BIOGRAPHY - Page 22
Black Widow and the Winter Soldier continued their search for the third Zephyr sleeper agent, Leonid Novokov. While coordinating their efforts with Jasper Sitwell of S.H.I.E.L.D., they learned an earthquake had prematurely awakened him from stasis twelve years ago. Leo’s mind was damaged in the process, and he blamed Barnes for his condition. He announced himself by killing Fred Davis, the man who first replaced Barnes as Bucky back in 1945. A game of cat and mouse went on for months as Natasha and James tried to locate Leo and determine what he was planning.
A pattern started to form when Leo forcibly recruited Professor Rodchenko, a Red Room neuro-scientist living in hiding in the United States. Rodchenko oversaw the neural programming and 
brainwashing used on both Natalia and Bucky through Department X. Leo led Black Widow and Winter Soldier to a mobile home on the highway. The RV was out of control and loaded with explosives when he abandoned it, forcing the Widow and the Soldier to separate. Once she was alone, Novokov captured Natasha and brought her back to Rodchenko for renewed conditioning. He regressed Natasha to the early days of her time in the Red Room, setting her up as a loyal Cold Warrior to infiltrate a ballet and make an assault on the First Lady.
The Winter Soldier intercepted Natasha and seemingly broke her conditioning, bringing her back to their Spy Carrier for debriefing. When she spotted Nick Fury, however, a second layer of 
brainwashing kicked in. Now Natasha had her full memories but believed she had been a sleeper agent for Russia the entire time she defected to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. She killed Jasper Sitwell while trying to shoot Fury and made her escape back into Novokov’s care. Leo left a conditioning program drive for the Winter Soldier to find, demanding he upload it into himself or else Natasha would be killed. Novokov intended for the old Winter Soldier to execute Natasha’s former lover Daredevil, but Bucky’s friends Captain America, Hawkeye and Wolverine stopped him. After a few more games, Leo and Natasha were finally captured, but Novokov’s final jest became apparent. The Black Widow’s synaptic pathways were slowly restored to normal by S.H.I.E.L.D. psy-ops, but all she knew pertaining to James Buchanan Barnes, the Winter Soldier, had been permanently deleted from her memories. Natasha was herself again, but everything she and Bucky shared was now gone. [Winter Soldier (1st series) #6-14]
Working alone again, Black Widow caught wind through S.H.I.E.L.D. of an exotic tech and weapons trafficker named Kashmir Vennema. She found Captain America breaking up one of Kash’s deals, but he was surprisingly fighting with a version of Natasha herself. It seemed that Vennema Multiversal was a dimension-crossing enterprise run by endless doppelgangers of the 
same woman, selling the resources of one reality to another. Natasha Two had been hired to eliminate the many versions of Kash and had no qualms about doing so. Kash was selling versions of the Widow’s friends as slaves, and so Natasha had trouble arguing with her copy. Nat, Cap and Natasha Two were caught off-guard when Vennema Multiversal remotely dumped Kash’s product into another reality, taking the three of them with it. They were forced to work together to repair Natasha Two’s dimension-hopper and avoid Vennema’s elite hunters.
Eventually, they were located by Natasha Two’s client, a rogue Kashmir Vennema who tried to leave Multiversal only to have her family killed. This Kash wanted revenge and convinced Black Widow and Captain America to join her team in attacking the Multiversal headquarters. Cap only went along with the raid because Kash promised that destroying Multiversal’s business would be a sweeter revenge for her than killing the Vennemas. Black Widow didn’t trust Natasha Two and 
during the attack she broke off to follow her doppelganger. Sure enough, Nat Two located the inner council of Kashmirs and murdered them all in the name of expedience. The Vennemas were murderers and slave traders, and Natasha Two was certain Natasha secretly believed she was justified. Black Widow rejected Natasha Two and her ideology, bringing her in to face justice for her crimes. [Captain America & Black Widow #636-640]
On a mission tracking arms dealers in Latveria, Black Widow and Hawkeye came across members of the Zodiac hunting the Ultimate Nullifier, which was somehow on the black market. Reports came in indicating the Cosmic Cube and other major artifacts were in play. Captain America assembled a close-knit team of Avengers with Iron Man, Hulk and Thor joining Natasha and Clint until they dealt with the threat. The Zodiac gave way to their shadowy patron, Thanos, and Natasha was injured keeping the Nullifier out of his grasp. The Avengers joined forces with the Guardians of the Galaxy and prevented Thanos from making full use of the Cosmic Cube. Clint looked after Natasha on this mission, gently pressing her to get medical aid when she was trying to be strong among so many heavy hitters. He called her his best friend just as Natasha impulsively kissed Hawkeye, only to immediately reject the idea. Natasha’s thinking at the time has never been explored. [Avengers Assemble #1-8]
Following the Avengers’ war with the X-Men, Black Widow and the team who fought Thanos became the central wheel of an “Avengers World” Machine assembled by Captain America and Iron Man. With an overall roster of well over a dozen members, the Avengers had grown to face larger and more numerous threats to the planet. They began fighting an alien System known as the Garden, who launched Origin Bombs from Mars to remake the Earth. This would lead to conflict with A.I.M. over the impact sites, as well as interference from a rival System known as the White Event. The expanded roster allowed them to deploy many smaller field units and cover a greater field of deployment and parallel mission activity than in the past. [Avengers (5th series) #1-5]
