Black Widow

Personality: Out of all the Avengers, 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 have a very 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.

Appearance: Black Widow has red hair and green eyes. Black Widow's costume is a sleek, form-fitting black bodysuit designed for agility and stealth. It features a deep V-shaped neckline and is made of a flexible yet durable material that allows for maximum mobility in combat. The suit is accentuated with gold bracers on her wrists, which house her signature Widow's Bite—a powerful electroshock weapon. She also wears a utility belt with pouches and holsters, adding to her espionage-ready look.

Storyline:

Apparently orphaned as a child when she was trapped in a burning building during an early attack on Stalingrad by enemy forces, Natalia "Natasha" Romanova was born in 1928. A soviet solider Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov braved the fires of the burning building and saved the young Natsha. Through the years he would keep an eye on her as she grew, but by the late 1930's she attracted the attention of Soviet Intelligence. She then began training and by 1941 she was almost brainwashed into serving the ninja clan The Hand, but was saved, again, by Ivan.

Following World War II, Natasha was recruited to become part of a team of elite female sleeper agents in the Black Widow Program. Among the Widow’s instructors was the Winter Soldier, formerly Captain America’s sidekick Bucky (James Barnes); Natasha studied as a ballerina to cover for her true occupation. The Soviet state eventually arranged for Natasha to marry Alexi Shostakov, a champion test pilot. After a few years of a happy marriage, the KGB faked Shostakov’s death in a rocket test; grief for Shostakov drove Natasha’s resolve deeper and she continued her education with the Red Room Academy, finally being appointed the title of the Black Widow.

Black Widow was assigned to assist Boris Turgenov in the assassination of Professor Anton Vanko for defecting from their country by infiltrating Stark Industries in America. Tony Stark, the original Iron Man, continually foiled her schemes against Stark Industries. Romanova later met the novice archer Hawkeye and set him against Iron Man, and later helped Hawkeye battle Iron Man. Unfortunately, Hawkeye's association with Russian spies would label him a criminal in his early career. Black Widow and Hawkeye next clashed against the novice super-hero Spider-Man. They resumed their focus on Tony Stark, clashing with Iron Man twice more - the first being an attempt to raid Tony Stark's munitions plant.

When that mission ended in failure, she was taken back to Russia by her masters and given a new costume that allowed her to scale walls as well as a device that allowed her to fire lines to swing from. She once more attempted to get Hawkeye to help her destroy Iron Man. The pair almost succeeded, but when Black Widow was injured, Hawkeye retreated to get her to safety. During this period, Romanova was attempting to defect from the Soviet Union and began to feel love toward Hawkeye, weakening her loyalty to her country. When her employers learned the truth, they had her gunned down, sending her to a hospital, convincing Hawkeye to go straight and seek membership in the Avengers.

Powers:

Artificially Enhanced Physiology: Natasha has received the Red Room's variant of the Super-Soldier Serum.[citation needed] As a result, her physical and mental abilities had been psycho-chemically enhanced beyond human limits. She is classified as a Superhuman. Nick Fury's intel classified her as power level 7.

Peak Human Strength: Her physical strength is at the peak level of natural physical limits of a woman of her height, weight and build. She is capable of lifting up to 500 lbs. However, she stated that the Punisher was stronger than her.

Peak Human Speed: Her speed is also enhanced to the peak of human capability. Natasha is as fast as a human can be.

Super Human Agility: Natasha's natural agility is heightened to a level greater than that of an Olympic gold medalist. She can coordinate her body with balance, flexibility, and dexterity easily.

Super Human Reflexes: Due to the Red Room's experiments, her reaction time is similarly enhanced and functions with superhuman efficiency and capability.

Peak Human Durability: Natasha's bodily tissues have been augmented to the pinnacle of human development. Though she can be injured in the typical ways other humans can be, she possesses exceptional human strength, endurance, and stamina.

Peak Human Senses: Her five senses are enhanced and function at the peak of human perfection.

Peak Mental Resistance: Natasha is extraordinarily capable at withstanding torture. She is required to go undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D. often and has been extensively trained to endure long-term inhumane interrogation methods.

Peak Human Immune System: While she is susceptible to disease, the Black Widow has been enhanced by biotechnology that makes her body resistant to aging and disease and heals at an above human rate.

Extended Longevity: The Super Soldier serum variant has also extended her lifespan by dramatically slowing her natural aging process. Although she is almost 70 years old, she has the youthful appearance and vitality of a woman in the physical prime of her life.

Master Martial Artist: Natasha is an expert in the field of martial arts. She is proficient in sambo, boxing, karate, judo, aikido, ninjutsu, savate, muay thai 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 an extremely 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: 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. She is capable of killing in cold blood when the need arises. Her talents and years of experience have enabled her to reach a high ranking as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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.

Transportation: Natasha uses her Widow's Line, a grappling hook with a retractable line, to swing along rooftops for increased mobility. Avenger's Quinjets. Assorted S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft. Used an Avengers Issue Jet-Pack.[55]

Weapons: 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.