A member of the super-hero team the Avengers published by Marvel Comics.
Natalia Alianovna Romanova is a decendent of the Russian royal family. Found by a Russian soldier, Ivan Petrovitch, Natasha, as she is sometimes called, was raised by Ivan and he served for a time as her chauffer.
Natasha was an excellent student and athlete, performing for a time with the Russian ballet. She married Alexi Shstakov, a Soviet test pilot, who became the first Soviet super-hero, Red Guardian. While training for his new role, Alexi was reported to be dead. Natasha told the Russian government that she wished to begin training as spy in memory of her husband. Natasha was trained in the Red Room, a legendary facility for spy training. There she again excelled, becoming known as the Black Widow.
The Black Widow's first cases put her in conflict with Iron Man as she sought to steal military secrets from Stark International. She partnered with Hawkeye, but he eventually left her to seek a pardon for his crimes and serve with the Avengers. She came into conflict with the super-hero team and was convinced to defect to the United States.
She served as an agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. for a time and was a crimefighting partner of Daredevil as well. She helped found and led the shortlived superhero team the Champions.
When the Avengers were taken to an alternate universe during the Onslaught conflict, Black Widow attempted to keep the team alive, but eventually was forced to shut down the Avengers, due to a lack of commitment from other members of the team.
Recently, Natasha has come into conflict with a new spy from Russia, Yelena Belova, who is the new Black Widow in the Russian spy network.
The Black Widow is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and acrobat. Her costume allows her to stick to walls and she is armed with wrist bracelets that fire a cable for climbing, as well as an electrical blast Natasha calls her widow's bite.
Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (sic) has been portrayed on film by Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Black Widow (2021). These films are all parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.