History Characters / MCUBlackWidow

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[[center: [- [[Characters/MarvelCinematicUniverse Main Character Index]] > Heroic Organizations > [[Characters/MCUAvengers The Avengers]] > [[Characters/MCUIronMan Iron Man]] | [[Characters/MCUCaptainAmerica Captain America]] | [[Characters/MCUThor Thor]] | [[Characters/MCUTheHulk The Hulk]] | '''Black Widow''' | [[Characters/MCUHawkeye Hawkeye]] | [[Characters/MCUWarMachine War Machine]] | [[Characters/MCUBuckyBarnes Bucky Barnes]] | [[Characters/MCUFalcon Falcon]] | [[Characters/MCUScarletWitch Scarlet Witch]] | [[Characters/MCUVision The Vision]] | [[Characters/MCUAntMan Ant-Man]] | [[Characters/MCUSpiderMan Spider-Man]] ([[Characters/MCUSpiderManVariants Spider-Man Variants]]) | [[Characters/MCUCaptainMarvel Captain Marvel]] | [[Characters/MCUAvengersAllies Allies]] ([[Characters/MCUStarkFamily The Stark Family]] | [[Characters/MCUPymFamily The Pym Family]])-]]]
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!!{{Spoiler}}s for all works besides ''Black Widow'' and ''What If?'' are unmarked.
!!''Agent Natasha Romanoff / ComicBook/BlackWidow''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_widow_natasha.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"The truth is a matter of circumstances; it's not all things to all people."'']]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see her before ''Infinity War'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/355730_0.jpg [softreturn] ''"I got red in my ledger. I’d like to wipe it out."''[[/labelnote]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see her in ''Infinity War'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_widow_aiw_profile.png [softreturn] ''"She’s not alone."''[[/labelnote]]]]
!!!'''Birth Name:''' Natalia Alianovna Romanoff
!!!'''Known Aliases:''' Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, "Natalie Rushman", "Fanny Longbottom"
!!!'''Species:''' Human
!!!'''Citizenship:''' Russian, American
!!!'''Affiliation(s):''' Red Room (formerly), KGB (formerly), S.H.I.E.L.D., STRIKE, Hammer Industries (formerly), Stark Industries, Avengers
!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/ScarlettJohansson, Ever Anderson (young)
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Rosalba Sotelo (Latin-American Spanish dub), Joël Mulachs (European Spanish dub), Ryoko Yonekura (Japanese dub), Julia Vaidis-Bogard (European French dub), Camille Cyr-Desmarais (Canadian French dub), Fernanda Baronne (Brazilian Portuguese dub)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/IronMan2'' | ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' | ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' | ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' | ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' | ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' [[note]]In a video recording [[/note]] | ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' [[note]]Archive footage from ''Age of Ultron''[[/note]] | ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' | ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}'' [[note]]In TheStinger[[/note]] | ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' | ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' [[note]]Archive photography [[/note]] | ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'' [[note]]Archive footage[[/note]] | ''Film/{{Black Widow|2021}}'' | ''[[Series/Hawkeye2021 Hawkeye]]'' [[note]]Flashback with archive footage from ''Endgame'' and archive audio from ''Black Widow''[[/note]] | ''Film/ThorLoveAndThunder'' [[note]]Archive footage from ''Avengers: Endgame''[[/note]]

->''"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job -- this family. And I was better because of it."''

Indoctrinated into the Red Room as a child and trained to be one of the deadliest assassins in the world, Natasha Romanoff worked as a Black Widow spy for the KGB. She eventually became a target for S.H.I.E.L.D., and the agent who caught her, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, offered to spare her life if she defected.

