Black Widow

A descendant of Russian royalty, Natasha Romanov was abandoned as a child and found by soldier Ivan Petrovich. A ballerina in her youth, she joined Russia's K.G.B. and became an elite intelligence operative, a combination of consummate skill and classified government enhancements of her natural abilities. She also became infamous as an often-wed, often-widowed heartbreaker whose husbands (beginning with test pilot turned intelligence agent Alexi Shostakov) tended to suffer "unfortunate accident," a quirk which may have influenced her choice of long-term codename: the Black Widow. She eventually embarked on a lucrative freelance spy career, which culminated in her infiltration of New York City's Latverian Embassy. Manipulating the naive young superhero Spider-Man into helping her escape Latverian security, Natasha used the information she gathered to audition successfully for the American-based international spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. She became a mainstay of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Black Ops Division, often partnered with Hawkeye (Clint Barton).

After Hawkeye and the Widow exterminated over five hundred Chitauri exterrestrial subversives, the duo was promoted to the ranks of the Ultimates, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s celebrity super-agents, helping save Earth from a Chitauri plot. Widow and teammate Iron Man (wealthy genius Tony Stark) became lovers, though Natasha feuded with Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis. Giving Natasha the female equivalent of his Iron Man battle armor, Stark asked her to marry him and she said yes. More recently, a traitor within the Ultimates has leaked secrets, framed Captain America for slaughtering Hawkeye's family, and helped a foreign super-army conquer both the Ultimates and America. At the same time, Natasha has suddenly, violently turned against Tony for reasons unknown.