As the seasoned professional on the team, the Black Widow left quite an impression on some of the younger and less experienced members recruited in the Avengers’ last membership drive. When word reached the Avengers that A.I.M. intended to traffic in a new weapon in Macau, Natasha joined Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, Shang-Chi, Cannonball and Sunspot in gathering intelligence. Black Widow was confident she could get the job done solo, but reluctantly ceded authority to Carol Danvers as squad leader. Natasha and Jessica Drew identified possible buyers 
meeting with A.I.M. and flirted with them for information about the deal. The Black Widow recognized the men from the Madripoor cartels, Symkarian separatists and Moldovan Black Faction, all responsible for more than a hundred dead civilians each. And so, she made a point of calmly shooting them dead once the necessary intelligence had been extracted for their mission. [Avengers (5th series) #11]
Independently of Tony and Steve’s Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. was also interested in founding their own Secret Avengers Initiative. Director Daisy Johnson and Acting Director Maria Hill put together a unit plan involving the Reverie tech for mission suppression and memory implants pioneered on the original Lucia von Bardas mission. Operatives would have no knowledge of their participation 
in the program during their down time, only being “activated” when the Initiative had need of their services. Natasha and Clint were courted together by Agent Phil Coulson, and Nat was shocked at first that S.H.I.E.L.D. ever thought she would submit to more memory implants given her history. However, once Coulson revealed the details of one of the Secret Avengers’ active case files, Hawkeye and Black Widow immediately agreed to serve on the Initiative. Unfortunately, that knowledge was classified, and the Reverie implant left them with only the memory of their commitment, not the reason behind it. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #1]
[Note: The mission which enticed Black Widow and Hawkeye into joining the Initiative was never revisited. However, Avengers World #9 revealed Maria Hill was in contact with the Next Avengers regarding A.I.M.’s communication with the future, including James Rogers and Francis Barton, the future sons of Natasha and Clint. That issue indicated the fate of their future children was what swayed Hawkeye and Black Widow’s decision.]
At some point in the past, Black Widow attempted to balance the karmic scales of her history as an assassin and disruptor. To wipe out the “red in her ledger,” she contacted people harmed by her actions and gave them “markers.” These markers were favors to be cashed in at the time of their choosing, calling upon Natasha’s unique set of skills. Hawkeye knew about the markers and refused to let Natasha respond to a call alone when one came in. His current girlfriend Jessica 
Drew, Spider-Woman, also refused to let Clint keep secrets with his ex and insisted on going with them. Black Widow once killed a chemist to keep his work from being weaponized and now his daughter was revisiting his formulas. Natasha protected the young woman from herself, but it wasn’t enough to buy absolution from the chemist’s widow. Afterwards, Jessica wondered if all of Natasha’s debts were this bad, and Natasha refrained from mentioning Hawkeye held one of her markers as well. [Avengers Assemble #12-13]
Making amends and preventing the sins of the past from repeating became a major motivator for Black Widow. Through her contacts, she learned of a Russian ghost city run by the Red Room which contained a DNA drive of past Russian heroes and operatives. Natasha wanted to destroy the drive to prevent the Russians from recreating her or others against their will. She was beaten to the drive by the mutant thief Fantomex but, as a graduate of the Weapon Plus Program, he sympathized with her aims and gave the drive over to her. [A+X #10] Despite his marker, Natasha 
couldn’t save Hawkeye from his own foolishness. When Clint cheated on Jessica with a woman who had ties to the mob, Natasha hunted her down to get some answers. It was easy enough, with her skills, but Natasha realized the damage was already done. Jessica dumped him, the woman Penny fled town and the tracksuit mafia would be on Clint’s case for some time to come. [Hawkeye (4th series) #8-9, 15]
Natasha’s guilty conscience led her to make a significant misread involving Spider-Man. When Doctor Octopus and the Sinister Six held the world hostage using satellites, circumstances put Black Widow, Silver Sable and Spider-Man on the frontlines together. Spider-Man was driven by a personal creed to ensure nobody died on his watch, but he failed to save Sable from dying in a fight with the Rhino before Doctor Octopus was defeated. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #682-687] Shortly thereafter, Octavius escaped his own dying body by permanently projecting his consciousness into Peter Parker’s mind, taking over as Spider-Man and claiming his spot in the Avengers. While his teammates noticed his change in behavior to become a harder, more violent crime-fighter, they ultimately came to the wrong conclusions. Black Widow even spoke to “Spider-Man” privately about Silver Sable’s death and the “red in his ledger” which she felt was now driving his change in attitude. Natasha’s guilt caused her to see what she expected in Spider-Man’s behavior, and Otto Octavius continued to possess Parker for weeks longer. [Superior Spider-Man (1st series) #6-8]