BIOGRAPHY - Page 21
Not long thereafter, Natasha was implicated in another set of crimes. A series of prominent figures were spotted with a woman who looked very much like Natasha shortly before their deaths. A rising political candidate committed suicide after the alleged affair was exposed and destroyed his “family values” image. His son, Nick Crane, was a journalist who received a tip from an anonymous source connecting his father’s death with the others. Black Widow believed she was being framed using a body double and tried to discover who Nick’s informant was. Her double, the operative known as Fatale, also went after Nick, leaving him trapped between the two women and 
not knowing whom to believe. Black Widow and Fatale exchanged notes, and Fatale revealed she had only been hired to seduce the men for intelligence, while their deaths were a shock to her as well. The trio discovered the plot was the work of a mysterious figure called Sadko, who had new versions of Russian heroes Fantasma and Crimson Dynamo under his command. Black Widow was unable to learn anything more about Sadko or his plans at this time. [Black Widow (4th series) #6-8]
Natasha learned that Tatiana, the “Tiny Dancer,” had gone missing from the adoptive family with whom Rogers had placed her. Black Widow and Sharon Carter went looking for Tatiana to bring her home. They uncovered the plans of Lady Alicia Wells and her inventory of mentally conditioned and highly trained teenage assassins. Wells wanted Tatiana back under her thumb, and reinforced her brainwashing to lead Natasha and Sharon into a trap. Tatiana broke the broker’s hold over her, however, justifying Natasha’s faith in her character. They defeated Wells and her L.A.S.S.E.S., and Tatiana willingly returned to her simple life as an American teenager. [Captain America and the Secret Avengers #1]
Black Widow received an intelligence report showing spies being killed around the world, and her name was on the list of operatives being targeted. Natalia sought out an active Red Room facility to find the entire class of future Widows murdered. She ran across Hawkeye and Mockingbird, whose World Counterintelligence Agency also received an anonymous tip about the kill list. While chasing leads, they connected the plot to “Sadko” who previously toyed with Natasha, now operating as the new Ronin spymaster of the revived Dark Ocean Society in Japan. Working with Dominic Fortune (who killed the original Ronin back during World War II), the three Avengers tracked the threat to the Kuril Islands, volcanic contested territory between Russia and Japan, and currently the subject of peace talks.
Natasha discovered the new Ronin was Alexi Shastakov, her ex-husband and the former Red Guardian. Alexi decried the new Russia formed after the fall of the Soviet Union, and he wanted to build an empire closer to his memory of the republic. Using the Dark Ocean Society and technology from the Supreme Soviets, Ronin assembled an army to help him assassinate key 
figures in the world’s intelligence agencies while the peace talks worked as a distraction for his goals. As a former, unauthorized Ronin, Hawkeye needed to be killed before Dark Ocean would follow Alexi, but he involved Natasha in his plot just to rub her nose in it. As expected, the fighting came down to Black Widow versus Ronin. Natasha survived by convincing Alexi’s new Fantasma protégé that his dream was hollow and not worth following. [Widowmaker #1-4]
Unfortunately, Black Widow was unable to save another young protégé. Nomad reported to Steve Rogers some ominous dreams she was having about a research site in Colombia. Her Young Allies and the Secret Avengers all ended up investigating the RoXXon site. Colombia held a gateway for the malevolent entity Onslaught to return to reality, after Rikki defeated him before coming to this Earth. In fact, this version of Rikki was actually an unwitting tether, permanently linked to Onslaught and allowing him to grasp our world. Once she was close to the rift, Onslaught possessed Rikki and began to manifest physically. Natasha reluctantly argued that Rikki may need to be sacrificed to prevent the entity who once killed the Avengers and Fantastic Four from returning. Steve balked at the idea, as did Spider-Girl and the Young Allies who were Nomad’s friends. When Onslaught was temporarily shut down, Rikki made the choice to sacrifice herself, and both hero and villain were lost. [Onslaught Unleashed #1-4]
