When I started blogging about the Original Marvel Universe twenty years ago, the first chronology I posted featured the Black Widow, due to the intriguing complexity of her early timeline. To mark the anniversary, I decided it was time to revisit her adventures again and bring her up to date with the other characters I’ve been covering. As before, I found an extended period where she operates primarily behind the scenes, leaving us with more “untold tales” of superspy Natasha Romanoff. This part of her life is chronicled mainly by writer Steve Gerber, working with a rotating stable of artists, in Daredevil.
Note: The following timeline depicts the Original Marvel Universe (anchored to November 1961 as the first appearance of the Fantastic Four and proceeding forward from there. See previous posts for a detailed explanation of my rationale.) Some information presented on the timeline is speculative and some is based on historical accounts. See the Notes section at the end for clarifications.
Now, at long last, we continue… The True History of the Black Widow!
January 1966 – Natasha Romanoff gets annoyed when her live-in lover, Matt Murdock, resumes his crime-fighting crusade as Daredevil even though they’re both still recovering from the injuries they sustained while battling the Man-Bull a couple months ago. She’s frustrated that her convalescence is taking longer than his, and she’s worried about her dear friend and father-figure Ivan Petrovich, who’s clearly suffering from a severe concussion but refuses to see a doctor. Despite all the networking she’s been doing in the local fashion industry, Natasha has not made much headway in establishing herself as a designer. She resents her growing dependence on the money Matt brings in from his law firm—Broderick, Sloan, and Murdock—and spending her days lounging around their leased mansion on San Francisco’s north shore is making her feel like a kept woman. Thus, she’s a bit overeager to get back into action as the Black Widow.
When a gang of super-villains calling themselves the Dark Messiah and his Disciples of Doom escape from Daredevil after breaking hundreds of criminals out of prison, Natasha insists on helping him track them down. She finally suits up as the Black Widow again, but after finding their foes menacing the hapless passengers of a wrecked trolley car, she aggravates her injury and passes out from the pain. As Daredevil continues the fight, Black Widow struggles to get to her feet, cursing her weakness, only to black out again. She soon comes to and is helped up by Lt. Paul Carson of the San Francisco Police Department. Daredevil is battling the Dark Messiah in a drugstore across the street, but the villain suddenly explodes, demolishing the building. Natasha fears Daredevil has been killed, but he soon digs himself out of the rubble. Shaken up, Daredevil admits he’s not sure what happened. The Disciples of Doom have lost their powers and are taken into police custody. Carson volunteers to drive the Black Widow and Daredevil home.
They are shocked to find Hawkeye waiting for them when they arrive. The former Avenger is determined to win Natasha back, much to her annoyance. Ivan apologizes for failing to get rid of Natasha’s old beau, who is obviously very jealous of Daredevil. The feeling is mutual, and within minutes, the two men are brawling on the front lawn. Natasha is disgusted, especially after Hawkeye takes off and Daredevil elects to go after him. A little while later, Thor, the Black Panther, and the Vision show up, saying the Avengers need their help to fight Magneto. Natasha is noncommittal, and when her two suitors return after beating the stuffing out of each other, Hawkeye flat out refuses to have anything to do with the Avengers. Daredevil isn’t too sure about working with a large group, but the Black Panther calls in the favor he did for him during the Blue Talon affair last year. Once Daredevil agrees to go, Natasha decides to go too. Soon, Black Widow, Daredevil, Thor, Black Panther, and Vision are heading to New York City in a Quinjet. En route, Natasha learns that Hawkeye apparently came running back to her after being jilted by the Scarlet Witch, who’s fallen in love with the Vision for some reason. Despite Hawkeye’s boorish behavior, Natasha feels bad that she didn’t give him a chance to explain himself.
