BIOGRAPHY - Page 15
When Matthew called her only to hang up before speaking, Natasha was amused enough by the possibilities to visit his apartment and find out why. Karen had left Matt a few months earlier, and he had been momentarily overcome with nostalgia while thinking about Natasha. In the few hours in-between, however, Matt Murdock’s life began to turn upside-down. A fifteen-year-old girl claimed to have given virgin birth to the Second Coming, and an angel told her Matt was Daredevil and he would protect the baby. Meanwhile, a man named Nicholas Macabes came to him and claimed the child was the Anti-Christ who would bring ruin to all around her if she wasn’t 
killed. Indeed, those around Matt began to suffer, as Foggy was accused of murder and Karen returned, having discovered she was HIV-positive. In fact, Macabes was the super-villain illusionist Mysterio in disguise and he dosed Daredevil with a toxin making him highly suggestible and open to hallucination. Daredevil was conditioned by the toxin with an irrational paranoia of the baby and anyone who tried to defend her.
Mercifully, Matt had given the baby to Natasha for safe keeping before Macabes' visit, and she was unwilling to return the child to Daredevil as his mental state deteriorated. He tried to throw the baby off a building in their first encounter and later succeeded in pulling her away from the Black Widow, breaking Natasha’s foot in the process. While the Widow recuperated, Daredevil’s tragedy 
escalated as Bullseye retrieved the baby for Mysterio and killed Karen Page in front of Matthew. Daredevil overcame the toxin, saved the baby and Mysterio committed suicide as his plot came undone. When it was all over, a contrite Matthew came to apologize to Natasha. She accepted that he attacked her under the influence of a drug, but his rage came from somewhere and she would remember that for some time afterwards. For now, they would remain cautious friends. [Daredevil (2nd series) #1-8]
One day, Natasha was wool-gathering at her apartment when she was contacted by the American and Russian governments. A scientist named Didier Ines had developed a bio-weapons serum which made men superhumanly aggressive and powerful for a short time before killing them. Rhapastan extremists had acquired the serum and both governments wanted it taken out of play. Black Widow made her way to the Middle East, but discovered she was being shadowed by a second operative. At a Rhapastani base she finally confronted her shadow and met Yelena Belova, a new Black Widow trained by a revitalized Red Room. Cocky and headstrong, Yelena laid claim to the name Black Widow after being the first in decades to pass Natasha’s old marks.
Natasha was not interested in defending her title or sharing her mission, but Yelena doubted the loyalty of a woman serving two countries and was intent on claiming the bio-toxin for herself. 
Natasha alerted the soldiers at the base as a distraction. She then sent up a helicopter on auto-pilot as another diversion while escaping with a sample of the toxin in a jeep, but Yelena remained hot on her heels. Natasha dodged her shadow temporarily and tracked down Doctor Ines. She witnessed the “Deathless Frenzy” toxin in action on lab rats. Black Widow’s mission parameters (from BOTH countries) were to eliminate the serum and its creator, but she independently chose to keep Ines alive long enough to force him into developing an antidote.
With Ines at work, Black Widow called General Yuri Stalyenko in Moscow, correctly deducing he was behind Yelena. Natasha had no patience for amateurs and tried to get Yuri to call her off. Once she learned Yelena was pursuing her own initiative, Natasha confronted her shadow again and tried to convince Yelena of the futility of trying to be like her. By calling in some favors, Natasha faked her own assassination by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, ostensibly because she was off-mission regarding the toxin. With Yelena trying to finish the mission by stalking Colonel Khan of the Rhapastani militia, Natasha was free to act independently. Yelena was captured but Natasha 
managed to sneak into the base disguised as a nurse to treat soldiers injured in Yelena’s first strike. Instead, she administered a vaccine concocted by Doctor Ines to prevent the Rhapastani from deploying the Deathless Frenzy through their own troops. Only Khan was afflicted with the Frenzy and converging American and Russian troops soon rounded up the rest. Yelena escaped using some of Natasha’ own tricks, and the Black Widow knew she would see her shadow again before long. [Black Widow (1st series) #1-3]
Natasha wanted to educate Yelena on the true nature of espionage and spycraft, and a mission with S.H.I.E.L.D. gave her the opportunity. Reports indicated that General Stalyenko was working his own angle with the Rhapastani government. Nick Fury let Natasha call the shots for Operation: Validate, set up to deal with Stalyenko. Natasha had Yelena kidnapped by S.H.I.E.L.D., after which both women were subjected to a procedure which altered their appearances to look like one 
another. Yelena awoke in Natasha Romanova’s apartment looking like her rival, with a reluctant Daredevil helping to sell the idea she really WAS Natasha. At first, Yelena thought she must be on a mission posing as Natasha, but as her new identity was slowly reinforced, she began to lose herself. Yelena was given a new mission through a dead drop to kill “Yelena Belova” at the Museum of National History. “Natasha” shot and seemingly killed “Yelena,” leaving Yelena on the run from the authorities and hopelessly confused about who she really was.
