Black Widow (Natasha Romanova)

**Natalia "Natasha" Alianovna Romanova**, also known as **Black Widow**, is one of the major characters from the *Marvel* comics.

A former KGB agent Natasha Romanova, better known as Black Widow, is one of the best agents S.H.I.E.L.D. has ever had. Natasha is a longtime member of the Avengers as well as the leader of the short-lived Los Angeles-based superhero team called the Champions.

In the XP4 fics, Natasha debuted in XP4 Heroes of the Multiverse - All-Star Adventures.

## **Appearance**

Natasha is young woman with a slender figure, she has a long crimson hair and has green eyes. She wears a black shiny catsuit with a yellow, circular-shaped utility belt wrapped around her waist and wears black boots. She also wears bullet bracelets on each arms.

## **Personality**

Natasha appears to be the one with the smallest ego. She is usually very calm and collected, as evident in Iron Man 2. She is able to keep her emotions in check. As described by Stark, she is something of a mystery. Before her time at S.H.I.E.L.D. she was regarded as extremely versatile, mysterious, and ferociously dangerous, to such an extent that they sent the likes of Clint Barton to deal with her

She is certainly extremely fearless, as well as stoic, efficient, cunning, intelligent, and unpredictable. She does not normally show any fear whatsoever in the face of any danger, even if it is an immortal being from another dimension. She appears to adopt multiple personalities to keep her true colors invisible, making her incredibly hard to read. However, in The Avengers, she is shown to get emotional, being wary and perhaps afraid of Dr. Banner and what he is capable of doing. When Dr. Banner transformed into the Hulk, she showed fear for the first time. Luckily, Thor intervened in time to prevent the Hulk from attacking her. Natasha quickly put her fear aside to stop a mind-controlled Barton, whom she seems to deeply care about.

Her fear appears a second time when she battles the Winter Soldier - she tries to fight the assassin, but when she is beaten, she tries to retreat (She actually runs from a fight), and when the Winter Soldier critically shoots her, there is a visible look of terror on her face that has never been seen before, shows that her previous encounter with the Winter Soldier - and the injuries she sustained as a result - have marred her somewhat. In spite of this, when she recovered, she returned to the mission without hesitation

Loki suspected that she harbored a romantic interest in Barton, which she dismissed. The two of them appear to have a close friendship, as she helped him realize that his actions under Loki's control were not his fault. Most importantly, she is haunted by her past and tries to make amends with that past, one day at a time, or as she puts it, she has "red in her ledger" and would like to wipe it out. Her personality becomes increasingly more detailed with every film she appears in. Her past is hinted at in very minute portions, and it is extremely hard to tell if anything she says is genuine.

Natasha, because she does not tell much about herself and does not react emotionally to narrowly anything, is also extremely difficult to trust because her loyalty is always ambiguous to an extreme. She is very pragmatic, shown when she calmly explains to a press conference, after the events involving the Winter Soldier, that she and her friends will not be incarcerated by the authorities because, chaotic and unpredictable or not, the Avengers will always be needed. Also, she is extremely goal-oriented, sacrificing her opinion for her efficiency when it came to completing a mission, making an effort not to make things too personal if she can avoid it and preferring to observe, calculate and deal with the facts of the mission, so that she doesn't become dissuaded by her own opinion.

Natasha's relationship with the other Avengers varies with each individual. She is seen in Iron Man 2 to be Nick Fury's second-in-command and the person who reports back to him on Tony Stark, and she is visibly shocked when he apparently dies. With Tony, she acts in a very aloof and stoic manner, immune and indifferent to his (Constant) attempts at flirting with her. She even described him to display 'textbook narcissism', however she might have warmed up to him a bit the more she worked with him. Natasha and Thor do not explicitly get time together, so their relationship is uncertain.