Since then, she's been a key agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and initially the only female Avenger. She kept surveillance on everyone from Iron Man to the Hulk, and is an extraordinary close-quarters fighter, but her determination to do good seems to come from the aftermath of an amoral past.
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* TenMinuteRetirement: At the start of ''Film/BlackWidow2021'', Natasha appears to be about to retire from the superhero world and vanish into obscurity. This lasts about a day, and then Taskmaster blows up her car while she's heading into town on a routine errand in an effort to steal a package Yelena sent her (that Nat hadn't even opened, or even intended to open).
* TheAce: She was part of a program designed to make women into perfect killing machines, and this is reflected in her being one of the best spies/martial artists in the world. When ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' wants to establish a new character as especially competent, someone will say "X is the best since Romanoff", implying she is one of if not ''the'' best of their agents.
* ActionGirl: BadassNormal, but still fights alongside the other Avengers.
* AdaptationNameChange: In the comics, her full name is Natalia Alianovna Romanova, with her frequently going by the anglicized version Natasha Romanoff. In the MCU, she retains her first and middle name (though she still goes by Natasha) from the comics but her surname is actually Romanoff.
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Natasha Romanov is a far more morally ambiguous character [[ComicBook/BlackWidow in the comics]], with her character originating as a villainous [=KGB=] spy for many InUniverse years before she performed a HeelFaceTurn to good (and even then she became "only" an AntiHero). In the [=MCU=], while Nat has had a history being a spy (to the point where she was recruited into [=S.H.I.E.L.D.=] since she wanted to be TheAtoner on behalf of [[DarkAndTroubledPast "the red in [her] ledger"]]), unlike the comics she gets recruited for [=S.H.I.E.L.D.=] and actually helps Nick Fury create the Avengers. Also, in the comics Nat is more of a lone wolf while in the movies ([[Film/BlackWidow2021 even her solo one]]) she's at her best with a team.
* AffectionateNickname: Clint calls her "Nat" in ''The Avengers'', a sign of their more intimate relationship. Steve does it at least once in ''The Winter Soldier'', showing they've formed a close friendship. By the time of ''Endgame'', even [[TheStoic General Okoye]] is comfortable calling her "Nat".
* AffirmativeActionGirl: She joins Pepper Potts as the second plot-relevant female in ''Iron Man 2''.
* AgeLift: ''The Winter Soldier'' states she was born in 1984. In the comics Natasha's birth year is unknown, but she is one of the few superheroes not bound by ComicBookTime and is upward of fifty thanks to a longevity-inducing serum. She and Yelena are also closer in age to each other, whereas their comic counterparts were decades apart.
* AloofBigSister: When she and Yelena first reunite, their relationship is frosty. Natasha's BigSisterInstinct manifests later.
* AlternateSelf: There are 4 Black Widow variants. Unlike the Sacred Timeline counterpart, at least two of them are never shown dying.
* AmbiguousSituation: For a time, it was left unexplained how she was part of the KGB; she would have been seven years old when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, and a flashback in ''Age of Ultron'' reveals she graduated in her late teens. Her solo film finally clears this up by showing that she was taken into the Red Room after the fall of the Soviet Union.
* AnimalMotifs: Downplayed. Besides her alias, the only things referencing black widows are her "Widow's Bite" and the red hourglass symbol on her belt.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: Of the ''Animal Alias'' variety; "The famous Black Widow".
* AntiHero: Especially prominent in ''The Winter Soldier'', where she contrasts with [[IdealHero Steve]]. She has a lot of red in her ledger that she's trying to wipe out by being an amoral spy.
* ApologeticAttacker: In ''Civil War,'' to the point where she goes out of her way to confirm that she and Clint are still friends while they're in the middle of a fight.
-->'''Nat:''' We're still friends, right?
-->'''Clint:''' Depends on how hard you hit me.
* ArmCannon: Her bracelets have an energy weapon that fires crimson bolts, which can stun a Red Room assassin in one shot.
* ArmedWithPepperSpray: While taking down Justin Hammer's security guards, she steals a can of pepper spray from one of them and sprays another guard.
* TheAtoner: Hinted at in ''The Avengers'' and made all the more evident in ''The Winter Soldier''. One of her main motivations for doing what she does is to make up for her past as an assassin ("wipe the red from my ledger", as she puts it) by doing good. Despite her often amoral actions, she feels her work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and for the Avengers is accomplishing that. She's legitimately distraught when she discovers that instead of doing good, she has ben doing an uncertain amount of HYDRA's dirty work, though in the end it shows serious character development that she's willing to make every bit of her tainted past public knowledge to stop HYDRA.
* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Of the original six Avengers, but it's ''heavily'' downplayed. If one were to look at their chronological birth years in the MCU, Thor is obviously the oldest, having been born sometime around 964-965 A.D., followed by Steve (1918), Bruce (1969), Tony (1970), Clint (1971), then Nat (1984). However, with Steve having gone into the ice for almost seventy years, this puts Nat as the second-youngest instead, with Steve being physiologically younger than her. As of ''The Avengers'', the first time both would meet each other, Natasha would have been 28 years old in 2012 whereas Steve physiologically would have only been 27 at the time.
* BadassBiker: In ''Age of Ultron'', she sports a motorcycle and uses it quite proficiently.
* BadassBookworm: A spy who can not only mow through dozens of Hammer security in a whirlwind of acrobatic martial arts in the time it takes Hogan to finally beat down one guy, but also speaks several languages--including Latin, despite there being no practical reason to know how to speak it--and can easily hack through Ivan Vanko's re-programming job on the Hammeroids in minutes, shutting them down without breaking a sweat.
-->'''Romanoff:''' The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. ''Slightly''.
* BadassNormal: A former assassin with gadgets, guns, good aim, and even better close combat skills. That's still enough to qualify her as an Avenger even though everyone else on the team has superhuman abilities or super technology. She takes out her fair share of Chitauri and Ultron Sentries, nearly throttles the Winter Soldier, can hold her own against the size-shifting Ant-Man, and can land hits on members of the Black Order, who give even superpowered individuals a run for their money.
* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: As a former bad guy, she's more open to performing morally ambiguous actions. For instance, when conducting a HighAltitudeInterrogation, their captive scoffs at the possibility of [[TheCape Captain America]] throwing him off the edge. Cap admits it isn't his style ... it's Black Widow's.
* BashSiblings: With her teammates in the Avengers, particularly Captain America and Hawkeye.
* BattleCouple: She and Bruce Banner fell in love while working together to destroy Ultron, though their romance is short-lived.
* BetterAsFriends: Her romantic subplot with Bruce is quietly dropped after ''Age of Ultron'', and their interactions are completely platonic throughout ''Endgame'', likely because their lives have gone in such different directions post TimeSkip -- she's MissionControl for a new team of Avengers, and he's [[SplitPersonalityMerge reconciled the Hulk to himself]] and returned to his research.
* BifurcatedWeapon: She can connect her two batons together to make a bō staff.
* BigSisterInstinct:
** Natasha was fiercely protective of Yelena when they were kids, to the point of grabbing a gun off a soldier and threatening to shoot if they tried to put her "sister" into the Black Widow program. When they're both adults, she reminds Yelena to put her seatbelt on. Also, shortly after Yelena is thrown off Dreykov's exploding helicopter, Natasha dives down to put a parachute on her plummeting little sister.
** During ''Infinity War'', Natasha is determined to protect both Wanda and Vision from Thanos and the Black Order.
* BirdsOfAFeather: With Clint Barton because they're both assassins.
* BlackBraAndPanties: She wears these underneath her dress in ''Iron Man 2'', which Happy doesn't mind taking a peek at while driving her to Hammer Industries.
* BlueIsHeroic: Natasha sometimes wears a SpyCatsuit with blue highlights and some of her weapons emit a blue glow.
* BoobsOfSteel: She's a tough fighter even without superhuman strength, and her costumes are cut in ways to make her chest look nice and shapely. She's also one of the more busty women of the MCU, along with Peggy Carter, Wanda Maximoff, and Carol Danvers.
* BrokenPedestal: How she feels towards S.H.I.E.L.D. in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''. She had initially joined them thinking that it would help her redeem some of the bad things she did in the past. The revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. was heavily infiltrated shatters that completely.
* CapturedOnPurpose: For her first scene in Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}, she's being held captive by a bunch of Russian thugs, but only because she's letting them do so. As soon as she has the information she needs, Nat whups all their butts to hell and back in record time without so much as a hair out of place.
* {{Catchphrase}}: "I only act like I know everything."
* CharacterDevelopment: She's introduced as a cold, straight-laced assassin (partly because she's posing as a covert spy under Tony Stark's employ in ''Iron Man 2'' and since she doesn't like him, feels no reason to open up) but her time with the Avengers (particularly Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner) exposes more of her vulnerabilities. Over time, her desire to be part of a family and to protect that family becomes more central to her character.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: She’s just a normal human with no superpowers, but the training of the Red Room allows her to keep up with a ''super soldier''. And she is even capable of defeating Corvus, something that not even Captain America could do.
* TheChick: As part of the Avengers. Next to [[IdealHero Steve Rogers]] and Bruce Banner ([[UnstoppableRage most of the time]]), she's the most levelheaded and put together of the team, and is constantly trying to encourage them to work together. She becomes this further in ''Age of Ultron'' as she's responsible for using empathy and friendship to manage The Hulk. Later she's the TokenGirl of the TokenTrio of [[WhiteMaleLead Steve]] and Sam operating underground during ''Infinity War''. She finally takes on a leadership role as the TeamMom of the Avengers post-Decimation, seeing them as the [[FamilyOfChoice family she could never have.]]
* ChildishBangs: She has these in the flashback scenes in ''Age of Ultron''.
* {{Child Soldier|s}}: Started working as a spy at a very young age. Nat would've been only 6 or 7 when the KGB was dissolved if the MCU goes by real-time. ''Series/AgentCarter'' reveals there was an entire school dedicated to training young girls as agents; it was even called the Black Widow Training Ground.
-->'''Banner:''' And your actress buddy, is she a spy too? Do they start that young?\\
'''Romanoff:''' I did.
* TheChosenMany: When Nat asked Dreykov about her biological mother, Dreykov mentioned that Natasha was chosen for the Widow program because through genetic testing, they found an amazing specimen in Nat. Initially, Natasha thought she and the other girls for the program were picked because they were unwanted street kids.
* CodeName: "Black Widow", though it's used only a couple of times.