At Avengers Mansion, Daredevil, Thor, Black Panther, and Vision discuss the Magneto situation, but Natasha wanders off through the stately manor, soon finding herself in Hawkeye’s former quarters brooding about their failed love affair. Black Panther finds her there and informs her that Magneto defeated the X-Men and took them prisoner before coming after the Avengers. He then captured Iron Man, Captain America, and the Scarlet Witch and made good his escape. Daredevil has suggested they check out a special meeting of the Atomic Energy Commission, thinking it seems a likely target for Magneto due to his interest in radiation-induced mutations, and they are ready to depart. When they arrive at the conference, which is being held at a large estate outside the city, they are unable to stop Magneto from kidnapping the commissioners, as he has Iron Man, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Iceman under some form of mind control. In the aftermath, Black Widow and Daredevil are both frustrated that they weren’t more help in the fight. They then head to the X-Men’s headquarters in Westchester County to search the area. Daredevil’s radar sense detects a large cavern beneath the woods surrounding the estate, and when Thor smashes a tunnel down to it, they find Magneto and his prisoners. The heroes are again forced to battle the villain’s mind-controlled minions until the Vision phases inside Magneto’s henchman Piper in order to get close enough to knock Magneto out with a karate chop to the back of the neck. The X-Men’s leader, Professor X, then appears, having also been held prisoner, and puts Magneto into a telepathically induced coma. Taking charge of the defeated villains, the X-Men return to their nearby headquarters, intent on searching for a missing teammate. Captain America conveys the Avengers’ thanks to the Black Widow and Daredevil and offers them full membership on the team. Daredevil is appreciative but declines. Irritated that her partner didn’t even consult her, Black Widow accepts Cap’s offer, much to Daredevil’s surprise. This leads to a lovers’ quarrel and Daredevil’s abrupt departure. Natasha keeps her cool and accompanies her new teammates back to their headquarters.
No sooner have they arrived than Iron Man starts hitting on Natasha, though she’s in no mood to be flirty. Scarlet Witch intervenes and shows Natasha to the room that’s been prepared for her by the team’s butler, Edwin Jarvis. Suddenly, a mob of African-American militants pounds on the front door, demanding that the Black Panther come outside. Before the Avengers can react, the mob breaks down the door and opens fire with rifles. Iron Man and Scarlet Witch drive them back, but they continue to chant that the Black Panther must return to Africa, where his people need him. As the situation escalates, a man in a trenchcoat emerges from the crowd and forces the Black Panther to worship him. The man suddenly transforms into a gigantic armored demon who calls himself the “Lion God,” then teleports away with the Black Panther, leaving the mob disoriented and confused. As the crowd disperses, the frustrated Avengers realize the people had been entranced by the Lion God just as the Black Panther was. As Captain America leaves to consult with S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man leads the other Avengers to their conference room for a strategy session. However, it’s not long before the Lion God appears, with the Black Panther his helpless prisoner, and attacks them. After quickly taking out Thor and the Vision, the Lion God causes two lions to materialize and sets them on the rest of the team. Black Widow is about to deal with the animals when Iron Man leaps to her defense, leaving himself open to a blast of energy from the Lion God’s totem-stick that takes him out of the fight. Black Widow and Scarlet Witch are similarly knocked unconscious a moment later. When she comes to, Black Widow finds that Thor managed to defeat the Lion God by blowing up his totem-stick with a lightning strike, which caused their foe to vanish in a burst of blinding light. Thor assumes the Lion God has been destroyed, but Iron Man isn’t convinced. However, Iron Man gives lavish praise to the Black Widow for her performance in the battle. Seeing through his flattery, she merely announces her decision to return to California to work with Daredevil, preferring her independence to operating as part of a big group.
