BIOGRAPHY - Page 26
As a reservist, Black Widow was called in to support the Avengers on a mission dealing with a space prison in the Shi’ar Empire. It turned out a human woman had escaped while pregnant with the new Starbrand heir, and many figures were trying to kill her and her child. The Avengers 
wanted to protect the woman from Gladiator and the Heralds of Galactus, and Natasha raided Tony’s closet at Avengers Mountain before departing. Using modified War Machine armor, the “War Widow” held her own against space-based assassins and bruisers. Suzanne Selby died giving birth, but the Avengers rescued her baby Starbrand and brought the girl back to Earth to be raised. [Avengers (7th series) #27-30]
Natasha remained active for various freelance missions and supporting her allies. The remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. hired her to retrieve the Wand of Watoomb from the crime boss, Silvermane. [Black Widow: Widow’s Sting #1] She got involved with a loose collection of heroes associated with Doctor Strange and Conan the Barbarian when the sorcerer of the Hyborean Age known as Kulan Gath began poisoning the drug trade with the essence of Shuma-Gorath. Natasha firmly rebuked the advances of the displaced barbarian. [Savage Avengers (1st series) #12-16] Finally, she relentlessly hunted down the Taskmaster when the mercenary was framed for the murder of Maria Hill. The Black Widow’s reputation was terrifying for Taskmaster, who didn’t think even his collection of mimicked skills could save him from the Widow. This allowed the still-living Maria Hill to covertly manipulate Taskmaster into doing a job in order to clear his name. [Taskmaster (3rd series) #1-5]
Someone as infamous as the Black Widow could not remain “dead” forever, and eventually several of her past enemies came together to remove her from the board. Perhaps fearing reprisal from the super-hero community if they killed her (or simply thinking it couldn’t be done), they instead chose a different tactic. Viper, Red Guardian, Snapdragon and a reborn Weeping Lion contracted with Arcade to instead give Natasha everything she ever wanted. They kidnapped Black Widow and subjected her to deep-level mental programming, reinforced by a cerebral implant and creating a false identity for her as the architect Natalie Grey. An unknown man was also taken and subjected to parallel programming as her fiancé, James, and genetic material was 
taken from Natasha and James to artificially conceive a child. Rapidly aged to over a year old, Stevie Grey was Natasha’s biological son, perhaps the only child she could ever have thanks to the Red Room’s tampering. With some false memories of having lived in France for a time, Natalie and James’s life together truly began when they moved to San Francisco and began planning for their wedding.
Missing for nearly four months of real time, “Natalie” was spotted by Clint Barton when she walked in frame of an outdoor news report. Hawkeye and the Winter Soldier teamed up to travel to California and determine what had happened to Nat. Yelena Belova also learned Natasha’s whereabouts and infiltrated her home as Stevie’s babysitter “Helen” to find out if “Natalie Grey” was something Natasha should be saved from or not. The programming was not complete, and Natalie occasionally demonstrated acrobatics, fighting skills and technical know-how beyond what she was consciously familiar with. Helen found Natalie trying on wedding dresses once, and Natalie admitted that sometimes there’s a voice in the back of her mind. Screaming.
Viper’s cabal was formed to leave Black Widow in blissful retirement forever rather than risk attacking her directly, but the Weeping Lion’s grudge would not allow Natasha to continue living happily. They staged a home invasion and assault on Natalie’s family, which had the inevitable and forseeable 
result of triggering some of Natasha’s real memories and bringing her true personality to the surface. The conspirators remotely fried the implant in her head, which also failed to kill her and instead awakened everything that had been suppressed. Hawkeye, Winter Soldier and Yelena the White Widow reconnected with Black Widow to help her protect her family when the cascade of old memories entered her mind.
