Black Widow Anti-Hero
Real Name: Natalia Alianovna Romanov (anglicized from the Russian form, Romanova). ("Natasha" is the informal version of her name. She has long ago dropped her married surname of Shostakova.)
Occupation: Espionage agent, former assassin.
Identity: Secret; the Black Widow's existence is a classified secret in the intelligence community.
Legal Status: Naturalized citizen of the United States with no criminal record, former citizen of Russia.
Other Aliases: Tasha, Natalie Romanoff, Natalie Rushman, many others used on assignment.
Place of Birth: St. Petersburg, Russia.
Marital Status: Divorced, officially widowed.
Known Relatives: Alexei Shostakov (alias Red Guardian, ex-husband).
Group Affiliation: Employee of the CIA, partnered with Nick Fury; former employee of the Russian FSB.
Base of Operations: Arlington, Virginia; formerly Moscow, Russia.
First Post-Reboot Appearance: SECRET AGENT NICK FURY #3.
History: Natasha Romanov originally trained as a ballerina, but her career ended when she married test pilot Alexi Shostakov. When he apparently died in an accident involving live-fire testing, she was in the proper emotional state to be recruited into the FSB (Federal Security Bureau of the Russian Federation, the successor to the infamous KGB). (Unknown to Natasha at the time, Shostakov's death had been staged, and he was given the role of the now-current Red Guardian.)
Natasha was trained as an espionage agent in the FSB, specializing in the infiltration of organizations and elimination of key personnel (assassination). Ultimately, she became known in the Intelligence community as the mysterious Black Widow, such was the reputation she cultivated both inside and outside Russia.
It was on one such assignment for the FSB that she first crossed paths with the American agent Nick Fury, when she was ordered to get close enough to him to kill him. During this assignment, which involved her seeming defection to the CIA under deep cover, she encountered her supposedly late husband.
Upset that she had been lied to for so long by both the FSB and her husband, Natasha explained everything to Fury, offering to operate as a double agent. During this time, she fed the CIA information on the FSB while stalling the latter in regards to her assignment. The FSB, however, discovered that her defection had become genuine and sent Red Guardian to kill her.
While Natasha survived that attempt, no one can tell for certain whether he pulled his punches. In addition, due to certain things Alexi said, Natasha has become uncertain as to whether her marriage – or any of her past, for that matter – was real or if it was implanted through telepathy and hypnosis.
Today Natasha is one of the few people fully trusted by Fury.
Age: 27.
Height: 5' 7".
Weight: 125 lbs.
Eyes: Green.
Hair: Auburn.
Uniform: Officially none. When going into a combat situation, however, she tends to wear a blue-black bodysuit made from an advanced/experimental ballistic fabric, blue-black gloves, blue-black boots, gold utility belt, pistol holsters strapped to her thighs, and her bracelet guns.
Strength Level: The Black Widow possesses the normal human strength of a woman her apparent age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.
Known Superhuman Powers: None.
Other Abilities: The Black Widow is an Olympic-level gymnast, a skilled hand to hand combatant, and a marksman with most conventional handguns. She is also skilled at faking a number of accents from across the world, and is fluent in over a dozen languages, including but not limited to Russian, English, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, French, Spanish, and German.
Weapons: The Black Widow wears a pair of bracelets with various weaponry built in, the actual loadout changing based on the needs of the assignment. Among the weapons depicted so far have been aerosol gas sprayers, low-caliber caseless projectiles, lasers, a retractable garrote, a taser, and a vortex ring projector. In addition, one of the bracelets can fire a grapnel line which can embed itself in brick up to 300 feet away.
In addition, Natasha Romanov carries a pair of Glock 20 pistols, using the full-powered 10mm Auto round. She normally loads the pistols with dual-purpose APHP (armor-piercing hollow-point) ammunition. (This round is a hollow-point round with a dense core protruding into the hollow cavity. Against "hard" or armored targets, the bullet acts as an armor-piercing round, while against "soft" fleshy targets, such as a human body, the bullet acts like a standard hollow-point round.) While she rarely uses it, both pistols are equipped with laser sights.
"I'm in the middle of an interrogation here. This moron is telling me everything."
– Agent Romanoff, Marvel's Avengers
964 points
| ST: 12 [20] | HP: 15 [6] | Speed: 7.50 [0] |
| DX: 15 [100] | Will: 14 [10] | Move: 10 [15] |
| IQ: 12 [40] | Per: 14 [10] | |
| HT: 15 [50] | FP: 15 [0] | SM: 0 |
| Dmg: 2d-1/3d+1 | BL: 29 lbs. | |
| Dodge: 14 | Parry: 17 | DR: 12/4* (uniform) |
Languages: English (Native) [4]; Russian (Native) (Native Language) [0].
Cultural Familiarities: Eastern European (Native) [0].