Back in San Francisco, Natasha’s reunion with Matt is interrupted by a deranged hippie calling himself Angar the Screamer, whose voice somehow alters people’s perceptions as though they were having a bad acid trip. After making Natasha and Ivan briefly see Matt as a monster, Angar issues a challenge to Daredevil, laughs maniacally, and drives off in his convertible. Rather than pursue the villain, though, Natasha and Matt decide to call it a night and retire to have make-up sex. The next day, Lt. Carson phones Natasha to tell her that Angar has kidnapped Matt. They work together to track Angar’s convertible to a nondescript house in Berkeley, which the police cordon off. However, Daredevil turns up and assures the police that Matt has been released. Unfortunately, Angar then turns his mind-altering scream on the police, causing them to start shooting at each other. Daredevil tries to beat Angar senseless but is overwhelmed by the sonic assault. Finally, Black Widow jumps Angar and threatens to shoot him in the head with her “widow’s bite” stinger at point-blank range, which would likely prove fatal. Believing she means business, Angar surrenders but still manages to escape while the Black Widow and Daredevil are arguing about how dangerous he is. Though frustrated that Daredevil is at all sympathetic toward a bloodthirsty maniac, Black Widow assures him that they’ll track Angar down and bring him to justice.
February 1966 – Black Widow and Daredevil head to the San Francisco Public Library for some after-hours research after he stumbles upon his old foe Wilbur Day, better known as the Stilt-Man, engaged in a smuggling operation on the waterfront. They discover that Day’s former employer, Carl Kaxton, and his daughter Barbara vanished about three weeks ago. Daredevil surmises that Day must be trying to force Kaxton to turn his molecular condenser into a powerful weapon, and Black Widow worries that turning a shrinking ray on San Francisco could trigger the San Andreas Fault and destroy much of California. Thus, they split up, with the Black Widow hunting down Stilt-Man while Daredevil searches the city for the Kaxtons. Several hours later, Black Widow finds Stilt-Man carrying Barbara Kaxton some 20 stories above the ground. She rescues the terrified girl and forces the villain to drop his shrinking ray into a garbage-strewn alley. Furious, Stilt-Man retaliates, and the Black Widow dislocates her shoulder in the ensuing fracas. Luckily, Daredevil shows up at that moment and disables Stilt-Man’s gyroscopic controls, sending him tumbling into an automobile showroom. After Daredevil sets the Black Widow’s shoulder back into place, the two heroes reunite the Kaxtons and take them out to breakfast while the police take Stilt-Man into custody.
March 1966 – Black Widow and Daredevil take a file of papers for safekeeping from a reporter friend of his. The papers relate to an exposé on San Francisco’s biggest crime boss that the reporter’s newspaper is putting together. While Daredevil is locking the papers in the wall safe in their mansion, Natasha greets a young photojournalist named Peter Parker, who’s on assignment for the New York City newspaper The Daily Bugle. When Daredevil comes back downstairs, he seems to recognize Parker for a moment, but Natasha doesn’t think anything of it. The interview is interrupted by a muscle-bound bruiser with an armored head and shoulders who smashes into the house, rips open the safe, and steals the file. Black Widow and Daredevil pursue the thief, who calls himself “Ramrod,” into the city and soon find him battling Spider-Man. At Daredevil’s suggestion, Spider-Man takes the document box and swings off across the city, but in the ensuing fight, Ramrod nearly kills the Black Widow when he knocks her out and throws her off a roof. Daredevil manages to save her, though, and after catching their breath, they find Spider-Man and Ramrod battling atop a skyscraper in the Financial District. Startled to see that the Black Widow is still alive, Ramrod loses his footing and falls off the building, crashing into the sidewalk far below. Spider-Man returns the files to Daredevil and swings off. Peter Parker turns up a few minutes later as the comatose Ramrod is taken to a nearby hospital. Black Widow and Daredevil give Parker an exclusive interview about their crime-fighting adventures while they stroll along the Embarcadero.
May 1966 – Following a global wave of violence, the Black Widow and Daredevil are shocked when people around them inexplicably start changing into hideous, demonic monsters as San Francisco transforms into a weird, alien landscape. They try desperately to contain the rampaging creatures until, less than an hour after the phenomenon began, the city and its people suddenly revert to their normal forms. A couple minutes later, all the damage is abruptly undone, as if by magic, leaving the Black Widow and Daredevil baffled. Later, the Avengers report that it was all a mass hallucination created by a super-villain whom they’ve defeated.