* ColorCharacter: The '''Black''' Widow.
* ColorMotif: Red and black are the colors usually associated with her. However, she did a brief stint as the yellow to [[ChromaticArrangement Cap's blue and Falcon's red]] in ''Infinity War'' when she dyed her hair blonde.
* CombatParkour: Her gymnastic-like movements in battle are almost unrivaled.
* CombatPragmatist:
** When her fight with the BrainwashedAndCrazy Hawkeye starts getting rough, she resorts to [[ManBitesMan biting his hand.]]
** She's not above utilizing {{Groin Attack}}s in ''Civil War'' or anytime, really.
* CompositeCharacter: It's more composite and decomposite roles, than characters, in ''Captain America: Civil War'', in regards to Spider-Man. She is the one that ultimately changes sides during the conflict, while Peter stays on the same side but is DemotedToExtra. In contrast, in the comic the movie takes its name from, Spider-Man is basically the protagonist and changes from Iron Man's side to Cap's.
* ConsummateLiar:
** When Nick Fury commissioned his own lie detector, he specifically wanted one Black Widow couldn't beat. Whether that actually happened, he isn't saying.
** In a deleted scene from ''Civil War'', Black Panther actually suggests that she may be so good at lying that she can't recognize genuine honesty anymore.
--->'''T'Challa:''' You are not used to the truth, are you?
** She tricks Loki. She ''tricks'' the ''God of Trickery''.
* ContraltoOfDanger: Has a deep voice that matches her no-nonsense personality.
* CoolAunt: To Clint's children, who are as excited to see her as they would be with their father.
* CoolBigSis:
** Aside from being physiologically older than Captain Rogers, Natasha is the mature voice of realism and calm reason to pull her "little brother" back to ground, should his idealism be incompatible to the grim realities at hand.
** ''Black Widow'' establishes that she was this to Yelena. While their "family" was a cover story, Yelena adored Natasha and looked up to her during their childhood. Even as adults, Yelena still thinks highly of her sister and gets upset when Natasha tries to dismiss their connection as not being real.
* CunningLinguist: Fluent in English, Russian, French, German, Chinese, Italian, ''Latin'', and various other languages, according to ''Iron Man 2'' and ''The Avengers''.
* TheCynic: In diametric contrast to Steve Rogers' WideEyedIdealist. She has seen far too much of how ugly the world can be since childhood, and refuses to see the silver lining of any black cloud. Played for tragic laughs five years after the Snap, when she half-jokingly tells Steve "If you're about to tell me to look on the bright side, I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich" when he tries to reassure her that the environment is starting to improve after the disappearance of half of Earth's population.
* DamselOutOfDistress: In ''The Avengers,'' she is seemingly captured by three gun-wielding goons. Seconds later, one of the goons receives a phone call from Agent Phil Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D, telling him to give the phone to a rather-annoyed Natasha, who tells him that she's working. When he reveals that Clint has been compromised, she then proceeds to knock out all three of her kidnappers -- while still tied up.
* DanceBattler: If flashbacks in ''Age of Ultron'' indicate anything, the {{Tykebomb}}s from the Red Room were trained in classical ballet. This is supported in ''Series/AgentCarter'' where the [=1940s=] Black Widow mentioned that she's a ballerina.
* DarkActionGirl: She used to be an assassin for Dreykov and his Red Room prior to her HeelFaceTurn.
* DarkAndTroubledPast:
** Loki [[NoodleIncident hints at a number of awful things]] in her past and says that her ledger is 'gushing red'.
** In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', it's also revealed that all Widows are sterilized as a final ceremony to complete their training so as to avoid any distractions and focus solely on their missions, something Natasha deeply regrets.
* DarkIsNotEvil: She is a hero who wears an all-black sneaking suit.
* DeaderThanDead: To get the Soul Stone before Thanos could in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', she sacrifices her soul at Vormir so Clint could collect the Stone. It's outright stated that in spite of the stones' collective power, this exchange was irreversible, with Hulk even saying that as hard as he tried to bring her back in the Unsnap, he was unable to. Natasha is permanently and absolutely dead.
* DeadpanSnarker: There's a ''lot'' of emphasis on the deadpan part throughout the movies.
-->'''Romanoff:''' ''[after tricking Loki into revealing his plan]'' Thank you for your cooperation.
* DeliberatelyDistressedDamsel: In her introduction scene in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. As Creator/JossWhedon commented, "This is [[SignatureStyle my entire career]] in one scene: ''Look, she's helpless! No, she's kicking their asses!''"
* DesignatedGirlFight: In ''Infinity War'', she fights with Okoye and Wanda against Proxima Midnight.
* {{Determinator}}: Natasha ''never'' gives up. She's the only member of the Avengers to be a constant member of the team from its first incarnation all the way through the five years post-Snap to ''Endgame'' if we count Cap's Secret Avengers team in the break between CW and IW.
** As Thanos slowly walks towards Vision and Wanda during the FinalBattle in ''Infinity War'', Cap and Okoye can at least rely on their [[{{Unobtanium}} vibranium]] shield and spear, but Natasha rushes at him with ''[[UnderequippedCharge a taser]]''.
* {{Deuteragonist}}: Of ''The Winter Soldier'' next to Captain America, the guy in the title.
* DisappearedDad: When Red Skull calls her "Daughter of Ivan" in ''Avengers: Endgame'', she admits to Clint that the reason she believes him so easily is because she never even knew her father's name. This could mean two things: either he left before she was born, or she was inducted into the Red Room at such a young age that she couldn't even remember him. In ''Black Widow'', Melina and Dreykov talk about Natasha's mother but make no mention of her father.
* DontMakeMeDestroyYou:
** After the Avengers have defeated Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', Natasha tells them that they have no desire to kill them.
--->'''Romanoff:''' We don't want to kill you. But we will.
** During the final battle of ''Film/BlackWidow2021'', she tells the brainwashed Black Widows that she doesn't want to hurt them.
* TheDreaded: Thaddeus Ross knows exactly how dangerous Romanoff truly is in battle, which is why he deployed an entire SWAT squadron in an attempt to capture her in ''Film/BlackWidow2021''.
* DualTonfas: Uses these in ''Civil War'', as opposed to the robot-killing stun batons from her previous appearance.
* DualWielding: Nat does this with most of her weapons, be it guns, electrified batons, or tonfas.
* DudeMagnet: Natasha gains a number of male admirers. Tony thought she was attractive, Happy couldn't keep his eyes off her while she was undressing, Steve seemed appreciative of their FakeOutMakeOut, Bruce had UnresolvedSexualTension with her, and WordOfGod confirmed Sam has (or had) a small crush on her.
* DyeOrDie: Sports blonde hair in ''Infinity War'' in order to better hide from the authorities. In ''Endgame'', she lets her natural red grow back during the TimeSkip, resulting in mostly red hair but with a blonde tinge halfway through.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Even though she did not die in battle, this is a woman who unhesitatingly gave her life for the Soul Stone so that '''trillions''' may live once more.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E-M]]
* EndearinglyDorky: In ''The Winter Soldier'', [[ShoutOut she growls]] [[Film/WarGames "Shall we play a game?"]] and begins to explain the reference to Steve (who, amusingly enough, already understood it). She also sends work-related text messages with smileys, and her flirting/gushing about Bruce in ''Age of Ultron'' has to be seen to be believed.
* ExactWords: Pulls one on Black Panther in ''Captain America: Civil War''. When T'Challa tries to stealth killing Bucky, Natasha electrocutes him which buys time for him and Steve to escape. When T'Challa looks at her angrily after the act, she tries to justify herself with this trope.
-->'''Natasha:''' I said I would help you find him, not catch him. There's a difference.
* FakeAmerican: InUniverse, as explained in ''The Avengers''.
-->'''Romanoff:''' I'm Russian, or I used to be.
* FamousNamedForeigner: [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Romanov The House Romanoff]] was a big deal.
* FearIsTheAppropriateResponse: Natasha is the poster child of grace under pressure and calm in the face of danger. It could be a mission on a boat with terrorists, a city being invaded by aliens, or being hunted by HYDRA, and she'll ''still'' find the time to bust out CasualDangerDialogue while trying to find Steve a date. The only time this vernier of unshakability comes off is the first time she met and had to deal with the Hulk. She's petrified of being in the same room with Banner in the beginning, and after a near-death experience facing the green giant is left quaking in a TroubledFetalPosition in a corner of the Helicarrier. Given that the Hulk is "an enormous green rage monster" that's TheJuggernaut with mountain-breaking levels of SuperStrength, this is absolutely justified.
* FieryRedhead: Though she is usually calm, she is still a rather aggressive fighter.
* {{Foil}}:
** To Steve Rogers. She lies for a living and he can't tell a lie to save his life, but their partnership in ''The Winter Soldier'' shows that they're still both agents with issues adjusting to their current lives.
** To her arch-nemesis, [[spoiler:Dreykov. Where Nat fights openly as an Avenger in the name of peace and freedom, Dreykov is a corrupt politician commanding an army of Widows from the shadows while never doing any of the dirty work himself, and is obsessed with subjugation and personal power. While Nat has no blood relatives, she has found two 'families' and formed deep bonds with them, whereas Dreykov has a living daughter, but enslaved her to make her another one of his super agents.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Her conversation with Loki in ''The Avengers'' is massively prophetic for the events of ''Civil War'' and ''Avengers: Endgame'':
** "I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out." Natasha will do anything for redemption and to do the right thing, even if that means she's not alive to see the consequences of her actions.
** "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers." While at the time this foreshadowed S.H.I.E.L.D and HYDRA's infiltration, each of these sinners corresponds with the dark sides of [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Steve]] and [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony]] in ''Captain America: Civil War''. The service of killers is Tony's team, related to Tony's dark past as a weapons manufacturer. The service of liars is Steve's team, related to Steve hiding the secret of the deaths of Tony's parents. In the film, Natasha is on both sides at different points.
** "Your ledger is gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change that?" Clint does end up proving to be no more virtuous than herself when he goes on a killing rampage after the death of his wife and kids in ''Endgame'', and she sacrifices her life to save him rather than let him die for his sins as Ronin.
* FormFittingWardrobe: Her bodysuits are tailored to show her curves.
* {{Gainaxing}}: Usually subverted when she's in her FormFittingWardrobe, but there is quite a bit of bounce during her fight scene with her interrogators in ''The Avengers''.
* GoodIsNotNice: In ''Iron Man 2'' and in regards to Tony in general, with a tendency to try and make people back down when she thinks she ought to be dealing with something herself, seemingly more or less because Tony requires a more forceful personality around to keep him in check.
