The many accounts that detail the childhood of Natalia Alianovna Romanova are as varied as the lies she fabricated and the lives she has taken over the course of her career as one of the deadliest assassins in a post-Cold War age. Some say that she was left alone after a house fire claimed the lives of her parents, and grew up to become a celebrated ballerina. Others paint a grimmer picture, where these supposedly peaceful memories were artificially created while she was raised in the Red Room, a facility that groomed orphan girls into assassins for the Russian government. Regardless of her true origins, young Natalia’s immense physical prowess soon led to her becoming an agent for the KGB, and its most feared to boot: the Black Widow.

For as long as she could remember, Black Widow faithfully served her superiors to the letter, whether it involved eliminating enemies of the state or gathering crucial intelligence from the most dangerous of locales. However, she began to have second thoughts about where her loyalties truly lay when she was tasked with infiltrating Stark Industries in the United States. In her repeated attempts to sabotage it, the Widow teamed up with Hawkeye, a vigilante archer who she later began developing feelings for. When it became clearer that she was seriously considering a defection, the KGB ordered her assassination, leading to both of them seeking refuge by becoming members of the US’ premier superhero team: the Avengers.

Ultimately, Black Widow chose to not follow through after receiving an offer from a secret intelligence agency named S.H.I.E.L.D.; its enigmatic director Nick Fury had monitored her performance within the KGB for several years and saw in her an asset that his organization could use in safeguarding the world from any threats. The newly renamed Natasha Romanoff agreed when it became clear that S.H.I.E.L.D. would wipe her slate in her past life clean, and since then, she has juggled her role as a freelance spy for them along with being a part-time ally of the Avengers. She is currently deceased in the mainline Marvel canon after having sacrificed herself to save Miles Morales, although a clone of her has continued to uphold her duties since.