James’ life as Captain America became more difficult when Baron Zemo learned his identity. Zemo believed Barnes hadn’t earned his redemption and revealed to the public that the new Captain America was both the original’s late partner Bucky and the infamous international assassin known as the Winter Soldier. Natalia did what she could to keep James from acting rashly when provoked by Zemo’s manipulations. The damage was done, however, and he submitted himself to the courts to stand trial for his crimes against the United States. Black Widow and Falcon retrieved the Red Skull’s former co-conspirator Doctor Faustus to testify to the extent of Barnes’ mind control as the Winter Soldier. James was ultimately convicted by the judge but sentenced to time served as his penance. [Captain America (1st series) #606-615]
Unfortunately, the Winter Soldier had not been active in America alone. The Russian government filed paperwork to extradite Barnes to face punishment, and the hero-hating Henry Peter Gyrich pushed through the paperwork with the Justice Department. Black Widow and Sharon Carter traveled to Russia to investigate the charges, but they discovered the details were falsified. Agents in the government loyal to General Rostov, the Red Barbarian, used political pressure to 
get their hands on the Winter Soldier, who had buried memories of Project: Zephyr. Enhanced sleeper agents were trained by the Winter Soldier to infiltrate America decades ago, and Rostov wanted the activation codes which only existed in Barnes’ mind. Natalia helped James escape from the gulag holding him in order to pursue Rostov and stop Zephyr from being implemented. By doing so, however, Barnes forfeited his deal with the United States and would be considered a fugitive in both countries. [Captain America (1st series) #616-619]
Before Natalia and James could begin their search, however, the world exploded into the Serpent War. The Red Skull’s daughter Sin had been empowered by the Asgardian God of Fear, the Serpent, receiving Thor-like power. She led Hitler’s reclusive Thule Society and an army of Nazi war machines for “Blitzkrieg USA,” an unprecedented invasion of the nation’s capitol. With Black 
Widow and Falcon by his side, Barnes suited up as Captain America one last time to fight the Red Skull’s daughter. But with the power of Skadi, one of the hammer-wielders of the Worthy, Sin was simply too much for him. As Natasha watched on, Sin ripped off Bucky’s cybernetic arm and plunged her hammer through his chest, a lethal blow. The death of Bucky Barnes forced Steve Rogers to step back into the role of Captain America. [Fear Itself #3-4]
James’ death was not all it seemed, however. Nick Fury stepped in and evac’ed Barnes to a secret medical facility where he survived long enough to receive a sample of the Infinity Formula which gave Fury his longevity. Natasha and Nick didn’t know if Bucky would ultimately survive, and so they hid his comatose form and presented an inert LMD to Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. If James lived, Natalia thought it best if the world still believed him dead so he could operate in the 
shadows once more. [Fear Itself: Captain America #7.1] Natasha was forced to play the “grieving Widow” among her friends and with the public until the Serpent War ended. Steve initially assigned her to other duties away from the front lines until he was sure her heart was in the game. [Secret Avengers (1st series) #15, Fear Itself: Black Widow #1] Black Widow was called upon for the endgame when Tony Stark returned from the forges of Nidavellir with enchanted Asgardians weapons for particular Avengers. Black Widow of the Mighty used her dual swords in battle with the Serpent’s Worthy, and the day was won. [Fear Itself #7] Bucky eventually came out of his coma, but he refused to let Steve believe he was dead for a minute longer. Natasha, Nick and Bucky confided in Cap about the deception, and he agreed that the Winter Soldier should remain legally dead. [Fear Itself: Captain America #7.1]
The Secret Avengers continued to uncover the Shadow Council’s activities around the world. On a mission to Norway, the Council opened a doomsday portal to another dimension. Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter and War Machine were down and seemingly dead when War Machine gave Black Widow an “escape hatch” device that had been fitted into his armor. It triggered a temporal jump, sending Natasha to six years ago at a safehouse she had blown up three years back. The escape hatch device came with a limited voice interface and several preloaded temporal coordinates. While trying to work out how to save her friends and the world, Natasha used one of the preloads to jump back one month and talk to Hank McCoy about time travel. He explained how it was necessary to preserve the timeflow instead of altering existing events. However, it could be possible to make untraceable changes while adhering to the existent flow of events. Intrigued, the Black Widow began to plan.