* GoodIsNotSoft: In ''The Avengers'', she's rather respectful and polite to the people she has to work with -- even Tony -- and shows her lighter side more often, especially to Banner who she is assigned to keep tabs on. However, she's still extremely ruthless when it comes to doing what needs to be done, make no mistake. In the comic book prequel to ''Iron Man 2'', it's revealed that she got the job at Stark Industries in the first place by (non-fatally) ''[[RemovingTheRival poisoning one of the candidates]]''.
* GoodWearsWhite: She wears a white tactical suit during her mission of terminating the Red Room.
* GrapplingHookPistol: Natasha has a wrist-mounted grappling hook that she can rapidly shoot at anchor points to stop her falls.
* GratuitousRussian: Her last name, Romanoff, is masculine and should really be ''Romanova''. In ''The Avengers,'' she speaks decent Russian (although not like the native she's supposed to be) while working undercover and being interrogated by a Russian general. At the end of that scene, she exclaims, "Bozhe moi!"[[note]]"Oh my god!"[[/note]] after finding out that Coulson wants her to bring in Bruce Banner, the only person that terrifies her.
* GroinAttack: In ''Iron Man 2'', she hits one of Hammer's security guards in the crotch while breaking into the the facility Ivan Vanko's hiding at. In ''Civil War'', she does this to Ant-Man during their fight in the airport.
* GuileHero: Her primary interrogation method is manipulating the egos of her targets to make them think they have her in a state of weakness, so they are more prone to accidentally giving her information while gloating. Just ask Loki.
* GunsAkimbo: Ever since her first appearance in ''Iron Man 2'', Natasha has had a preference for using two pistols and shooting them together. In ''Iron Man 2'', it was a combination of Walther [=PPK/S=] and Hechler & Koch [=USP=] Compact, then a pair of Glock 26 in subsequent movies.
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot:
** An inversion, at least when compared with Hawkeye. Natasha is a crack shot, but she's an even better martial artist.
** Played straight with Hulk in ''Age of Ultron'' as he loves smashing things (his canonical SignatureMove being "Hulk [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Smash]]" even) while Natasha herself prefers gunning her opponents.
** She and Steve Rogers also fit this trope whenever they're together, seeing as his WeaponOfChoice is his legendary shield, while Nat--as mentioned above--prefers guns.
* HazyFeelTurn: In ''Civil War'' she's Team Iron Man at first, but switches sides to hold off Black Panther and allow Cap and Bucky to escape and complete their mission. Given both sides are heroes, it's difficult to tell if she was a heel or a face or neither before or after.
* HeadDesk: Natasha's method of [[spoiler:severing the nerve to prevent the scent of the pheromone preventing her from attacking Dreykov]] is to slam her head hard on his desk targeting the nose, breaking it.
* HeadTurningBeauty: During ''Iron Man 2'', once she first comes in, Tony turns his head and is downright hypnotized, and later Happy almost crashed his car because he was watching her [[LingerieScene getting changed into]] her SpyCatsuit in the [[WatchingTheReflectionUndress rear view mirror]].
* TheHeart: Not in the same way as Hawkeye, but an important part of her job on the Avengers is managing the personalities of the superpowered members. In ''Ultron'', her role has evolved into calming down the Hulk when the battle is over.
* HeelFaceTurn: She used to be an assassin, but changed her ways after Hawkeye chose not to kill her when on a mission to do so.
* HellBentForLeather: She is quite fond of leather gear.
* HeroAntagonist: Reluctantly works against Captain America and the Anti-Registration team in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''. Both sides are heroes, but this is Steve's story.
* HeroicSacrifice: In ''Endgame'', Natasha travels in time with Clint to get the Soul Stone on Vormir. Faced with the same dilemma as Thanos in ''Infinity War'', she jumps down the cliff on her own volition despite Clint's best efforts to prevent her from killing herself. Clint tearfully gets the Soul Stone afterward, allowing the Avengers to complete their own Gauntlet.
* HeroicSuicide: As mentioned above, she willingly lets herself fall to her own doom to ensure that Hawkeye can take the Soul Stone back to their timeline. No fakeouts, she has to actually die to make it work.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Her M.O. Her interrogation techniques rely not on questioning someone, but on making them feel in control and letting them do their own talking. Her fights usually involve using something of her opponent's (the chair they tied her to, their own weapons, even their ''shadow'') to make her moves.
* HonoraryAunt: To Hawkeye's kids. Clint and Laura even end up naming their third-born Nathaniel. It ''would have'' been Natasha, but Nat turned out to be a boy.
* HourglassPlot: Her entire relationship with Hawkeye in the ''Avengers'' movies of the Infinity Saga. In the beginning, he saves her (an assassin) instead of killing her because he believes in her, and tells her that she's not beyond redemption in spite of her past crimes. By ''Endgame'', he's committed several crimes of his own as a vigilante, but she sacrifices her life for him because she believes that he's got enough time to make up for it, as he believed in her all those years ago.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: With Bruce Banner if he's in Hulk form. They work closely together in ''Age of Ultron''.
* IDontPayYouToThink: She says a variant of this to her FriendInTheBlackMarket Rick Mason when he starts wondering what she will do without the Avengers in ''Film/BlackWidow2021''.
-->'''Natasha:''' I don’t pay you to worry.
* IKnowYouKnowIKnow: She has this type of conversation with her adoptive sister Yelena when she sneaks into her apartment in ''Film/BlackWidow2021''.
-->'''Yelena:''' I know you’re out there.\\
'''Natasha:''' I know you know I’m out here.
* ImprovisedWeaponUser:
** From beating down her captors with ''the chair they tied her to'', to working out how to fire a Chitauri blast lance just by grabbing one. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard There's a theme here…]]
** In the beginning of ''Civil War'', Widow manages to beat a terrorist by assaulting him with a basket she picked up around the marketplace.
* InSeriesNickname: "Nat" or "'Tasha", by Clint, Steve, Fury, and Laura. It eventually extends to the other members of the team by the time ''Endgame'' starts.
* IOweYouMyLife:
** To Hawkeye since he chose to spare her on a mission to kill her, instead recruiting her so she could work on atoning.
** Becomes this with Steve Rogers as well, when in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' he saved her from the old S.H.I.E.L.D. base when it was targeted by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents after the two of them went rogue.
* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: In ''The Avengers'', Natasha floors a trio of Russian gangsters while tied to a chair in a LittleBlackDress. Humorously, she makes sure to retrieve her heels once finished. Later in ''Age of Ultron'', she dodges and shoots at rogue Iron Legion bots while still wearing her party dress from earlier.
* KilledOffForReal: Fought with Clint Barton over who should be the sacrifice in exchange for the Soul Stone. She won and killed herself, allowing Clint to obtain the Soul Stone. Bruce Banner stated that he had attempted to use the completed Infinity Gauntlet to resurrect Natasha, but couldn't. The writers and directors have since stated that the nature of obtaining the Soul Stone means that her death is final, and she will not be coming back.
* LawOfInverseFertility: In ''Age of Ultron'', she tearfully reveals to Bruce that the Red Room sterilizes their alumnae during "graduation day". However much she might want to have her own children, she can't. Natasha makes due by being an HonoraryAunt for her best friend's children (i.e. the Barton kids).
* LegacyCharacter: ''Series/AgentCarter'' reveals there was a Black Widow school where young girls were trained to become agents as early as the 1940s.
* LightningBruiser: Best shown in many of her fight scenes, Natasha has the agility befitting for a master assassin, and is [[MadeOfIron incredibly tough]], able to get back up as soon as possible after powerful hits.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: How the directors have described her relationship with Steve. She'll tease him and is generally an {{Anti Hero}}ic foil to [[TheCape Captain America]], but they care for each other deeply. She comforts him at Peggy's funeral, and he works to support her in her new post-Decimation role as the new leader of the Avengers.
* LikeMotherLikeDaughter:
** During the fight between Alexei and Melina against Taskmaster in ''Black Widow'', Melina is shown landing on the ground, posed in the same ThreePointLanding that Natasha often uses.
** While we barely know how Natasha's birth mother was like, Nat seems to have inherited her strong determination.
* LittleMissBadass: During the opening flashback of ''Black Widow'', she's able to disarm a soldier and take his weapon at the age of 11.
* LovelyAngels: Goes up against the Winter Soldier with Sharon Carter. Does it again against Proxima Midnight with Okoye.
* MadeOfIron: She is a normal human who doesn't wear high tech armor, and she endures some major hits throughout the series.
** In '' The Winter Soldier,'' the titular assassin shoots her in the shoulder but she is still able to operate a grenade launcher and was bleeding for quite sometime before the wound started bothering her. She was also unbothered being blown away by an explosion and took being thrown against a car by the Winter Soldier's metal arm without any complaint. Falcon (without his suit) and Sharon Carter were instantly knocked out by the same move.
** In ''The Avengers,'' she takes a backhanded blow to the abs by the Hulk and gets up once her fear and shock wears off, limping for only a short period of time. Then again, this could easily be pure {{determinat|or}}ion at work.
** In ''Civil War,'' Wanda throws her ''back-first'' into a shipping crate and she hits her spine on it. She's up and about in no time. She also gets choked by Bucky's metal arm, complete with the whirring noises that indicate he's really putting effort into it. She comes off without even a mark and was able to talk through it; even [[SuperSoldier Steve]] showed far more discomfort. She was also able to walk off a grenade explosion by keeping a mook between her and the grenade.
** In ''Black Widow,'' her endurance matches that of super soldiers; she survives a car crash and falls from a great height, and just walks it off.
* MaleGaze: Her rear end gets a lot of camera shots, especially in ''The Avengers'' and ''Black Widow''.
* ManBitesMan: While fighting a mind-controlled Hawkeye in the Helicarrier, she bites him when he tries to stab her with a knife.
* MeaningfulName: Meta-example. The redheaded Natasha is played by ''Scarlett'' Johansson.
* MemeticBadass: InUniverse. In ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'', she is the go-to example of badassery in the SecretAgent department, just like Melinda May is for combat expertise.
* MirrorCharacter: To Gamora. Both are orphaned at a young age and were taken in by morally dubious people who trained them to become deadly assassins. They also end up joining a heroic team to protect others while also retaining a complicated relationship with their respective adoptive father and sister before ending up dying for the Soul Stone. However, Natasha manages to reconcile with her adoptive father and willingly gives her life to resurrect her adoptive sister. Gamora on the other hand, is still on bad terms with her adoptive father and reveals the location of the Soul Stone to save her adoptive sister, only to be sacrificed against her consent.
* MissionControl: Briefly during Tony and Rhodey's battle against the drones and Vanko in ''Iron Man 2''. In ''Endgame'' when the remnants of the Avengers are trying to keep the Earth and other planets from falling apart, she organizes and advises the rest of the dispersed team through hologram projection.
