BIOGRAPHY - Page 16
At a vulnerable point, Natasha went to a church in Little Odessa to try confession and see if she could feel the same release Matthew did from his Catholicism. As it happened, a few thugs attempted to rob the church and Black Widow fended them off with the aid of an arriving Daredevil 
and the young metahuman, Dagger. Matthew wanted Natasha’s assistance looking into brutal attacks on the Russian mob. Dagger was searching for her missing partner, Cloak, and so Daredevil and Black Widow offered to help her search if she helped them as well. They discovered a clan of Asgardian Rock Trolls led by Ulik with a grudge against the mafia. With further help from Shang-Chi and the Punisher, they resolved the dispute and ended the Trolls’ attacks. [Marvel Knights (1st series) #1-3]
Shang-Chi was a welcome ally, but Daredevil had a vendetta against the Punisher for his vicious killing of criminals. He wanted their quartet to remain together and bring Castle to justice. Natasha was between assignments at S.H.I.E.L.D. for the moment and interested in company, so she agreed. While her contacts ran down leads of Cloak, she offered to let Dagger stay with her at her spacious penthouse as well. Nick Fury showed up unannounced to express his concerns, but Natasha reminded him she didn’t work for S.H.I.E.L.D. at the moment. Moon Knight also got word 
of Daredevil’s new group, and offered to fund the team with a headquarters, vehicles and equipment. The team was getting out of Daredevil’s control, as he didn’t want things to become too official and often struggled focusing his senses in a crowd like this. Still, Black Widow encouraged him to remain open-minded. Daredevil agreed to Moon Knight’s proposition for the remainder of their hunt for the Punisher, and they could reconsider permanent team status then. [Marvel Knights (1st series) #4-6]
Paths converged when Black Widow brought Dagger to Doctor Strange for his assistance locating Cloak. Tyrone’s Dark Dimension was under the influence of Nightmare and he began attacking all manner of criminals and sinners, swallowing them into his cloak. The Punisher was among the sinners Cloak consumed, and soon Black Widow, Daredevil and Moon Knight followed. In a reality forged from dreams and darkness, there was nothing tangible for Matt’s radar sense to grasp. Daredevil was truly blind in this dimension, and Black Widow acted as his eyes during their conflict with Nightmare and Cloak’s victims. With Dagger feeding her living light into Cloak from outside, the team escaped back into the physical plane and prevented Nightmare’s intended invasion. Daredevil captured the Punisher for the police and Tyrone was seemingly purged of his powers as Cloak. [Marvel Knights (1st series) #7-9]
Natasha allowed both Tandy and Tyrone to continued staying at her penthouse, as Tyrone adjusted to being powerless for the first time in years. Natasha and Tandy become closer during a shopping spree until someone made the remarkably foolish decision of stealing the Black Widow’s 
personalized S.H.I.E.L.D. convertible. Natasha took Dagger on a tour of the seedier parts of Manhattan as she used her transmitter and people skills to track down Moe Tampa and his chop shop. After dancing with the criminal a bit, Natasha was close enough to remotely activate her car’s flight mode when Moe tried to drive away with it. All in all, it was a diverting and productive day for the two women. [Marvel Knights (1st series) #10]
Black Widow struggled to keep Daredevil committed to their new team, now that Punisher had been caught. A loner like Matthew was used to making his own decisions. He wanted to be consulted on all group matters, yet also refused the role of team leader, thinking it made their alliance too official. Natasha kept the group focused on hunting down a Serbian war criminal who 
encountered their newest member, Luke Cage. Their hunt for Viktor Smerdilovisc led them to a major gang land meeting where they were outnumbered and outgunned. The bust got out of control as most of the team was temporarily felled by a bazooka blast. Dagger stood alone and defeated the remaining gang members and mafia, hinting that she had absorbed the darkness of Cloak instead of banishing it. [Marvel Knights (1st series) #11-12]
Black Widow and Dagger separated from the team for the night so Natasha could look after Tandy. Their rest was put off due to an LMD of Nick Fury who had attacked Tyrone at the penthouse. Dagger’s soul-based “living light” was useless against the LMD, but Tyrone blew up the microwave to send out interference for the robot, letting Natasha defeat it. Black Widow’s suspicions led her to bring Dagger to S.H.I.E.L.D. and address Nick Fury and Director Sharon Carter personally. On the Helicarrier’s bridge, Black Widow explained the attack to Fury and Carter, and her concerns that other rogue LMDs might be active as well. Natasha believed Dagger 