June–August 1966 – Black Widow and Daredevil focus on fighting crime on the streets of San Francisco, disrupting the city’s various rackets and frustrating its crime bosses, who are unused to dealing with superheroes. Ivan occasionally assists them with basic detective work. Meanwhile, Matt grows increasingly frustrated with the bizarre dictates handed down by his reclusive senior partner, Kerwin J. Broderick, whom he has yet to meet. His other partner, Jason Sloan, continually makes excuses for Broderick’s behavior, crediting him with the firm’s success. Natasha does her best to be supportive. Despite the heroes’ efforts to hunt him down, there is no sign of Angar the Screamer. Ramrod remains hospitalized in a coma.
September 1966 – When the one-year lease on their mansion expires, Natasha is able to convert it to a month-to-month contract while they figure out what to do. With her career as a fashion designer going nowhere, she is forced to deplete her savings. Although Matt is happy to pay the bills from his salary at the law firm, Natasha worries that their relationship is eroding the fierce sense of independence she has come to rely on.
October 1966 – While Matt is at work, Natasha is attacked at home by Spider-Man’s old enemy Kraven the Hunter. A fierce battle ensues that wrecks the place. Ivan tries to help out, but Kraven is too fast for him. Finally, Kraven uses poisoned claws to render both Natasha and Ivan unconscious. When she comes to, Natasha finds herself staked to the ground, spread-eagled, in the elephant enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo. She struggles against the leather thongs holding her down but soon realizes she’s helpless. After nightfall, she hears the sounds of fighting nearby and realizes Daredevil has come to rescue her. She calls out to him, but Kraven blows an ancient horn that drives the elephants into a frenzy. Though Daredevil is able to get Natasha to safety, Kraven escapes. Natasha feels humiliated by the way she was used as bait to lure Daredevil into a fight and is eager to get back at Kraven, though she’s reluctant to go after the villain on her own. Despite their best efforts, the couple is unable to track down their foe.
About a week later, Natasha and Matt attend a cocktail party hosted by Kerwin Broderick, giving them the opportunity to finally meet Matt’s boss. Broderick is a gracious host and seems unconcerned that Matt has been ignoring his directives lately. Natasha and Matt try to enjoy the party but feel rather out of place among the more conservative members of the city’s elite. Suddenly, Kraven the Hunter crashes through the window and attacks Natasha and Matt, convinced that this will draw out Daredevil. Natasha holds him off while Matt flees with the other guests, only to return as Daredevil moments later. After smashing up Broderick’s living room, the fight moves into the trees outside. Annoyed by the Black Widow’s stings, Kraven produces a blowgun and hits her with a poison dart, causing her to immediately black out. When she comes to, Natasha is horrified to see that Kraven has defeated Daredevil and is about to throw him off the fifty-foot cliff behind Broderick’s home. Despite the numbing poison in her system, Black Widow pushes through the gawking party guests but is too late to stop Kraven. Peering over the edge of the cliff, she sees Daredevil vanish into thin air just as he hits the rocks below. She can hardly trust her senses, but Kraven also seems confused as to what just happened. Just then, Lt. Carson arrives on the scene with several police officers, and with the Black Widow’s help, they manage to apprehend Kraven.
Suddenly, a huge, golem-like monster made of mud and clay erupts from the ground and announces that he is called Terrex. He demonstrates his ability to manipulate plant life by causing Broderick’s garden to transform into a dense jungle, then shocks everyone by making one of the policemen rapidly age until his body crumbles to dust. Terrex claims to be neither good nor evil, though his behavior, he admits, is influenced by whoever brought him to life. Neither Natasha nor Carson is quite sure how to respond to such a threat, so they stand idly by as Terrex walks off into the neighborhood, leaving a trail of dying vegetation in his wake. Natasha realizes the monster must be absorbing life-energy from his surroundings in order to make himself more powerful. She and Carson are frustrated to discover that Kraven took advantage of the distraction provided by Terrex and has escaped. Broderick, too, is nowhere to be found, but Natasha is more concerned with discovering what happened to Daredevil.