* MissingMom: She believed that her biological mother dumped her on the streets as an infant. [[spoiler:Melina eventually admits that her mother didn't give her up voluntarily and spent the rest of her life searching for Natasha. Dreykov confirms this and reveals that the woman was executed because her search threatened to expose the Red Room to the world.]]
* MoreHeroThanThou: In ''Endgame'', she and Clint fight to sacrifice themselves for the Soul Stone first in order to spare the other. In the end, she "[[HeroicSacrifice wins]]".
* MsFanservice: Downplayed. Being played by Scarlett Johansson meant that she was bound to fall under this trope and her scenes in her first film, ''Iron Man 2'', were so filled with fanservice that some reviewers continued to dismiss her as nothing but eye candy for two or three more films, despite the fact that it was significantly reduced from ''The Avengers'' on. She does get a BareYourMidriff moment in ''The Winter Soldier'', but she quips that the bullet scar on her navel means "bye-bye bikinis". Steve lampshades back "Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now."
* MurderousThighs: Her SignatureMove. She uses thigh chokes in combat at least OncePerEpisode and sometimes [[http://remember-budapest.tumblr.com/post/143056677265/adeles-damn-natasha-back-at-it-again-with-the more]]. She has yet to use them as a killing move, though--when she's facing multiple opponents she uses it as a quick way to knock people down, and when she's only facing one they tend to be [[SuperSoldier superhuman]].
* MyGreatestFailure:
** Out of all the red entries in her ledger, the one for General Dreykov causes her the most shame because [[spoiler:she used Dreykov's young daughter as bait and blew up both of them.]] Loki taunts her about this in ''The Avengers'', and she later admits to Clint that he sincerely got under her skin with that one.
** A close second is one of her Red Room missions which involved a hospital fire in the ''children's ward''. Both times when it's brought up, by Loki in ''The Avengers'' and Alexander Pierce in a deleted scene in ''The Winter Soldier'', she's visibly unnerved.
* MyGreatestSecondChance: In ''Black Widow'', [[spoiler:she discovers that Dreykov's daughter, Antonia, is still alive and has been mind-controlled like the Black Widows into an assassin. She expends every effort to avoid killing Antonia this time and successfully breaks the mind-control.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:N-Y]]
* NiceGirl: While she can be a cynical AntiHero, she's a very loyal and supportive friend to her teammates, especially Steve, Clint, and Bruce.
* NoPeriodsPeriod: {{Justified}}. After Alexei makes a joke about her and Yelena being on their periods, Yelena reveals that the sterilization process they went through as part of the Black Widow program involved removing all of their reproductive organs. Therefore, they ''can't'' get their periods.
* NoodleIncident: Whatever it was that happened in Budapest -- which was first mentioned in ''The Avengers'' -- remains a total mystery to anyone but her and Hawkeye. The two apparently remember it differently. [[ResolvedNoodleIncident Resolved]] in her solo film, which explains that the Budapest mission was the final step in her defection to SHIELD.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Scarlett Johansson is playing a Russian spy, but you wouldn't get that from her distinctly American accent. Justified in the sense that, as a Russian spy, she was instructed to learn how to disguise her voice to sound American and she later just made that her default accent[[note]]Although it's still a jarring contrast to hear Nat consistently using her American voice while the rest of her family still uses heavy Russian accents while speaking with one another[[/note]]. Flashbacks to her past in her title movie show that Natasha did have a Russian accent growing up, and she still had it when she defected to SHIELD with Clint during the Budapest mission.
* NotSoStoic:
** Her run-in with the Hulk makes her lapse into a brief state of terror, and she's shown sweating and trembling in fear more than any other member of the team. She admits to Hawkeye that "monsters and magic" are ''not'' something either of them was trained to cope with.
** She ''cries'' in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' when she thinks Fury is dead. In a lighter example, Natasha seems to have warmed to Steve by the end of that film, as she cracks a few jokes and makes film references.
** She also freaks out a bit when Ultron rips his old form apart mid-sentence. Of course, that's exactly the reaction he was trying for.
** She's visibly shaken at the end of ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' when she realizes that half of the universe has just been killed.
** She spends nearly every moment in ''Endgame'' distraught, tired, and mournful because of the Decimation and fighting against Hawkeye to perform the HeroicSacrifice.
* NumberTwo: Becomes this to Steve in the New Avengers at the end of ''Age of Ultron'' as the only returning veteran after Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Iron Man all depart for different reasons.
* OddFriendship: With Steve Rogers by ''The Winter Soldier''. She's a chameleon-like spy and he's a straightforward soldier. They make it work.
* OffhandBackhand: While fighting Justin Hammer's security guards, she pepper sprays the last guard in the face without looking.
* OhCrap: In ''The Avengers'', when Bruce slowly starts to lose control and transform into the Hulk while her foot is trapped under debris. Especially when the target of Bruce's rage at the moment is her.
* {{Omniglot}}: Natasha is fluent in Russian, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin, and Morse code.
* OneWomanArmy: While Happy is busy fighting one Hammer security guard, Romanoff's already taken out ten of them without much trouble.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** After seeing her combat skills in ''Film/IronMan2'' and early in ''The Avengers'', her constantly controlled terror in the presence of Bruce Banner establishes just how dangerous the Hulk is.
** Also in ''The Winter Soldier'' with the eponymous antagonist. With an out of control Hulk, she at least fires a few bullets before running. When she comes up against the Winter Soldier, she just runs.
** Steve is pleased to see how open she is around Bruce, noting she must ''really'' have it bad for him considering she's not the most open person in the world.
** After suffering through five years of a post-snap world in ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', Natasha can't help but break down in tears upon ending a conference call with her fellow heroes.
* TheParagon: Arguably, both a) in the short window she became high-profile since [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the Battle of New York]] to the [[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar Avengers Civil War]], and b) with her post-Snap leadership of the Avengers and her HeroicSacrifice. Yelena noted how, even while Natasha was technically a wanted fugitive at the time, she's the one "[[YouGoGirl little girls call their hero]]".[[note]]This is also likely because the other female in the team (at least in the New Avengers lineup), [[HeroWithBadPublicity Wanda, remained mysterious and not exactly the most PR-friendly]].[[/note]]
** In a DeletedScene of ''Film/BlackWidow2021'', she encounters a girl roleplaying as Black Widow amongst her Avengers-roleplaying friends--much like [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier how Steve encountered a kid who looks up to him]].
** This continues after her death: ''Series/Hawkeye2021'' portrays her as memorialized in ''Rogers: The Musical'', a girl watching shows up with her hair done in Natasha's ''Endgame''-era braids, and she (together with the original six Avengers) are recognized in a memorial plaque for the Battle of New York.
* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: Up until she was brought in by Hawkeye (as detailed by ''Film/TheAvengers2012''), there has never been a publicly-known defection from an active Black Widow of the Red Room. That said, her solo film downplays this and shows she was not the only one: Oksana and more importantly, Yelena and Melina, were eventually shown to be involved in an effort to finally take the Red Room down.
* PintSizedPowerhouse: She's the shortest of the original six Avengers, and yet holds her own against burly dudes, alien invaders, and SuperSoldier Bucky Barnes.
* PipePain: While securing the engine room in the Lemurian Star, she knocks out the last pirate by picking up a nearby pipe and hitting him in the head with it.
* PlatonicLifePartners:
** Hawkeye is her closest confidant and best friend. Loki sneeringly asks if it's love and she shoots down the idea. In ''Age of Ultron'', she's shown to be good friends with his wife and kids, whom the other Avengers didn't even know existed. ''Endgame'' reveals that Natasha and Clint care for each other so much that they qualify as each other’s “that which you love” sacrifices needed to obtain the Soul Stone.
** She later develops a close friendship with Steve.
*** During ''The Winter Soldier'', they open up emotionally to each other and end up as close friends.
*** Throughout ''Age of Ultron'' their strong dynamic is often emphasized to the point of them leading up the new Avengers lineup together by the end.
*** In ''Civil War'', while she sides with Tony, she still considers Captain America her true friend and repeatedly advises him to work with Tony, and eventually defects and helps Captain America and Winter Soldier escape in the airport at Leipzig.
*** By ''Infinity War'', the two of them and Sam have been vigilante fugitives for some time. As a team, they work seamlessly together.
* PlayAlongPrisoner: This is part of her MO.
** In ''The Avengers'', she's tied to a chair in a warehouse, being slapped around by Russian thugs who want to know what she knows, when Coulson calls and tells her that Hawkeye has been compromised. She objects that she's performing a successful interrogation, then puts him on hold, beats the tar out of her captors [[WithMyHandsTied while still tied]] to that chair, and easily escapes.
** In ''Black Widow,'' she allows [[spoiler:Dreykov]] to be in control right until he reveals the information she needs, and then attacks him and forces him to flee.
* PopCulturedBadass: She playfully quotes ''Film/WarGames'' while hacking into Arnim Zola's computer in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' and is enough of a Film/JamesBond fan to quote along to ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' in [[Film/BlackWidow2021 her solo film.]]
* PortmanteauCoupleName: InUniverse there are people shipping her with [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight Quake]], calling them "Quack".
* PreAsskickingOneLiner: Gives one before taking out many of Batroc's pirates.
-->'''Natasha:''' Hello sailor.
* PrimaryColorChampion: Natasha has red hair, blue eyes, and she sometimes wears a SpyCatsuit with blue highlights. Her weapons also emit a blue or red glow in battle while some of her equipment has yellow/gold on them.
* ProfessionalKiller: Before joining SHIELD, she was an assassin. After joining SHIELD, she tries to be something more.
* PromotedToLoveInterest: She has had little interaction with Bruce Banner in the comics, but becomes his love interest in ''Age of Ultron''. This is partially because Bucky Barnes and Daredevil, Widow's two major love interests in the comics, have no real connection to her in the MCU continuity.
* RedBaron: According to ''The Avengers'', she is "the famous Black Widow" to post-Soviet Union countries.
* RedIsHeroic: Her hair is red and ''Film/BlackWidow2021'' has her using weapons with red motifs.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: In a way. She expresses a desire throughout the Infinity Saga to atone for her past and "wipe the red from my ledger" as she puts it. In ''Endgame'' her sacrifice directly allows the reversal of the Decimation and bringing trillions back from the dead, so one can interpret this as her final redemptive act.
* ScarsAreForever: In ''Winter Soldier'', Steve asks her how she knows so much about the Winter Soldier. She shows him a bullet scar on her gut.