Advantages: Ambidexterity [5]; Appearance (Beautiful) [12]; Charisma 3 [15]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Cultural Adaptability [10]; Empathy [15]; Enhanced Dodge 3 [45]; Enhanced Parry (All Parries) 3 [30]; Extra Attack 1 [25]; Fearlessness 2 [4]; Flexibility [5]; Gunslinger [25]; Hard to Kill 1 [2]; Hard to Subdue 1 [2]; Intelligence Rank 4 [20]; Intuition [15]; Language Talent [10]; Legal Enforcement Powers 3 [15]; Omnilingual [40]; Night Vision 2 [2]; Perfect Balance [15]; Peripheral Vision [15]; Recovery [10]; Reputation (as the Black Widow) +4 (Large Class of People: Intelligence Community) (10) [5]; Resistant to Disease (+3) [3]; Resistant to Poisons (+3) [5]; Security Clearance (need-to-know on broad range of secrets) [10]; Smooth Operator 4 [60]; Social Chameleon [5]; Striking ST +7 [35]; Trained By A Master [30]; Very Fit [15].
Perks: Accent (Hollywood American/Southern Californian) [1]; Akimbo (Guns (Pistol)) [1]; Cross-Trained (Guns (Pistol)) [1]; Cross-Trained (Guns (Rifle)) [1]; Cross-Trained (Guns (SMG)) [1]; Disarming Smile [1]; Off-Hand Weapon Training (Guns (Pistol)) [1]; Off-Screen Reload [1]; Pants-Positive Safety [1]; Photogenic [1]; Pistol-Fist (Guns (Pistol)) [1]; Quick Reload (Detachable Magazine) [1]; Sexy Pose [1]; Special Exercises (Striking ST +7) [7]; Style Familiarity: Double Trouble [1]; Style Familiarity: Jeet Kun Do [1]; Style Familiarity: Sambo [1].
Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Personal) [-5]; Duty (CIA) (15) [-15]; Enemy (FSB; Hunter) (6) [-15]; Secret Identity (Possible Death) [-30]; Selfless (12) [-5].
Quirks: OUCH! [-1]; Rule-Breaker [-1]; Self-Deprecating Sense of Humor [-1]; Uncertain as to whether details of her past are real [-1].
Skills: Acrobatics (H) DX+5 [20] – 20*; Acting (A) IQ+6 [8] – 18†; Climbing (A) DX+5 [4] – 20‡; Dancing (A) DX+1 [4] – 16; Driving/TL8 (Automobile) (A) DX-1 [1] – 14; Escape (H) DX+3 [4] – 18‡; Fast-Draw (Ammo) (E) DX+1 [1] – 16§; Fast-Draw (Pistol) (E) DX+1 [1] – 16§; Garrote (E) DX+3 [8] – 18; Guns/TL8 (Pistol) (E) DX+3 [8] – 18; Guns/TL8 (Rifle) (E) DX+3 [6] – 18#; Guns/TL8 (Rifle) (E) DX+3 [6] – 18#; Interrogation (A) IQ+4 [16] – 16; Judo (H) DX+5 [24] – 20; Jumping (E) DX+3 [8] – 18; Karate (H) DX+5 [24] – 20; Knife (E) DX+1 [2] – 16; Lockpicking/TL8 (A) IQ+2 [8] – 14; Mimicry (Speech) (H) IQ+0 [4] – 12; Observation (A) Per+1 [4] – 15; Savoir-Faire (High Society) (E) IQ+4 [1] – 16†; Search (A) Per+0 [2] – 14; Sex Appeal (A) HT+10 [8] – 25†¥; Stealth (A) DX+3 [12] – 18; Wrestling (A) DX+5 [20] – 20.
Techniques: Acrobatic Stand (Acrobatics) (A) def+6 [6] – 20; Counterattack (Karate) (H) def+5 [6] – 20; Dual-Weapon Attack (Guns (Pistol)) (H) def+4 [5] – 18; Elbow Strike (Karate) (A) def+2 [2] – 20; Fighting While Seated (Karate) (H) def+2 [3] – 20; Head Lock (Wrestling) (H) def+3 [4] – 20; Kicking (Karate) (H) def+2 [3] – 20; Knee Strike (Karate) (A) def+1 [1] – 20; Sweep (Wrestling) (H) def+3 [4] – 20; Targeted Attack (Knife Thrust/Vitals) (H) def+2 [3] – 15; Wrench Arm (H) def+7 [8] – 15.
Starting Spending Money: $4,000 (20% of Starting Wealth).
* includes +1 from Perfect Balance
† includes +4 from Smooth Operator
‡ includes +3 from Flexibility
§ includes +1 from Combat Reflexes
# defaulted from Guns/TL8 (Pistol)
¥ includes +4 from Appearance
Role-Playing Notes:
| KARATE | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TL | Weapon | Damage | Reach | Parry | Cost | Weight | ST | Notes |
| – | Karate Punch | 2d+2 cr | C | 17 | – | – | 12 | |
| – | Karate Kick | 2d+3 cr | C, 1 | n/a | – | – | 12 | |
| – | Elbow Strike | 2d+2 cr | C | n/a | – | – | 12 | |
| – | Knee Strike | 2d+3 cr | C | n/a | – | – | 12 | |
| – | Wrench Arm | 3d+1 cr | C | n/a | – | – | 12 | |
Design Notes:
1. This Black Widow is not a recipient of any Russian "super-soldier" treatments, at least not revealed as such by the end of Year One.