Natalia Alianovna "Natasha Romanoff" Romanova (Russian: Наталья Альяновна "Наташа" Романова) is introduced as a spy for the Soviet Union until she defects to the United States.

Black Widow stories often explore her struggle to define her own identity as a spy and the trauma she endured from her life of training in the Red Room.

Black Widow's status as a leading female character and femme fatale has influenced her portrayal, which was often contradictory as comics grappled with the conflict between traditional gender roles and second-wave feminism.

Natasha Romanoff was portrayed by Scarlett Johansson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise from the character's first appearance in Iron Man 2 (2010) to her final one in Black Widow (2021).

[3] Black Widow first took the role of a supervillain in Tales of Suspense #64 (1965) after the Soviet government gave her a costume and equipment when they forced her to continue working for them.

[8] At the end of the story, she reformed and allied with the Avengers, as her love for Hawkeye motivated her to switch sides after recovering from brainwashing by the Soviet government.

[12] Black Widow went one year without being in any new comic books until she appeared in Avengers #76 (1970) to end her relationship with Hawkeye (then named Goliath), effectively making her an independent character.

[16] Marvel's first series to feature stories led by a female superhero,[17] it portrayed Black Widow as a wealthy jet setter who doubled as a crime-fighter.

Writers Roy Thomas and then Gerry Conway moved it away from politics in favor of melodrama, developing the relationship between Black Widow and her father figure Ivan Petrovich.

[27] Originally intended to be a duo of Iceman and Angel, editor Len Wein mandated several changes to The Champions, including the requirement of a female character.

Isabella wanted to continue this story by revealing Ivan to be Black Widow's biological father, but he left Marvel Comics after completing the issue.

[20] She made an appearance in the anthology book Bizarre Adventures #25 (1981), as one of the superheroines leading a story written by Ralph Macchio and illustrated by Paul Gulacy under the issue's "Lethal Ladies" theme.

[33] Macchio made it explicit in this run that Black Widow killed adversaries when necessary and obtained information from another character by having sex with him, portraying things that were usually left ambiguous in comic books at the time.

[20] Black Widow returned to Daredevil in issue #362 (1997), which had her become more vengeful as she responded to the Onslaught event that caused the apparent deaths of her allies in the Avengers.

[43] Black Widow then starred in a three-issue arc, "The Fire Next Time", by writer Scott Lobdell and penciller Randy Green, in Journey into Mystery #517–519 (1998).

With the character's popularity came additional publications, such as Black Widow and the Marvel Girls (2010), which was created by Salvador Espin, Veronica Gandini, Takeshi Miyazawa, and Paul Tobin.

[71] She trains in the Red Room, where she is augmented through biotechnology; the process brings her body to its physical peak and slows cellular degeneration, enabling her to remain young and in her prime for decades.

This Nick Fury is discovered to be a Life Model Decoy created by Osborn, and Natasha escapes to help Maria Hill revive Tony Stark, who had previously wiped his own mind.

[36] This identity crisis grew when Black Widow discovered that many of her memories, including the loss of her husband and her time as a professional ballerina, were faked by the Soviet Union.

[93] With her defection to the United States, Marvel reinforced its interpretation of Black Widow as an agent of good through her work with the American heroes opposed to her villainous period with the Soviet Union.

[90] Femme fatale characters frequently have origins in Russia,[97] and Black Widow's rejection of American gender roles in the 1960s reflected the otherness that she represented as an agent of the Soviet Union.

[98] The character's surname Romanova invites comparison to the Romanov family that was killed during the Russian Revolution, drawing parallels of suffering at the hands of the Soviets.

[105] Her characterization as a woman who rejects domesticity and poses a danger to men is representative of the female black widow spider, which kills and eats its male partner.

[91] Other aspects of Black Widow remain in alignment with traditional gender roles, including her practice as a ballerina and her portrayal as a victim of trauma.

She was one of many female action heroes to follow a trend in the 1970s where strong women were portrayed as traditionally attractive, as writers tried to appease both the target male demographic and the feminist movement.

[18] He was initially portrayed as a father figure throughout her childhood, but newer accounts of Black Widow's history place her in training under the Soviet government for much of this time.

[127] Andrea Towers of Polygon cited Black Widow's grounded values of empathy and loyalty as keeping the character relevant amid her inconsistent publication,[36] while comic writer Nathan Edmondson attributed this longevity to her archetypal depiction coupled with a strong identity.

[27] Psychologist and popular culture writer Sherry Ginn praised Black Widow as a strong female role model, though other commentators have challenged this based on her history as a villain and depictions of the character as a damsel in distress.

Her "Web of Intrigue" (1983) appearances in Marvel Fanfare and her Deadly Origin (2010) series received praise for their artwork, with the latter standing out for its contrasting art styles by Tom Raney and John Paul Leon in the flashback and present-day segments.

The script depicted Black Widow as a magazine publisher with a double-life as a crime-fighter, having her fight a crime syndicate called Octopus that killed her father.