* SeenItAll: In ''Endgame'', Natasha notes that after she's reached the point of getting e-mails from a talking raccoon, there's not much left to impress her. At the same time, she's still awed she gets to travel through space.
* SensualSlavs: She "used to be" Russian but when she does speak in Russian, it's very seductive as per the character.
* SexySecretary: As part of her Stark Industries cover, she becomes the latest secretary at the company and she knows that Tony HasAType. She's first hired as Tony's personal assistant and later becomes Pepper's, as she is the new CEO of the company.
* SheFu: Utilizes a lot of flips and slides in her fighting style, though she does also use other kinds of close combat.
* ShipTease: As the only girl on a team of straight dudes, she gets teased with Steve, Tony, Clint, and most especially with Bruce. However most end up becoming PlatonicLifePartners (see below).
* ShipperOnDeck: She spends a lot of ''Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' casually suggesting people Steve should ask out on a date, even during less-than-opportune moments. There is an emphasis on Sharon/Agent 13. In ''Avengers: Endgame'', she switches track to Cap and his old flame Peggy Carter, as she gets a big smile on her face when she sees that Cap still has Peggy’s picture.
* ShipsThatPassInTheNight: InUniverse, people ship her with Quake.
* ShockStick: Natasha uses a pair of electroshock batons during the final battle of ''Avengers: Age of Ultron''.
* SiblingTeam: Natasha and Yelena are this during their mission of terminating the Red Room in ''Black Widow''.
* SignatureMove: [[http://fyeahmcublackwidow.tumblr.com/post/155534993391/multi-trash-girl-those-deadly-legs/embed Strangling or throwing someone to the ground by wrapping her legs around their neck/upper torso]]. Courtesy of Scarlett Johansson's usual stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker, and appropriate for a character named after a spider. ''Series/AgentCarter'' reveals this move was part of the training program. Bucky is the only person in the entire series [[NoSell who it doesn't work on]].
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: In ''The Avengers,'' Loki tries to lecture her on it. Not that she needed any lecturing in the first place:
-->'''Natasha:''' Love is for children. I owe him a debt.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: With Bruce.
-->'''Natasha:''' All my friends are fighters. I've never met a man before who avoids the fight because he knows he'll win.
* SlaveToPR: Why Natasha supported the Accords in ''Civil War''. Not that she agrees wholeheartedly, but she feels that if the Avengers show they are willing to compromise and co-operate then they could reduce some of their bad press, and likewise stave off even worse fetters on their activities.
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin: One of the many languages she speaks, as she proves to Tony in ''Iron Man 2''.
-->'''Romanoff:''' Fallaces sunt rerum species.[[note]]The appearances of things are deceptive.[[/note]]
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only female Avenger at first. She loses this status in ''Age of Ultron'' when Scarlet Witch joins TheTeam.
* SpyCatsuit: This is her "work outfit" so to speak because she is a spy. During her solo movie, she dons a white version of the suit.
* StaticStunGun: Natasha has wrist-mounted stun guns that generate a high amount of voltage or can shoot electrified discs, allowing her to shock people up close and afar. They're aptly called [[MeaningfulName Widow's Bite.]]
* TheStoic: Has a generally dour, serious demeanor. In her solo movie, it contrasts her sister's flippancy and snarking.
* SueDonym: Her alias in Iron Man 2 "Natalie Rushman" is basically an anglicized version of her name.
* SuperheroPackingHeat: Has a pair of handguns on her, for when hand-to-hand is not sufficient (which, for her skills, shows how tough the threat has to be).
* SuperWristGadget: "Widow's Bite", two prototype electricity weapons that fire from her wrists. She uses these several times to take down Chitauri foot soldiers.
* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: In ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', she tried to warn Steve to not get involved and, despite fighting him and the Anti-Registration Avengers, at the end of the brawl she deliberately allows Steve and Bucky to escape by incapacitating a pursuing Black Panther as the two board the Quinjet.
* TeamMom: Interestingly, she seems to fall into this role for the Avengers more often than not. She's quite the emotional support to Hawkeye, Cap, and even Tony especially in ''The Avengers'' and ''Captain America: Civil War''. At one point in ''Avengers: Age of Ultron'' Natasha even complains about having to pick up after "the boys" like they’re a bunch of kids and she's the babysitter. It comes to a head in ''Avengers: Endgame'' where she is keeping tabs on everyone and treats the Avengers like they're her family. When she dies, the original Avengers become absolutely distraught.
* TerritorialSmurfette: Subverted. Tony Stark ''expects'' this to happen with her and Pepper, but the two of them get along fine. Pepper takes it as a sign of Tony's arrogance that he'd assume another LoveTriangle would form over him.
* ThreePointLanding: She does this pretty often, to the point she's even the page image. Lampshaded in ''Film/BlackWidow2021'', in which Yelena constantly makes fun of her for it.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl:
** She has this dynamic with Wanda Maximoff. Whereas Natasha is a calm but aggressive hand-to-hand fighter who dresses in all black and is OneOfTheGuys, Wanda is more emotional, wears a dress, jewelry and long hair into battle, and occupies a position closer to EveryonesBabySister (except to Vision, who becomes her boyfriend).
** She also has this dynamic with her surrogate younger sister Yelena, especially when they were children. In the flashback to their time in Ohio in ''Film/BlackWidow2021,'' Natasha has [[BoyishShortHair short hair]], wears active clothing, and loves riding her bike, while Yelena has [[LongHairIsFeminine long blonde hair,]] [[PinkIsFeminine wears pink,]] and has a Franchise/MyLittlePony plush.
* TronLines: Her costume in ''Age of Ultron'' has blue accents in it, which are reflective so they glow when lit the right way.
* {{Tykebomb}}: Raised as an assassin by a Russian general who wants to control the world from the shadows.
* UndercoverAsLovers: In ''The Winter Soldier,'' while on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D. and doing some hacking in a mall, Cap and Natasha pretend to be fiancés looking up honeymoon sites.
* UnderhandedHero: She fits this trope to a tee. She's an assassin trained by Leviathan, the Russian equivalent of HYDRA, before eventually turning on the other Black Widows and joining S.H.I.E.L.D..
* UndyingLoyalty: Despite being a morally ambiguous spy, she has immense loyalty to Nick Fury and later, to Captain America. It is best demonstrated with her willingness to make all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets public -- including the atrocities in her own past -- to destroy HYDRA because that was Steve's plan.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The information she leaks to the internet on S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA is used by Zemo to enact his plans in ''Civil War'' to drive the Avengers apart.
* UseYourHead: During her interrogation scene in the first Avengers movie, she takes a Russian weapons dealer out with a headbutt. Later, during the same fight, she hits one of his henchmen with the back of her head.
* WaifFu: In ''Iron Man 2'', she blows through a building's security detail with a combination of non-lethal weaponry and improbable martial arts -- all in the time it takes Happy Hogan to take down one guard with conventional boxing technique.
* WeaknessTurnsHerOn: What does the tough-as-nails and attractive Natasha Romanoff see in the nebbish and scruffy Bruce Banner? Why, it's his weak, vulnerable, and scared soft center. Precisely, Bruce being WillfullyWeak because [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan he's scared of hurting others]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: She basically disappears from the rest of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' after she tells off Tony after the airport brawl to go into hiding. The next time we see her in ''Infinity War'', she's caught up with the rest of the renegade Avengers and is fighting alongside Steve and Sam. Her solo movie, ''Film/{{Black Widow|2021}}'', shows what she was up to in-between ''Civil War'' and ''Infinity War'' (for starters, she did go into hiding, as General Ross didn't take well her tasing Black Panther).
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes:
** Noticeably terrified of the Hulk, which gives her an uncharacteristic lack of composure in his presence. This is something Banner picks up on immediately. Worse still, Natasha's fears come true when she finds an enraged Hulk rampaging directly at her, and it's as scary as you'd imagine. [[TheDreaded No one would really hold this against her.]]
** Ends up fighting the Winter Soldier while clearly terrified, since the last time they met he nearly killed her, and ''did'' kill the person she was protecting.
* TheWorfEffect:
** Downplayed as she does sucker punch him several times and shoots him in his goggles (which would have shot him in the eye if he wasn't wearing said goggles) but she falls victim to this against the Winter Soldier, spending nearly their entire fight running away from him. She is under much greater stress against him than she ever was against Loki or the Chitauri, which demonstrates to the audience just how scary the Soldier is. This is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] as the Chitauri were so threatening because of [[ZergRush their strength in numbers]], and while they possessed enhanced strength like Captain America and the Winter Soldier, [[UnskilledButStrong but had such terrible close combat skills]] that they make the Hulk look like a martial artist. She also never had to physically fight Loki (who is [[PhysicalGod even stronger]] than Cap) and instead engaged him in a battle of wits, an arena in which they are [[GuileHero much more]] [[ManipulativeBastard evenly matched.]]
** Emotionally, as the most unflappable member of the Avengers, something's gone horribly wrong if she's, well, flapped. Such as a portal spewing alien armies into New York, or the Winter Soldier. Which is, admittedly, [[HeroKiller a perfectly sensible precaution]].
* {{Workaholic}}: In ''Endgame'', Natasha buries herself in work to forget the Decimation. It doesn't work at all, with her trying to address an ''underwater earthquake'' before being shot down by Okoye.
* WouldHurtAChild: One of the more shocking revelations in her solo film is [[spoiler:that in order to accomplish her mission of assassinating General Dreykov in Budapest, Natasha used Dreykov's young daughter Antonia as bait to lure him out in the open so she could detonate a bomb planted in his office, and did this while fully aware that the kid would be caught in the blast radius. When Yelena coaxes her into confessing this, Natasha justifies her actions as a necessary evil and writes Antonia off as collateral damage, though she is later shown to feel guilt for it.]]
* WrestlerInAllOfUs: In both ''Iron Man 2'' and ''The Avengers'', she frequently employs the Frankensteiner (headscissors takedown with a backflip) to battle opponents. This is actually based on the real Russian Martial art called Sambo. She just added some American-style moves to complement her high agility.
* YouJustToldMe: Her favored means of interrogation is getting someone else to interrogate ''her'', and their questions reveal their intentions and[=/=]or plans. She pulls this on the Russian smuggler, General Dreykov and Loki. Just to reiterate: she ''tricked'' the ''[[DidYouJustScamCthulhu Norse god of mischief]]''.
* YouKilledMyMother: Part of the reason why Natasha is willing to take down Dreykov is that he is responsible for [[spoiler:the death of her biological mother.]]
[[/folder]]

