Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow): Actress, Sister and Story

Natasha Romanoff is a former Russian assassin turned S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and Avenger, known to the world as Black Widow. Scarlett Johansson plays her in all eight of her films, and she first appears in Iron Man 2 (2010), directed by Jon Favreau, under the cover name Natalie Rushman. Tony Stark hires Natalie as his assistant, and Nick Fury later tells him that she is really the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff.

The credits across the films use several names for her: "Natalie Rushman / Natasha Romanoff", "Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow" and "Young Natasha". They all describe one character at different moments of her life. In Black Widow (2021), directed by Cate Shortland, Ever Anderson plays Young Natasha.

The origin that film gives her is a hard one. In 1995 two Russian agents pose as a married couple with two daughters in Ohio, then escape to Cuba, where the girls are taken to a secret training program called the Red Room, run by General Dreykov. That is where Natasha and her sister Yelena begin.

Natasha's closest relationship is with her sister Yelena Belova, played by Florence Pugh. The two grew up together inside the false family of Black Widow (2021), where Alexei, a jailed Russian super soldier, plays their father and Melina, who works on the mind control technology, plays their mother. After years apart the sisters reunite, learn that Dreykov is still alive, and agree to destroy the Red Room.

Dreykov, the head of the Red Room, is her chief enemy there. His daughter Antonia, who is controlled and fights as Taskmaster, attacks Natasha in Norway. Natasha frees her with the antidote.

Among the Avengers, her bond with Clint Barton, known as Hawkeye, matters most to her ending. She is also tied to Steve Rogers, whom she runs with in The Winter Soldier, and to Nick Fury, who brings her into the effort to find Bruce Banner in Kolkata.

Does Natasha love Tony Stark? None of her films show a romance between them. In Iron Man 2 she works undercover as his assistant, and in Civil War she sides with Tony Stark at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Why did she betray Iron Man? She did not. In Iron Man 2 she was following S.H.I.E.L.D. orders under a cover name. Who did Natasha marry, and who is she married to in Marvel? None of her eight films show a marriage. Her fake family in Black Widow (2021) is the nearest the story comes.

In my opinion, Natasha's best moments are the ones where she wins by information or by nerve, not by a fight. The top pick, for me, is the file dump in The Winter Soldier, when she exposes Pierce and releases S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets to the public. She then faces a government hearing, and it is a spy's version of a big set piece.

Second, perhaps, is the Helicarrier in The Avengers (2012), where she frees Barton while the Hulk is loose on the ship. It is the first time the team looks like a team, and her small action holds the scene together.

Third is the moment in Black Widow (2021) when she breaks her own nose to beat the scent that stops Widows from harming Dreykov. It is gruesome and clever, and it says more about the Red Room than a speech would.

It could be argued that her Endgame sacrifice belongs first, and that is a fair call. I place it just below the file dump because the Endgame scene builds on her whole arc, while the file dump is the single choice that shows who she had become.