Black Widow

"I find that it's easier to keep your true self buried under several layers of untrue selves, to protect yourself."

- Black Widow

Black Widow, is the alias of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff, and is Nick Fury's top spy. She is a character in Marvel's 2010 film Iron Man 2, its 2012 crossover film The Avengers, and 2014 sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier (as parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe). She is portrayed by Scarlett Johansson. She will return in the upcoming 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron and the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War.

Black Widow was created by Stan Lee, Don Rico and Don Heck.

Background
Natasha Romanoff is a Level 7 S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, working there since Hawkeye, alias Agent Clint Barton, was sent to kill her, but decided to bring her in to work for them, instead. She works undercover as a legal aid at Stark Industries in Iron Man 2, after being sent there to collect intel on Tony Stark. In the 2012 Marvel film the Avengers, she works together with Captain America (Steve Rogers), Tony Stark (Iron Man), Thor, Bruce Banner (the Hulk), and Clint Barton (Hawkeye) to defeat Loki and his army.

Abilities

 * Master Martial Artist: Natasha is an expert in the field of martial arts. She is proficient in karate, judo, aikido, savate, boxing and multiple styles of kung fu.
 * Expert Acrobat: She is an Olympic class athlete, gymnast, acrobat and aerialist capable of numerous complex maneuvers and feats.
 * Expert Marksman: Natasha is a very accurate marksman skilled in sharpshooting and knife throwing.
 * Multilingual: She is fluent in Russian, English, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and various other languages.
 * Gifted Intellect: According to Marvel, Natasha's intellect is at level 3, putting her on par with Steve Rogers. She possesses the ability to quickly process multiple information streams (e.g., threat assessment) and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations.
 * Graceful Dancer: Natasha is a profound ballet dancer.
 * Expert Tactician: She is a very effective strategist, tactician, and field commander. She has lead the Avengers and even S.H.I.E.L.D. on one occasion.
 * Talented Hacker: Natasha can hack into all computer systems without tripping any firewalls or security with ease.
 * 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. She sometimes continues deceiving certain men through means of acting if she still has a further use for them.
 * Expert Spy: Natasha is a dangerous secret agent trained in espionage, stealth, disguise, infiltration, and demolitions. She displays an uncanny affinity for psychological manipulation and can mask her real emotions perfectly. Her talents and years of experience have enabled her to reach a high ranking as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Conditioning: Being a master shield agent, Natasha is far stronger, faster and more agile than most ordinary humans. Capable of out-preforming even the finest Olympic athletes:
 * Speed: Natasha is capable of running on-par with the finest Olympic athletes. She was able to out-pace the Winter Soldier's henchmen, run under a overpass within seconds, and even blaze through H.A.M.M.E.R Tech guards.
 * Agility: Natasha can preform flips, rolls, and jumps beyond typical humans.
 * Reflexes: Her reflexes are at such a degree, she can dodge point blank gun-fire (if there's enough distance).
 * Stamina: She was able to fight alongside the likes of Capt. America, Iron-Man, and Hulk for long periods of time during the invasion.

Equipment

 * Costume Specifications: Synthetic stretch fabric which has been augmented to be highly resistant to damage even small arms fire and high temperatures. Microscopic suction cups on her costume allow her to scale walls and cling to ceilings, just as her namesake.
 * Personal Weaponry: The Black Widow's Gauntlets are wrist cartridges containing various tools of the spy trade: tear-gas pellets, a radio transmitter and spring-loaded cable.
 * Special Weaponry: Various automatic weapons and firearms, combat knives and explosives as needed. She also uses a device often referred to as the Widow's Bite that is capable of emitting highly potent electric shocks with a maximum of about 30,000 volts.
 * Source of Paraphernalia: Formerly Soviet Union, S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers.

The Avengers
While on assignment, Natasha was tied to a chair by Georgi Luchkov and appeared to be interrogated when, in fact, she was the one interrogating him. Phil Coulson calls and tells her that Agent Barton has been compromised, so she broke free from her restraints and knocked out Luchkov's henchmen before being sent to collect Bruce Banner. Natasha pays a child to act like her father is sick and leads Banner to a shack on the outskirts of the town of Calcutta. Natasha approaches Bruce and tells him that he needs to help them in locating the Tesseract, a dangerous object that had fallen into the wrong hands by Loki. Bruce asks her, "What if I say no?". She responds, saying, "I'll persuade you", this was her way of saying that she had several agents outside who were ready to take on the Hulk at any given moment. After Bruce agreed, she introduced him to Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America. Though the thought of Banner's immensely powerful alter ego terrified her, Romanoff carries out the assignment with aplomb and soon had Banner on board.

She later travels to Stuttgart, Germany along with Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, and Captain America to apprehend Loki, who, with the aid of a mind-controlled Barton, is stealing iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract. The mission was successful but took the combined skills of Steve Rogers, Tony Stark in his Iron Man armor, and herself at the gun controls of Quinjet to subdue him. On the return trip they also encountered Loki's brother Thor who had designs on Loki's capture of his own.