!!Variants

[[folder:King Loki's Black Widow]]
!!''Agent Natasha Romanoff / ComicBook/BlackWidow''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e398a239_3bd0_492f_baa5_f1d73d8e6224.jpeg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
!!!'''Birth Name:''' Natasha Ivanovna Romanova
!!!'''Species:''' Human
!!!'''Citizenship:''' American (formerly Soviet-Russian)
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/LakeBell
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''[[WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021 What If...?]]''

On Earth-51825, Natasha was framed for the death of Tony Stark.
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* DeadAlternateCounterpart: [[spoiler:To the Black Widow of Infinity Ultron's universe, who is allowed by the Watcher to migrate to this Natasha's universe and take her place as a reward for saving the multiverse.]]
* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Rather than die sacrificing herself so Clint can obtain the Soul Stone, Natasha in this timeline [[spoiler:is killed by a vengeful Hank Pym]].
* FrameUp: Target of one: [[spoiler:Natasha injects Tony with a syringe of lithium dioxide, where a shrunken Hank kills him from the inside, making it look like she was wholly responsible for Tony's death.]]
* KilledOffScreen: [[spoiler:We never actually see how Natasha is killed; the last we see of her, she was dragged away into the darkness by Hank]].
* OneWomanArmy: Natasha breaks out of her handcuffs with ease and beats up a S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra squad by herself.
* TranquilFury: After learning that [[spoiler:Hawkeye]] has been killed she goes quiet and calmly asks Nick Fury, "Who do I kill?"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Zombie Apocalypse's Black Widow]]
!!''Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f620eb71_532a_4782_b321_33924e185b72.jpeg]]
!!!'''Species:''' Human
!!!'''Voiced By:''' N/A
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''[[WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021 What If...?]]''