Minutes later, Daredevil materializes alongside a statuesque bald woman in a skimpy green costume who calls herself Moondragon. To Natasha’s surprise, Daredevil has somehow regained his sight and is clearly captivated by his lover’s beauty, though he seems equally fascinated by Moondragon. He’s intent on reaching downtown San Francisco before Terrex does, so Carson volunteers to drive the three costumed adventurers there in his squad car. En route, Daredevil explains that Moondragon, though native to Earth, was raised in a kung fu monastery on one of the moons of Saturn and has returned to stop an interplanetary conquistador named Thanos. She initially allied herself with Kerwin Broderick, thinking him an upstanding citizen, but he proved to be totally corrupt and tried to manipulate her into setting him up as the absolute monarch of central California. Broderick convinced Moondragon that Daredevil and the Black Widow were agents of Thanos, prompting her to use her extraterrestrial technology to create the Dark Messiah, Angar the Screamer, Ramrod, and Terrex to destroy them. Even now, the Dark Messiah and Ramrod have been restored to full power and are helping Terrex menace the city. However, Broderick just double-crossed Moondragon and tried to kill her, so she has elected to switch sides.
Entering the city, the squad car gets stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic as frightened citizens try to flee the chaos. Since the effects of Kraven’s poison dart have worn off, Black Widow joins Daredevil in racing across the tops of the vehicles. Now away from Carson, who’s not supposed to know that Daredevil was blind, she asks Matt how his sight was restored, but before he can explain, they run into the Dark Messiah and Ramrod. Daredevil fares poorly in the ensuing fight since he’s not used to operating as a sighted person, and they are soon separated, with the Black Widow battling Ramrod in an alley. After a few minutes, Daredevil turns up, blind again, and trips Ramrod with his billy-club cable. Natasha realizes at once that Matt has sacrificed his vision to regain his fighting ability. Unfortunately, Terrex strides up, holding Broderick in his gigantic hand. Broderick brags that he and Terrex will soon merge, giving him the power to destroy San Francisco if he isn’t crowned king. As Lt. Carson and Moondragon join them, Black Widow and Daredevil wonder if there’s any way Broderick can be stopped.
The megalomaniac then merges with his monster, becoming a single being with the power to drain the life-force from every living thing in the Bay Area. Daredevil tries to attack him, only to have his legs temporarily paralyzed. The heroes retreat to police headquarters, where they confer with Commissioner Robert “Ironguts” O’Hara, but he is distraught over news that his younger brother has been murdered in Africa. When they receive word that the alien superhero Captain Marvel is battling Ramrod in Golden Gate Park, Carson takes the Black Widow, Daredevil, and Moondragon to the scene in a police helicopter. By the time they arrive, Ramrod has been defeated. Captain Marvel confirms Moondragon’s story and warns that Thanos has already arrived on Earth to obtain the Cosmic Cube, which will make him invincible. He and Moondragon concoct a plan to defeat Terrex, though the Black Widow and Daredevil don’t really understand it. As such, Daredevil confronts Terrex as Matt Murdock, whose defiance sends Broderick into a paroxysm of rage, as Moondragon suspected it would. However, Natasha worries that the plan will be derailed when Angar the Screamer arrives on the scene, but he turns his sonic powers on Terrex, accusing the monster of killing his girlfriend. While Natasha, Matt, and Captain Marvel keep Terrex busy, Moondragon uses her telepathy to control the nature of the illusions Angar is generating and uses them to destroy Broderick’s mind. He dies as Terrex dissolves, but neither Moondragon nor Captain Marvel are willing to explain exactly what happened. Natasha is rather in awe of Captain Marvel as he flies off and decides to play it up in order to make Matt jealous, as he seems pretty smitten with Moondragon.
