BIOGRAPHY - Page 5
Black Widow was fully active as a crime-fighter and adventurer at this point. She was briefly recruited into the Lady Liberators by the Enchantress, who appeared in the guise of the Valkyrie. [Avengers (1st series) #83] However, Natasha started to worry that the curse of the Black Widow was destined to harm those close to her. These fears developed after Ivan saved a teenager from 
committing suicide and brought him back to Natasha’s penthouse. She learned from the boy that a man called the Astrologer was gathering a gang of homeless teens to help him commit crimes. The Astrologer’s gang tracked their failed recruit to Natasha and attacked her penthouse. During the fight, the boy tackled a member of the gang who rushed Black Widow from behind. Both the boy and her assailant went off the roof and fell to the streets below. Natasha never even learned the name of the teen she had been trying to help. [Amazing Adventures (2nd series) #5]
Black Widow was determined to see things through after the boy’s death and staked out the hospital blood bank which the Astrologer planned to raid. As her fight with the gang reached the rooftop, the Astrologer made his escape by hijacking a medical rescue helicopter. One of the gang was still dangling from the copter as it rose, and Natasha saw the opportunity to shoot him with her Widow’s Bite before he got in the cockpit. Realizing there was a chance the boy would miss 
the roof when he fell back, though, the Black Widow hesitated and so the Astrologer went free. Ivan tracked down the Astrologer and his gang, and Natasha rescued the doctor kidnapped by the Astrologer. The villain accidentally killed himself when his blaster exploded in his face while trying to kill Black Widow, which only reinforced her belief in the Curse of the Black Widow. [Amazing Adventures (2nd series) #5-7] Another villain named Watchlord suffered a similar fate in her next mission. [Amazing Adventures (2nd series) #8]
While contemplating her self-diagnosed curse, the Widow was out by the wharf when she witnessed Daredevil fighting the criminal known as the Owl aboard his helicopter. The Owl could fly on his own and abandoned the vigilante aboard his out-of-control helicopter as it crashed into the river. Black Widow leapt to Daredevil’s aid, pulling him free of the wreckage and back to shore. They soon crossed paths again in the financial district where Daredevil and the Widow caught the Owl in his next caper. [Daredevil (1st series) #81] However, their first meeting had been arranged by the mysterious Mr. Kline, who had plans for them both. Another agent of Kline’s, the 
Scorpion, captured Ivan to lure the Black Widow into a trap, then used her to draw out Daredevil. Black Widow and Daredevil ended up fighting Scorpion atop a construction site, when the villain went mad and started screaming hysterically. Black Widow tried to snare Scorpion with her Widow’s Line, but he dodged out of the way and was thrown off-balance, falling to his death over the side of the building. Worse still, a witness coming up the stairwell at the moment perceived the Widow’s actions as an intentional act of murder. [Daredevil (1st series) #82]
Afterwards, the police were compelled to take Natasha into custody on suspicion of murder. Daredevil tried to assure Black Widow that the D.A. was a friend of his, but she was paranoid about the treatment a Russian expatriate would receive in court and tried to flee. Daredevil was 
forced to disarm her and return her to the police as an unwilling captive. Natasha’s fears proved valid, as D.A. Foggy Nelson chose to rush her to trial on murder charges. Daredevil, in his civilian identity as Assistant D.A. Matt Murdock, refused to go along with Foggy and quit the office to represent Natasha instead. He introduced himself to her in jail as a friend of Daredevil’s but Natasha was already resigned to how hopeless her case would be. After the witness in the stairwell and the police who saw her run from the authorities testified, Natasha also faced a series of accusers bringing up her past as a spy and agent of a foreign power, besmirching her character in general for the rest of the trial.
Despite all this, Matt Murdock was curious about the lack of evidence from the coroner regarding Scorpion. He visited the coroner’s office as Daredevil, only to face his old opponent Mr. Hyde. The villain seemingly killed himself in an explosion which destroyed Scorpion’s body and all records of 
the autopsy report. This, combined with the missing coroner, gave Matt ammunition to move for a dismissal of Natasha’s case, on the grounds that no evidence existed to prove the murder ever took place. Nelson agreed to support the Motion to Dismiss, and the charges against Black Widow were dropped. Natasha appreciated the efforts Murdock took on her behalf, but she was exhausted by the ordeal. Despite her growing affection for her attorney, Madame Natasha needed to get out of America for a time, and she left Matthew behind to recover her peace of mind. [Daredevil (1st series) #83]
In distant Switzerland, Natasha and Ivan were on a skiing holiday when she was approached by Dr. Emil Borgdsky, another Russian expatriate. Borgdsky told Natasha over dinner that government interference led him to leave their homeland, as he had discovered the means of curing certain forms of blindness. Natasha saw an opportunity to repay Matt Murdock for his support and called him to Europe to meet with her and the doctor. Both Matt and Natasha became 
independently suspicious of Borgdsky, however, and they visited his residence as Daredevil and the Black Widow. They learned Borgdsky was actually the android Assassin known as Mr. Kline, a puppet master who used robot copies of Scorpion and Mr. Hyde to set up the Widow for murder charges and blackmailed Foggy Nelson into going along with it. Kline and his master, the super-computer Baal, were destroyed in the battle that followed. Black Widow recognized that Matt and Daredevil were the same man, and they started to consider a future together. [Daredevil (1st series) #84]
Natasha and Matthew faced many struggles as a couple from the very beginning. When the hijacker Gladiator threatened their plane back to the States, Daredevil tried to keep the Widow out of danger and refused to treat her as an equal partner. Matthew also reunited with his old girlfriend Karen Page at the airport by happenstance, leaving Natasha behind. [Daredevil (1st series) #85] 
Natasha lingered in New York for a few weeks after this, as Matt and Karen tried to rekindle their relationship, only to realize they had drifted apart too much to return to their old love. As Karen left Matthew’s apartment, she passed Madame Natasha in the street and asked the Black Widow to give Matt what she could not. [Daredevil (1st series) #86]
Both of them looking for new beginnings, Natasha and Matthew moved out to San Francisco together, with Ivan in tow. Natasha used her resources to buy them a North Shore mansion to cohabitate in and planned to seek work as a fashion designer on the side. Despite the love they 
clearly shared for each other, Matt and Natasha chose to keep separate rooms and take things slowly, at least in theory. Natasha kept her space on street level while Ivan and Matthew had rooms on the second floor. Not long after arriving in San Francisco, Daredevil and the Black Widow went into action against Electro. They drew the uncertain attention of Commissioner “Ironguts” O’Hara, who wasn’t sure he wanted costumed crazies operating in his city. [Daredevil (1st series) #87]