Meanwhile, Natasha – as “Yelena Belova” – made contact with General Stalyenko. She claimed she set Natasha Romanova up for her murder in order to get S.H.I.E.L.D. and Romanova distracted from whatever Stalyenko was doing. In exchange, she wanted a piece of the action. Stalyenko revealed five nukes were hidden in the Hudson River Valley since the Cold War, and he intended to sell them to the Rhapastanis. He gave “Yelena” the location but became suspicious and ordered “Yelena” killed after she departed. Natasha defeated his assassin and narrowly beat Stalyenko to the site where the nukes were hidden. Meanwhile, Daredevil had recovered the real Yelena and brought her within earshot. Natasha got Stalyenko to admit Yelena was a naïve pawn he would have used, manipulated and then killed when convenient.
S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Widows brought down Stalyenko and his men, but Yelena was still furious with Natasha for the cruelty and manipulation she had just suffered. Natasha had wanted Yelena 
to understand the cold realities of espionage. She was not a glorious hero, an honored servant of the state; she was a tool, to be used and discarded when no longer useful. Such was the true nature of spycraft. Yelena had the opportunity to kill Natasha and chose not to, instead returning to S.H.I.E.L.D. to reverse the process that changed their faces. Natasha could only hope that Yelena would take the lesson to heart and remember that espionage was not a game. [Black Widow (2nd series) #1-3]
Iron Man called Black Widow to Avengers Mansion when old business began to rise. Natasha 
decrypted the coin given to her by Benedict months earlier and discovered it contained data on all the Maggia crime families except the one run by Madame Masque. She turned the information over to S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time, but now the Avengers faced a growing conflict among those families. It turned out Whitney Frost, Madame Masque, had gone into seclusion years ago and was using bio-duplicates as her surrogates out in the world. The Avengers’ associate Masque was a rogue, independent bio-duplicate whom Benedict recovered for the true Madame Masque. Now Whitney was in conflict with her father, Count Nefaria, for control of the Maggia branches.
In the time since Black Widow last spoke to them, the Thunderbolts were revealed as the Masters of Evil to the world and many DID turn on Zemo to continue seeking redemption. Hawkeye even left the Avengers to lead the Thunderbolts and provide them guidance on their new path. Count Nefaria kidnapped and brainwashed other ionic-powered beings like the Avengers’ Wonder Man and the Thunderbolts’ Atlas, so Black Widow sought out Hawkeye’s team and convinced them to join forces with the Avengers. Natasha was supportive of the Thunderbolts’ efforts to change their spots, and Hawkeye’s decision to help. She was astute enough to see through many of the lies still clinging to the T-Bolts, though, like how M.A.C.H.-2 was still the original M.A.C.H.-1 (despite his new face), or that the team’s technologist the Ogre was the group’s original genius Techno in another disguise. However, while she correctly deduced Hawkeye had also found love on the team, it took her five guesses before she reluctantly confirmed with Hawk that he was now seeing Moonstone. Natasha did not hold back on her assessment of that harridan, but it was Clint’s life. [Nefaria Protocols crossover]