Since Broderick wrecked her base of operations, Moondragon comes to stay at Matt and Natasha’s mansion, where she meets Ivan. Natasha is not happy about it, though Matt is clearly thrilled and even Ivan seems to find their guest irresistibly attractive. Following Kerwin Broderick’s death, Matt’s law firm falls apart, and he is left to oversee closing it down. He assures Natasha that he has enough money saved so as to not need to find a new job immediately. When Commissioner O’Hara takes a leave of absence to go to Africa to bury his brother, Paul Carson is appointed acting commissioner until he returns. Swamped with his new duties, Carson has no time for the Black Widow or Daredevil, though he is more tolerant of their vigilante activities than his predecessor.
November 1966 – Black Widow and Daredevil continue their crime-fighting crusade, something Moondragon has no interest in, although she is willing to tutor them in the martial arts. Natasha is only dimly aware that she is getting increasingly vicious during fights, dismissing it as merely a side-effect of her growing estrangement from Matt since Moondragon started hanging around. While on patrol one night, Black Widow and Daredevil suddenly pass through an interdimensional portal, finding themselves in a large, domed structure filled with hundreds of rowdy men. Near a central conference table, a scantily clad teenage girl is tied to a telephone pole, about to be executed by firing squad. Black Widow kicks several of the executioners as she swings by, throwing everything into disarray. Before they can do anything else, the two heroes find themselves back in San Francisco as if nothing had happened. Alighting on a nearby rooftop, they discuss whether the incident was real or an illusion, but there’s no evidence either way.
December 1966 – Moondragon goes off with Captain Marvel for a while, and when she returns, she reports that they joined forces with the Avengers to defeat Thanos and his army of alien mercenaries. Natasha and Matt are relieved to know that the threat to Earth has ended.
While swinging high above the gaily decorated city streets on Christmas Eve, Black Widow and Daredevil discuss their relationship. Natasha confronts him about his obvious attraction to Moondragon and demands to know where they stand, but Matt can give only vague, noncommittal answers. Their talk is interrupted by a mugging in a nearby alley, which the two superheroes swing down to stop. Seeing that the victim is an elderly woman, Black Widow goes berserk and nearly beats one of the muggers to death. Attempting to bring Natasha back to her senses, Daredevil slaps her. Two policemen arrive on the scene then, and while Daredevil is talking to them, Black Widow slips away without a word, seething with rage. Returning to their mansion, Natasha finds Ivan and Moondragon decorating the Christmas tree and decides to wait for Matt in his bedroom. When he finally arrives, Matt has the gall to ask her if she regrets her behavior, but she berates him for slapping her as if she were the criminal. He insists he was merely trying to prevent her from accidentally killing the mugger. She retorts that the scumbag deserved to die. Since they’re clearly talking past each other, Matt suggests they discuss it later, after they’ve both had a chance to cool down. He goes downstairs, leaving Natasha boiling with anger.
After collecting herself, Natasha goes down to the living room and finds Matt, Ivan, and Moondragon watching a TV news report about an assassination attempt on New York District Attorney Franklin P. Nelson, who is currently hospitalized in critical condition. Matt is making arrangements to fly there immediately to be with his former law partner, but Natasha refuses to go, owing to Nelson prosecuting her on a false murder charge last year. Matt is disgusted by her attitude, suggesting that she’s just using this as a way to get back at him. Natasha is stung by the accusation and is frustrated when Moondragon intercedes, offering to fly Matt to New York in her spaceship. He accepts and goes to pack a bag. A few minutes later, Natasha and Matt part without a kiss or even an embrace, still angry with each other. Ivan immediately gives Natasha a hug and tries to cheer her up, suggesting that some time apart will make Matt appreciate her more when he returns. However, Natasha is convinced that she’s lost Matt to Moondragon and their love affair is over. Struggling to hold back her tears, Natasha complains that it’s humiliating for the Black Widow to be crying over a man. Despite Ivan’s attempts to comfort her, though, Natasha is utterly heartbroken. She sinks into a deep depression and finds she can’t even drag herself out of bed on Christmas Day. After talking to Matt on the phone, Ivan reports that Moondragon merely dropped him off in Manhattan and flew off into outer space.