Natasha Romanov immediately understood that James and Stevie would be under constant threat so long as they remained close to her. She still loved them both, and knew she needed to sacrifice her happiness for their safety. When the Weeping Lion’s people came for them, the Widow and Winter Soldier used sleight-of-hand and acting to make it appear as if James and Stevie died in 
an explosion. She punished Viper, Snapdragon and the Lion for their role in her pain, though she did believe Alexi when he claimed to regret his past actions and his intentions this time were to protect her from the inside. Once they finished putting on a show of vengeance, Natasha retreated to privately mourn her losses. Bucky arrived only to tell her that her son and fiancé were safe, somewhere far away. [Black Widow (8th series) #1-5]
Instead of being alone, Natasha chose to recover from her loss with Yelena by her side. They set up a den known as “The Web” in San Francisco and began to consider their next move together. Natasha was amused by a young pickpocket who tried to steal her wallet and felt concern that the girl was being pressed into crime by some authority. Yelena immediately touched on the idea of recruitment, but Natalia firmly was against building their own Red Room. After tracking down the 
thief, Lucy Nguyen, Black Widow found a building filled with super-powered thugs defending a boss known as Apogee. With Apogee’s network larger than she anticipated, Black Widow decided to find help and recruited Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon) to infiltrate Apogee’s young followers culled from the streets known as the Olio. Despite her efforts to avoid attachments, the Black Widow’s Web was growing.
As Lucy recovered at the Web, they learned she now had electricity-based powers, and Apogee was somehow sharing the gift of powers with his Olio using injections. Anya alerted the Widows to a meeting of the Olio and they took a hostage, but discovered the artificial powers were unstable when their prisoner dissolved into goo. In order to prevent the same fate from befalling Lucy, the Widows tracked down Apogee to Hux Advisors LLC and retrieved a scientist named Craig who had helped with Apogee’s power serum. Once he learned people were dying from it, Craig agreed 
to work on an antidote. Black Widow, White Widow and Spider-Girl found Apogee preparing to delve out the serum to his entire Olio and they moved to stop him. Craig and Lucy arrived with an aerosol-based antidote for the Olio, but Apogee empowered himself and tried to flee. Natasha fought with Apogee but realized even he had someone higher up the food chain whom he feared. Before she could find out more, he escaped. [Black Widow (8th series) #6-10]
As Yelena trained Lucy and Anya at the Web, Natasha gave in to temptation and hired a man to find James and Stevie for her. This forced a visit from Barnes, who had to move the Greys when their new life was disrupted. Natasha apologized to Bucky and asked for his help with their investigation. The Widows met with Liv and Lars, mass-sharing twins known as the Hub, who pointed them towards the Golden Gate Gala and its Host as the presence overseeing Apogee. The Web entered the Gala and learned it was a cover for the sale of powered individuals as slaves on behalf of the Host. The infiltration went sour when several of Natasha’s allies were captured and she had to face the infamous mercenary known as the Living Blade.
The Living Blade was legendary for his prowess with a sword and was providing security for the Host in exchange for one of the powered slaves. Natasha had lived in quiet fear of the Living 
Blade ever since an inconclusive fight in Madripoor years earlier. Black Widow freed her allies and sparred with the Living Blade to give them time to empty the building. She fell behind in the fight, however, and the Blade cleanly severed her arm with his sword. Hawkeye arrived in time to provide a distraction, and miraculously one of the slaves had regenerative powers that allowed them to reattach Natasha’s arm and heal it.
While freeing the other slaves, Black Widow discovered Apogee among the prisoners. It turned out the Host was forcing him to use his power-granting blood to feed her auction. When he could no longer be trusted to operate on his own recruiting for the Olio, the Host abducted Apogee to 
literally bleed him dry. Choosing the lesser of two evils, the Widow freed Apogee with a promise never to abuse his power again. Having recuperated, Natasha found the Living Blade sparring with Yelena, and faced down her feared opponent. This time, she won sword-to-sword against the Blade and overcame her doubts. She claimed the Living Blade’s life was hers to take, and allowed him to leave with it, unmolested. [Black Widow (8th series) #11-15]