On Earth-89521, Black Widow was overwhelmed by the undead horde alongside the other Avengers.
----
* NeverFoundTheBody: We see her get overwhelmed by the horde but unlike the other Avengers involved in the bridge fight, we never see her again afterwards, leaving it uncertain if she turned, got completely devoured, or managed to get out.
* UncertainDoom: Although we see her get dogpiled by the zombies in the scene where the Avengers get DevouredByTheHorde, we never see her zombified form during the rest of the episode, leaving it unclear whether or not she managed to escape or if she died and subsequently turned.
* TheVoiceless: She doesn't speak any lines in the only scene she appears in.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After the Avengers are attacked by zombies at the beginning of the episode, the rest of the Avengers, except for Natasha, appear later in the episode as zombies or as survivors. Her fate is unknown.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Infinity Ultron's Black Widow]]
!!''Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d1e60b7a_3399_461b_9d2c_a78f8bafc922.jpeg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
!!!'''Species:''' Human
!!!'''Affiliation(s):''' Guardians of the Multiverse
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/LakeBell
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''[[WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021 What If...?]]''

On Earth-29929, Black Widow is one the only survivors of Ultron's conquest along with Hawkeye, and seek a way to shut him down for good.
----
* EleventhHourRanger: [[spoiler:She is the last hero to join the Guardians of the Multiverse in their final battle against Infinity Ultron. Later on, she joins Captain America and Captain Marvel in fighting against King Loki's army.]]
* AdaptationalCurves: Due to spending years fighting Ultron's forces, Natasha is more muscular in this universe than in most others.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Likely due to the stress of being the only other survivor of a more or less dead world, this version of Widow is much quicker with a quip or a joke than the Sacred Timeline version, in contrast to her version of Clint being much more depressed than his Sacred Timeline counterpart.
* AndThisIsFor: [[spoiler:As she fires the arrow containing Arnima Zola's program at Infinity Ultron she whispers "This one's for you, Clint."]]
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: She asks the Watcher if he made popcorn while Ultron murdered her friends and destroyed her Earth.
* CanonImmigrant: She gets [[spoiler:migrated to Earth-51825 by The Watcher as a reward for helping defeat Ultron and because her homeworld has become an extinct wasteland thanks to Ultron. After all she's been through, she thanks Uatu for giving her a new home.]]
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: [[spoiler:She is able to knock down Loki with a kick.]]
* DeadAlternateCounterpart: {{Subverted|Trope}}, as she's the only survivor of her universe.
* TheDeterminator: Even after Ultron destroyed the Avengers and blasted the Earth into nuclear winter, she still won't stop fighting to defeat him. This is in contrast with Clint, who has crossed the DespairEventHorizon.
* DoppelgangerGetsSameSentiment: [[spoiler:Despite this being the first time they met, with Natasha likely only knowing of her due to her friendship with Steve, when Captain Carter interacts with her she shows the same level of trust she would with her version of Natasha, who is apparently her best friend. The same is true when she saves the alternate Nick Fury, who is quick to figure out she can't be his Natasha but senses that she is trustworthy.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:After losing her entire universe, including her friend Clint, to Ultron and losing the only means (i.e. Infinity Stones) to restore it, Natasha finally gets a happy ending from the Watcher as a reward for saving the Multiverse: he brings her to to the universe from episode 3, where most of the Avengers were killed, so she can take the place of their fallen Black Widow.]]
* EmpoweredBadassNormal: Doctor Strange Supreme grants her and her arsenal a protection spell during the final battle against Infinity Ultron.
* LastOfHerKind: She is the last human in her world and likely the last sentient being left in the universe [[spoiler:with Infinity Ultron killed and Zola being trapped in a pocket dimension]].
* LovelyAngels: Fits this with [[spoiler:Captain Carter. The two use their respective shields together (i.e. a double [[VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroes Charging Star]] from both of them) against Infinity Ultron, and the two are able to work out a plan to infect Infinity Ultron with Armin Zola]].
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Locates Red Guardian's shield while searching the KGB's archive and takes it with her while escaping the Ultron drones. She uses it to pull off some Steve Rogers-style ricochet moves, [[spoiler:which makes it easy for her to fight alongside Captain Carter. Unfortunately, it gets disintegrated when Infinity Ultron unleashes a pretty powerful wave]].
* PostApunkalypticArmor: Wears rusted armor cobbled together with shoulder and knee pads.
* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:Uatu takes her to the universe where Hank Pym killed Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Thor, Clint and her counterpart so she could take the place of its Black Widow. She arrives just in time to save Nick Fury from Loki, who notes that she isn't his Natasha but he senses the same spirit.]]
* SadClown: She quips and jokes around more than usual, but it's implied that she uses this to cope for the hellish situation she's in because of Ultron.
* SixthRanger: To The Guardians of the Multiverse. It's implied that Uatu didn't personally recruit her unlike the others because he foresaw her joining the team when the other members get transported into her earth. She also becomes this to [[spoiler:the replacement Avengers from King Loki's earth.]]
* SoleSurvivor: With Hawkeye's sacrifice, Black Widow is the last remaining Avenger and possibly the only organic being left in her universe.
* SparedByTheAdaptation: Compared to her Sacred Timeline counterpart and her other variants in this show, this Black Widow is the only one who survives the events of what happens, though at a heavy cost.
* TakeUpMySword: [[spoiler:Uses Clint's bow to fire the arrow containing Armin Zola at Infinity Ultron.]]
* UnkemptBeauty: Because of living in a post-apocalyptic Earth and thus having no time to take a bath or wash her clothes, she's covered in dirt and sports a more disheveled hairstyle. She still looks very pretty regardless.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler:After defeating Infinity Ultron and saving the Multiverse, Natasha tells Uatu that she will not go back through the door to her universe, as there's nothing left for her there. Uatu anticipates this answer and instead takes her to a new universe to call home]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Captain Carter's Black Widow]]
!!''Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow''
[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fd45663b_656b_4179_b21e_af34d8727d42.jpeg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:325:some caption text]]
!!!'''Species:''' Human
!!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/LakeBell
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''[[WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021 What If...?]]''

On Earth-82111, Black Widow is good friends with Peggy Carter, who became the super soldier Captain Carter in this universe.
----
* BestFriend: Is this to Captain Carter, who knows a lot about Natasha's background and even refers to her as a "BFF" when talking to her counterpart.
* ForWantOfANail: Unlike her Sacred Timeline counterpart, she somehow knows that her biological father's name is Ivan.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: She's this with Captain Carter.
* InSpiteOfANail: During the opening mission from ''The Winter Soldier'', she is trying to convince Peggy to go on a date with a coworker the same way her Sacred Timeline counterpart did with Steve.
* InTheBack: She knocks Batroc out by electrocuting him from behind.
[[/folder]]
----
->''"It's okay."''

!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Film/IronMan2'' | ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' | ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' | ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' | ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' | ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' [[note]]In a video recording [[/note]] | ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' [[note]]Archive footage from ''Age of Ultron''[[/note]] | ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' | ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}'' [[note]]In TheStinger[[/note]] | ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' | ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' [[note]]Archive photography [[/note]] | ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'' [[note]]Archive footage[[/note]] | ''Film/{{Black Widow|2021}}'' | ''[[Series/Hawkeye2021 Hawkeye]]'' [[note]]Flashback with archive footage from ''Endgame'' and archive audio from ''Black Widow''[[/note]]

* GroinAttack: She hits one of Hammer's security guards in the crotch while breaking into the the facility Ivan Vanko's hiding at.

* PrimaryColorChampion: Natasha has red hair and she sometimes wears a SpyCatsuit with blue highlights. Her weapons also emit a blue or red glow in battle while some of her equipment has yellow/gold on them.

[[folder:Zombie Apocalypse Black Widow]]

----

* RedheadedHero: Red hair for an Avenger, though she temporarily becomes blonde while on the run.

* UnkemptBeauty: She's covered in dirt and has a more disheveled hairstyle, but she's still looks very pretty regardless.

* SixthRanger: To The Guardians of the Multiverse. It's implied that Uatu didn't personally recruit her unlike the others because he foresaw her joining the team when the other members get transported into her earth.

!!!'''Birth Name:''' Natalia Alianovna "Natasha" Romanoff

!!!'''Birth Name:''' Natasha Ivanovna Romanova