Over the course of several months of relative time, Natasha spent decades orchestrating the timeline to her advantage. She recruited Count Oscar Khronus forty-four years ago to begin construction of the escape hatch, using money from her safehouse. According to history, Count Khronus disappeared forty years ago and, true enough, he died shortly after completing her project after decades of work. Once it was finished, she traveled back six months and blackmailed a general to attach the device to War Machine’s armor when he liaised with the American military. She consulted with Doctor Druid hours before his death to gather intelligence about the doomsday portal and how to stop it. She stole one of the exotic firearms used by the Shadow Council to kill 
her friends and brought it back in time to a weaponeer named Harry Grindell “Death Ray” Evans for examination. Death Ray crafted a device that would remotely turn all the firearms in range to a hidden “stun mode,” and an overload feature to destroy the portal. However, he also betrayed Natasha and sold the schematics to the Shadow Council (ontologically giving them the weapon in the first place), and so she killed Harry by luring him to the safehouse at the moment it was blown up.
Back in the present at last, Black Widow temporal jumped in just before her team "died". She 
triggered Death Ray’s device to ensure the Secret Avengers were only struck with stun rays. Then, as her past self disappeared with the escape hatch device, she overloaded the remaining weapons, obliterated the doomsday portal, and destroyed her own escape hatch, thus completing the temporal loop she began eighteen weeks prior and moments ago. [Secret Avengers (1st series) #20]
Black Widow and Winter Soldier determined General Rostov had successfully sold off the activation codes for Project: Zephyr on the black market. The three stasis tubes holding the enhanced sleeper agents Arkady, Leo and Dimitri were found empty, meaning the operatives were already in play. Ex-Soviet scientist Red Ghost had worked on Zephyr, and now he coordinated the sleepers for former Latverian Prime Minister Lucia von Bardas, who desired revenge on Doctor Doom. They orchestrated a failed assassination attempt on Doom at the Latverian embassy, then planned to frame Doom himself for a retaliation strike on the United Nations using a black market Doombot. Natalia and James made a devil’s bargain with Doom to work together and stop the 
assault. Arkady was killed and the Doombot stopped, but they learned Lucia was really after the Latverian nuclear launch codes extracted from the Doombot. Black Widow, Winter Soldier and Doctor Doom prevented the launch, killed Dimitri and even tracked down and sanctioned Rostov for his role in all this. However, a dangerous loose end remained as they learned the third Zephyr sleeper agent, Leonid, was not activated by Lucia and Red Ghost, but had apparently gone missing from stasis years ago, without a trace. [Winter Soldier (1st series) #1-5]
The Secret Avengers experienced growing pains when Steve Rogers left the team to get back in action as Captain America, overseeing the main Avengers roster. He appointed Hawkeye as his replacement leader for the covert team, but he also dictated Hawk’s roster by adding members like Captain Britain, Human Torch and Agent Venom. Clint felt chaperoned by Steve with his authority being undermined and began making mistakes in an effort to prove himself. Black Widow supported Hawkeye as best she could, but she also wouldn’t let his ego put them in jeopardy. The Avengers infiltrated an underground city known as the Core, populated by artificial life such as Adaptoids, Doombots, Machine Men, Ultravisions, Deathloks and other Homo synthezoidus collectively called the Descendants. Ant-Man was reported dead by the Descendants while trying to rescue a child, only to miraculously return to the team. The Human Torch was critically damaged on the way out and the team only survived thanks to Venom disobeying Hawkeye’s orders. It was an inauspicious beginning for the new unit. [Secret Avengers (1st series) #22-25]
The Shadow Council’s efforts to raise the spirit of the Abyss concluded in the rogue nation of Bagalia. Max Fury assembled a massive Masters of Evil roster to cover for his efforts to combine the three crowns necessary to give the Abyss a physical host. All of Bagalia and the Secret Avengers’ field team were possessed by the void menace. Black Widow was held in reserve, but she too fell to the Abyss when she entered the field. Only Agent Venom and Ant-Man were unaffected and they succeeded in purging the Abyss. Venom was protected by his chemically-neutered symbiote, but Ant-Man’s claims that his cybernetic helmet must have shielded him were discounted by Hank Pym himself. Natasha made the chilling deduction that Eric O’Grady died in the Core, and the Ant-Man on their team was a Life Model Decoy like Max, with no soul for the Abyss to touch. When Hawkeye refused to listen to her theory after “Eric” saved the day, Natasha quit the team. [Secret Avengers (1st series) #29-32] She returned as O’Grady betrayed them to 
the Descendants and became Black Ant. Natasha helped evacuate the Lighthouse after Eric sabotaged it and the robot revolution was stopped, but at great personal cost to Human Torch and the rest of the team, which quietly disbanded after their efforts. [Secret Avengers (1st series) #34-37]