Once Loki is captured and taken into custody, Natasha talks to him in his holding cell and he taunts her claiming that he will make Clint kill her. His taunt was after she revealed to Loki that she and Clint had a history with each other. He lets slip that the "monster" is already on board of the Helicarrier and she works out that he plans to use the Hulk so Romanoff warns Director Fury. Loki summons some guards, including Hawkeye, to the Helicarrier. Hawkeye then uses an explosive arrow to destroy one of the four engines. Natasha and Bruce are thrown through a window by an explosion and Bruce loses control and changes into the Hulk despite Natasha's attempts to keep him focused. She manages to get her leg free from the debris that was on top of her and begins to run for it, because the Hulk is attacking her. He easily catches her and knocks into a wall. However, she was saved by Thor before the Hulk could kill her. Fury asks someone to stop Hawkeye and she swallows her terror and volunteers, finding him and knocking him unconscious. She then visits him in the recovery room where he is free from Loki's spell, wanting to take action against the God of Mischief. Clint admitted to her his disbelief of the Avengers being able to stop Loki and his remorse about the people he killed.

Natasha, Clint, and Steve seek Loki in Manhattan, who releases his army, so the Avengers are forced to assemble and battle the onslaught of alien invaders. To serve as Private First-Class of the team, she fights alongside Steve and Clint. When the others arrive she takes one of the Chitauri's aircrafts and heads to the top of Stark Tower where the portal is open. She talks to Erik Selvig and uses Loki's staff to close the portal. The team regroup and send Loki back to Asgard with Thor and then they go their separate ways, though Natasha and Barton return to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Sometime later, Natasha and the rest of the Avengers go to eat silently in a shawarma restaurant.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. the Black Widow, is one of the world’s greatest spies and quite possibly the world’s most skilled assassin. After the events in New York with the Avengers, where her specialized weapons and vast repertoire of martial arts skills help the team defeat the invaders, the Black Widow returns to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters to take on new assignments, only to find herself joining forces with Captain America to expose an ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off assailants sent to silence them at every turn.

After defeating Hydra, Black Widow decides to find a new identity since she exposed all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets into the Internet in order to expose Hydra within the organization.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
After being exposed to S.H.I.E.L.D., the Widow started feeling bad for betraying Hawkeye, her former partner. She saved him on HYDRA Island when Baron Strucker attacked him with his Satan Claw, rendered Strucker unconscious with a blast from her wrist blaster, and made up a lie to him after getting the leader of HYDRA to safety.

Later it was revealed that she was in fact working secretly for Nick Fury to uncover the details of the Cosmic Cube that A.I.M. had been developing. She contacted the Avengers for help to keep the cosmic cube out of the hands of Strucker. Since only Fury and she knows of her undercover status she is still believed to be a traitor to S.H.I.E.L.D. After the Avengers' intervention in the war between HYDRA and A.I.M. over the Cosmic Cube, Hawkeye offered her to join the Avengers for protection from S.H.I.E.L.D., which she refused, fearing that they too will be at risk and danger for harboring a triple agent from S.H.I.E.L.D. unless her name is cleared by Nick Fury then she kissed him and disappeared in the alley. She later helped Nick Fury, Quake, and Mockingbird forewarn Iron Man of the Skrull Invasion. She was later knocked out by Queen Veranke, but later recovered.

When Galactus came to devour the planet, Black Widow united with Thor, Vision, Luke Cage, and Falcon. She planted charges on the machine while Thor, Vision, Falcon, and Luke Cage fought Air-Walker. After the Herald's defeat, Black Widow destroyed the machine.

Galactus was sent into the Negative Zone and the Avengers were hailed as Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Avengers Assemble
Black Widow watched on as the Avengers' Quinjet flew towards Red Skull's location, and pursued them in her own vehicle.

Once Black Widow arrived at the destination, she assisted the Avengers in their effort to defeat Red Skull and his HYDRA army. After supposedly defeating Red Skull, Black Widow witnessed as Red Skull managed to steal Iron Man's armor and arc reactor for his own purposes. Black Widow and the Avengers approached Tony, just as he was loosing consciousness.

Black Widow accompanied the Avengers to Avengers Mansion to revive Tony. After Tony Stark was able to recover, Black Widow and the rest of the Avengers were distraught to learn that Tony had no further use for them. Black Widow left the room to talk to Hawkeye. Soon, the pair were infected by M.O.D.O.K.'s mind-control nanobots, and proceeded to fight each other.

After Iron Man was able to rid the team of M.O.D.O.K.'s nanobots, they had encountered the Red Skull and defeated him. Red Skull managed to detonate the mansion's reactor, leading the Avengers to scatter.

Now without a home, Iron Man welcomed the team to the Avengers Tower. Black Widow and the team were called to action after the Great Wall of China came to life, and flew to their next destination in the Aven-Jet Prime.

Ultimate Spider-Man
Black Widow appeared in the Season 3 two-part crossover episode with the rest of the Avengers.

Disney INFINITY 2.0
Black Widow appears alongside the rest of the Avengers in the Disney INFINITY: 2.0 Edition Avengers Play-set by protecting New York from Loki and MODOK's Frost Giant forces.

Disney Parks
Black Widow, along with Hawkeye, made their first appearances at the Disney Parks in the 2014 "Avengers Super Heroes 5K and Half Marathon" at Disneyland, which ran from November 15 to November 16, 2014 at the RunDisney event. There are no current plans for both characters to make further appearances at the Disney Parks, since Disney wishes to honor the fact that Universal Studios Florida has the rights for the Marvel Comics characters for the Marvel Super Hero Island of Adventure.

Trivia

 * Black Widow appears in the 2005 Punisher video game. She appears in one level, as a non-playable character (NPC) who fights alongside the Punisher.