With Bruce Banner, she initially acts with incredible caution because she is actually afraid of him, acting as if she is on a knife's edge. His transformation into the Hulk is the first time she shows fear, but she becomes more easygoing with him later on. She even develops strong feelings for him and is the only one who is able to properly tame his Hulk form. She develops romantic feelings for him during the course of their time on the team. Her relationship with Clint Barton is that of best friends. They first met when Clint was sent to hunt her down, but instead he spared her and they became friends. Natasha first met Steve Rogers on the Helicarrier when he was recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D. and she appeared to respect his authority. They also worked fiercely together against the Chitauri.

Their relationship developed later on when they were outlawed by their own bosses and hunted by the Winter Soldier, and Natasha appeared to see him as a genuine friend. However, he found it painfully hard to trust her because he didn't know where her loyalty lay, and she always seemed to be working for a second party whilst deceiving him. She also flirted with him subtly throughout this particular adventure, and the two made an incredible team. After the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D., she learned that he was planning on going after Bucky, and warned him to be careful as he might not like what he found, and even kissed him, showing that she is developing less aloofness towards at least one Avenger.

While one of the members of the Avengers that is completely human and without superpowers, (other than Barton and Stark, however, his armor makes the difference between the three), she is shown to be just as formidable as any of the other members, as she is a gifted spy, trained in combat, weapons, and various other skills.

## **XP4 Fanfics**

### **XP4 Heroes of the Multiverse - All-Star Adventures**

In Chapter 13, Natasha is seen in the Stark Towers alongside his Avengers comrades mourning over Vision's death. They later then discussed what to do about Vision's killer and Bruce Banner suggested that they search for the remaining gems and Doctor Strange pointed out that a certain person knows where the gems are.

## **Abilities**

Natasha has taken a different version of the Super-Soldier Serum. This gave her physical abilities much like Captain America, though not as great as his. She possesses peak-level physiology, making her as strong, agile, fast, and durable as a female human can possibly be without being classified as superhuman. This also extends to her senses and immune system, which are similarly heightened to peak human level. From a young age, Natasha was trained to become a martial artist the martial arts she knows are karate, judo, kenpo, jujutsu, ninjutsu, aikido, savate, Muay Thai, Sambo and multiple styles of kung fu sharpshooter and acrobat, and has become a master of all of these skills. She has since become one of the top espionage operatives in the world. Natasha has also proven herself to be one of the best information gatherers in the Marvel Universe. She is fluent in many different languages and is an expert computer programmer and hacker. She is an accomplished battle strategist and field commander, and has been the leader of the Avengers and even SHIELD on one occasion.

In the 2004 Black Widow mini-series, Natasha's background was retconned. She was subjected to biotechnological and psycho-technological enhancement. This answers the question as to why Natasha is still so youthful despite being born prior to World War II.

### **Paraphernalia**

Despite its skin-tight appearance, the black catsuit that Natasha wears is made of a high-tech synthetic fabric that is resistant to high temperatures and even small-arms fire. It is further enhanced with tiny suction cups that allow her to cling to walls and even ceilings, much like her black widow spider namesake. She carries state-of-the-art versions of gear used by top modern spies, including stunners, tear-gas, a cable and a transmitter. Natasha can quickly travel across rooftops and from building to building with a grappling hook and a retractable line called the Widow's Line. She also carries various types of weapons, ranging from melee to long distance. Her primary weapon is the 'Widow's Bite,' which is delivered via her wrist cartridges. They emit a potent electrical blast with a maximum power of around 30,000 volts.

## **Trivia**

* The Black Widow's first appearances were as a recurring, non-costumed, Russian-spy antagonist in the feature "Iron Man", beginning in *Tales of Suspense* #52 (April 1964).
* The Black Widow was ranked as the 176th greatest comic book character in *Wizard* magazine. IGN also ranked her as the 74th greatest comic book character stating that wherever conspiracy and treachery are afoot, you can expect the Black Widow to appear to save the day, and as #42 on their list of the "Top 50 Avengers". She was ranked 31st in *Comics Buyer's Guide's* "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.