would be uniquely helpful in rooting out a potential conspiracy since her powers enabled her to detect the difference between living people and LMDs. As a demonstration, the Widow asked Dagger to see if anyone on the bridge was currently an LMD. Dagger, who had been trying to get Natasha’s attention up until then, finally spoke up and revealed that EVERYONE on the bridge was an LMD. In fact, Natasha and Tandy were the only souls on the entire ship. [Marvel Knights (1st series) #13-14]
Going on the run, Black Widow and Dagger fought to stay ahead of an entire Helicarrier full of killer robots. Natasha reasoned out that the LMDs were being centrally controlled and located the ship’s mainframe. There she found an artificial intelligence known as CELINE, the Computer Elimination Location Intelligence Negation Engine. Celine had been programmed to identify and eliminate security risks in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s network, but her programming led her to the conclusion that Black Widow’s loyalty could not be relied upon indefinitely. Celine re-tasked LMDs for the mission of eliminating Black Widow as a security risk. The LMDs were unable to attack the vigilantes in the mainframe room without risking Celine’s harddrives, but the A.I. re-routed poisonous exhaust through the vents to asphyxiate them. Ironically, Natasha was able to delete Celine’s program because she had access to Ultra-Ultra Clearance codes from her time as a Russian spy, thereby proving she was the security risk Celine was afraid of.
While they were relaxing back at the penthouse, Black Widow met with Daredevil. It seemed the team had fallen apart in the few hours since they last saw each other. Spector Tower fell in an 
attack by Shang-Chi’s father, Fu Manchu. Shang left to seek out his father, Moon Knight was too injured to continue on and Cage left once Spector would no longer be able to pay him. Matthew was determined now to go it alone, pursuing the recently escaped Punisher without others getting in the way. Natasha seemed resigned to the idea the team couldn’t last, but she was still hurt by Daredevil’s implications that he was better off alone. Daredevil, it seemed, didn’t notice. [Marvel Knights (1st series) #15]
[Note: Daredevil’s team never received a name in the series. Certain Handbooks, S.H.I.E.L.D. files, and other sources have referred to them as the (Marvel) Knights after the fact.]
The Avengers reorganized into a larger active network of heroes, using dedicated monitor squads and field operations to dispatch operatives for preemptive investigations and identifying threats before they reached a crisis point. Black Widow contributed to this new dynamic by helping the team hunt for recent foes like the Exemplars. [Avengers (3rd series) #41] When Kang began his campaign to conquer modern Earth, Natasha also made herself available for field duty, working under Carol Danvers when an Avengers unit formed to prevent a Deviant uprising in China. [Avengers (3rd series) #43-44]
In Little Odessa, Natasha played chess with her former-KGB Russian contact in S.H.I.E.L.D., Porfiry Petrovich, who made the introductions for Sergeant Helen Kim of North Korea. Kim informed Black Widow, Daredevil and Punisher that the international criminal syndicate led by Marco and Polo Grace was coming to New York. The Brothers Grace were amoral and sadistic in their efforts to seize territory in Manhattan, but they were protected by international agreements in the intelligence community, forcing S.H.I.E.L.D. to work through intermediaries like the vigilantes to bring them down. Helen Kim was a necessary asset to the mission, with a personal stake in bringing down the Graces, but she wasn’t up to Black Widow’s standards for field operations. Natasha and Castle did what they could to accelerate Kim’s training. The unit got the Grace’s offshore cruise ship / bank seized by the authorities, and slowly made a major dent in their activities. As the Graces tried to escape on their headquarters, a shadow subway train, Black Widow personally captured Polo Grace.
With the Order of Grace dismantled, Black Widow received a commendation for good work from Nick Fury. Natasha was still indignant that S.H.I.E.L.D. was so hands-off for this operation, especially after hearing Fury himself had worked with the Graces decades prior. Nick told her the Brothers Grace were assets that had a certain value, at a certain time and place. He reminded her of her own decision to make use of the Punisher in this op. Indeed, Black Widow left Castle with a 
way to communicate with her in the future, in case they ever needed assistance from one another. [Marvel Knights (2nd series) #1-6] Black Widow made use of the communicator when a former general named Jackson turned to freelance crime and robbed a bank in broad daylight. Natasha and Daredevil tried to bring him in, but Jackson wanted to die on his feet. The Punisher was Natasha’s last resource to make sure Jackson didn’t escape. [Marvel Knights: Double Shot #4]