BIOGRAPHY - Page 13
When Iron Man suggested a gathering at the mansion to commemorate the founding of the Avengers, Natasha agreed as it would be cathartic to all the members. Tensions had been strained between the Avengers and Force Works, the new team formed by Iron Man after 
Avengers West disbanded under a cloud of regrets. Natasha’s old friend Hawkeye was also at odds with both groups, partially blaming Stark for being absent from the team when his wife Mockingbird was killed on one of Avengers West’s final missions. Clint nearly started a fight with Stark during the festivities, and the diverse membership responded to a mysterious group of attackers that struck near the mansion. Before everyone left at the end of the night, Natasha reached out to Tony. As close as she felt to both men, she counseled him to find a way to end the feud with Hawkeye soon.
The attackers had been hounding Gilgamesh, a former Avenger and Eternal who nevertheless appeared ancient and on death’s door despite his people’s vaunted immortality. As Giant-Man tried to stabilize their patient, the Avengers also searched for Marilla, Inhuman nanny to Quicksilver and Crystal’s child Luna, who had gone missing during the party. Their bio-scanners brought forth the horrific discovery that Marilla had been murdered and then all-but disintegrated to hide the corpse. Moreover, the bio-residue of another former Avenger, Yellowjacket, was also discovered in the ashes. As Black Widow and the Avengers reeled from these revelations, a powerful new foe named Neut infiltrated the bio-labs and delivered a killing blow against Gilgamesh. His mission complete, Neut fled to the door in the basement which no Avenger could 
touch and escaped through it without complications. With three of their own now dead, and their headquarters no longer secure, Black Widow ordered the evacuation and quarantine of Avengers Mansion until the mystery of the door and the evening’s events could be put to rest.
Natasha had the Avengers’ headquarters moved to the Wasp’s South Hampton estate on Long Island for the duration of the investigation. Iron Man and Giant-Man failed in their latest efforts to breach the door, but Stark discovered a portion of security footage damaged by high-frequency interference and went to work reassembling the lost data as best he could. The results were shocking – the security footage apparently showed Hawkeye committing the murders of Marilla and Yellowjacket. When Force Works attempted to bring Hawkeye in quietly for answers, Iron Man bulled his way into the situation and nearly beat Hawkeye into a coma. This prompted U.S. Agent and War Machine to remove Hawkeye from The Works and conduct their own investigation without Stark breathing over their shoulder. The trio reached out to Black Widow, and Natasha agreed to meet them privately.
The conclusions they reached were difficult for all the heroes. No one believed Clint was capable of cold-blooded murder, but only Tony Stark had the expertise to fake the security footage that damned Hawkeye. Black Widow and the others were trying to decide on their next move when members of Kang’s Anachronauts attacked their hidden bunker. Hawkeye used the opportunity to run off and confront Iron Man alone. Tony and Clint initially seemed to reach an accord and went to the van Dyne estate together to settle the mystery. Hank Pym’s image inducer helmet drew forth Stark’s memories of the day of the party, showing nothing amiss. However, the inducer was then used on young Luna – who had been acting uncomfortable around Iron Man – and the Avengers learned she saw Iron Man kill Yellowjacket. Like a switch going off in his head, Tony Stark was revealed to be a sleeper agent in Kang’s employ. By the time Black Widow caught up with Hawkeye, Iron Man had critically wounded the Wasp and fled like a thief in the night, his guilt plain for all to see.
As Black Widow and the Avengers regrouped, they were joined by a mystery woman named Masque, who claimed to have escaped from an arctic bunker where Stark kidnapped her and the psi-talent Marianne Rodgers while working on some unknown technology. The Avengers tried to pierce the bunker’s defenses, but they proved impregnable. They only received a telepathic message from Rodgers inside, telling them her probes showed Stark’s betrayal was forced upon 
his mind, a progressive corruption that spent years breaking him down. A teenaged version of Luna also abandoned Kang’s forces and brought them the captive Force Works member Moonraker as a show of good faith. Neut attacked again and murdered this Luna, but not before she provided the Avengers with access codes for the temporal door in the mansion. Black Widow and the team therefore concocted a desperate but daring plan – use the door to travel back in time and recruit a younger, uncorrupted version of Tony Stark to counter his broken adult counterpart.
