up. She also wore a thigh-holster on her left leg.

Other Equipment

 * Glider Harness
 * Miniaturized Smoke Grenades
 * Taser Disks
 * Flash Bombs
 * Grappling Hook Gun
 * Garrote
 * Daggers

Friends and Allies

 * S.H.I.E.L.D. (First Incarnation)
 * Nick Fury - Director
 * Maria Hill - Deputy Director
 * Phil Coulson - Colleague
 * Jasper Sitwell - Colleague
 * Melinda May - Colleague
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Good Friend and Partner
 * Clint Barton/Hawkeye - Good Friend and Colleague and Former Partner
 * Stark Industries
 * Pepper Potts - Former Boss (as Natalie Rushman)
 * Happy Hogan - Former Co-worker (as Natalie Rushman)
 * Avengers - Teammates
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Team Leader, Good Friend and Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Partner
 * Tony Stark/Iron Man
 * Thor
 * Bruce Banner/Hulk
 * Clint Barton/Hawkeye - Good Friend and Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Colleague and Partner
 * Sam Wilson/Falcon

Enemies

 * Justin Hammer
 * Whiplash
 * Sofia - Former Fan
 * Mikhail Fjodorov
 * General Starodoub
 * Richard Frampton
 * Georgi Luchkov
 * Loki
 * Chitauri
 * Baker
 * Georges Batroc
 * HYDRA
 * Alexander Pierce - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Superior
 * Brock Rumlow - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Colleague
 * Jasper Sitwell - Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Colleague
 * Winter Soldier
 * Ultron

Video Game Only

 * A.I.M.
 * Kearson DeWitt
 * Crimson Dynamo
 * R.A.I.D.
 * Sin
 * Taskmaster
 * Shockwave
 * Serpent Society
 * King Cobra
 * Puff Adder
 * U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M.

Trivia

 * In the comics, Black Widow is the product of a Soviet Super Soldier experiment, and has had relationships with both Bucky Barnes and Daredevil.
 * Black Widow is the only character to have been a main female lead role that was not a love interest.
 * In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Widow wore a necklace with an arrow pendant as a symbol of her friendship with Hawkeye.