Black Widow and the Avengers lay siege to the quarantined Avengers Mansion, which was now actively being guarded by Kang’s Anachronauts. They gained access to the door but were followed back in time by Kang’s adopted son, Tobias. More than a decade in the past, at Stark Mansion, they found a 19-year-old Tony Stark unaffected yet by Kang’s machinations. Tobias killed Howard and Maria Stark, creating a new timeline and driving “Teen Tony” to join the 
Avengers and travel to the present. Natasha gathered the Avengers for another attack on the arctic bunker, gaining access thanks to Teen Tony. The bunker proved to be a beachhead for Kang’s own temporal citadel, intent on moving the Earth out of temporal phase as his own personal breeding ground for a new Anachronaut army. Fighting with his younger self shook the adult Tony Stark to his senses, and Iron Man sacrificed his life to destroy Kang’s citadel and send the conqueror back into the timestream with his minions. [The Crossing event]
Black Widow and the Avengers were frankly shellshocked in the aftermath of these events and struggled to get their bearings in the weeks that followed. Natasha had trouble trusting Masque, who remained at the mansion after the Stark fiasco as a houseguest and honorary associate. Masque spent much of her time with Hawkeye, who vouched for her, but that only made Natasha more uncomfortable. She questioned Masque’s intentions, but Clint shot back that this was exactly like when he stood up for her joining the Avengers all those years ago and questioned 
whether Natasha was actually jealous. A mysterious android called Benedict infiltrated the mansion, disabling several Avengers in pursuit of his primary target, Masque. Black Widow would have been the next struck down by Benedict’s cybernetic tentacles when Masque took the hit meant for Natasha. As Benedict made off with Masque, he left behind a cybernetic coin imprinted with information, calling it a trade so that Natasha did not pursue him and his target any further. [Avengers (1st series) #397-399]
Despite their difficulties, the Avengers’ roster was filled with veteran heroes and seasoned members as Force Works collapsed without Iron Man and many returned to aid in the crisis. With Captain America in particular back acting as field leader, Black Widow found herself drawn to the 
background despite her status as chairwoman. The Onslaught crisis was a major example of this, as the psychic entity lay siege to Manhattan with an army of Sentinels and an electromagnetic pulse which sent the city into chaos. The Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and other volunteers worked on the problem from many angles, and Natasha felt under-qualified to contribute. She did her best to keep order on the streets, but the science and strategic planning behind confronting a mutant demi-god didn’t fit her skill set. [Onslaught crossover]
Tragically, this meant Natasha was not present during the final battle in Central Park. The heroes of New York sacrificed themselves to defeat Onslaught, with a roster of the dead including the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Crystal, Falcon, Hulk, Black Panther, Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom. Black Widow made every effort she could to hold the team together in the wake of this tragedy. She courted potential members like Iceman, Archangel, Beast, Moondragon, War Machine, She-Hulk, Ant-Man, even Daredevil, to no avail. What remained of the active roster was Quicksilver – who soon quit while dealing with the death of his sister and wife – and Hercules, whose alcoholism in grief made him too ineffective to continue. When the government decided to revoke the Avengers’ charter and 
special clearances now that the founding members were all gone, the Widow finally broke. Natasha bore the guilt of failing as Avengers chairwoman, allowing her friends to die and the team she was entrusted with to fall apart. Her recriminations led Natasha to believe she was never suited for the job in the first place, a spy and espionage agent who had been acting against her instincts. She made the decision to suspend Avengers operations indefinitely, officially shutting down the team, the mansion and the support staff, as she bitterly accepted the role of the last Avenger. [Avengers Annual ‘99]
In her grief, Ivan reached out to Natasha and offered to work together again. He had big plans for what they could accomplish together in the espionage world but hadn’t given up on pursuing her romantically. Ivan even grabbed Natalia for a passionate kiss, from which she quickly recoiled. There would be no more reunions between these two, who once had been as close as family. [Black Widow: Deadly Origin #4]