January–April 1967 – Over the next four months, Natasha gradually recovers her emotional equilibrium and halfheartedly returns to crime-fighting. Throughout, she hears reports of the outrageous pranks carried out by a subversive organization called Black Spectre, such as engineering a race riot at the Statue of Liberty, installing a wreathed swastika atop the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., draping Philadelphia’s Independence Hall in black shrouds, and even somehow carving Adolf Hitler’s face into Mount Rushmore overnight. S.H.I.E.L.D. assists the National Park Service with cleaning up all the vandalism. Natasha wonders what the pranksters are trying to accomplish.
May 1967 – After watching the sunrise from the dome of Temple Emanu-El near the Presidio, Black Widow is ambushed by a scantily clad woman looking like a refugee from a vampire movie. Natasha is incredulous when the super-strong woman insists that she join Black Spectre and help them kill Daredevil. Despite her best efforts, Black Widow proves to be no match for the woman and is soon knocked unconscious. When she comes to, she finds herself aboard Black Spectre’s jet aircraft, which is disguised as a dirigible. The woman who kidnapped her, a mutant called Nekra, introduces her to the subversive organization’s leader, the Mandrill, a man with the face of a monkey. Natasha is horrified to discover that the Mandrill’s mutant power renders women unable to resist his commands. In fact, all of Black Spectre’s agents are women, mostly from Africa, some of whom have large mandrill-like tattoos on their faces. The sole exception is an imposing Japanese swordsman calling himself the Silver Samurai. Against her will, Black Widow accompanies one such agent to a theater in New York’s Greenwich Village, where the actors are hypnotized into murdering each other on stage. The audience stampedes out of the theater in a panic, but Daredevil turns up and tries to capture the Black Spectre agent in the alley behind the building. Black Widow drops Daredevil with a karate chop to the neck, then returns to the airship, where the Mandrill and Nekra congratulate her on her successful mission.
A little while later, Daredevil catches up to them, having enlisted aid from the Thing of the Fantastic Four. The pair smashes through the airship’s electrified hull, and the Black Widow joins the rest of the terrorists in trying to repel them. The Thing proves to be an unstoppable juggernaut, so the women leave the Mandrill to deal with him and focus instead on Daredevil. Tearfully, Natasha helps Nekra beat Daredevil into unconsciousness. Once the Mandrill has put a hypnotic whammy on the Thing, the heroes are loaded into the Fantasti-Car and dumped overboard. To Natasha’s great relief, the two men come to in time to make an emergency landing on the New Jersey Palisades while Black Spectre’s airship retreats. Frustrated, the Mandrill interrogates the Black Widow, and she is unable to stop herself from revealing Daredevil’s secret identity and explaining how his “radar sense” allows him to navigate his environment despite being blind. When she reveals that Matt is currently staying at the New York Hilton Hotel, the Mandrill decides to pay him a visit. The villain returns an hour or so later, gloating about giving Daredevil a humiliating public drubbing.
In the morning, Natasha looks on impassively as Nekra, the Silver Samurai, and a couple of their agents return from kidnapping a woman in a leopard-skin bikini, Shanna O’Hara, who’s been a thorn in the Mandrill’s side for some time. The Mandrill is intent on dissecting Shanna’s brain to find out why she’s immune to his influence, but he’s preoccupied for the rest of the day with his plans to cripple the country’s telecommunications network. That evening, Black Spectre destroys the 200-foot TV transmission tower atop the Empire State Building and captures Daredevil when he attempts to stop them. The Mandrill decides to dissect Daredevil’s brain as well, curious about his radar sense, but opts to wait until after he’s seized control of the United States government. Leaving the Black Widow to guard the prisoners, the Mandrill and Nekra turn to carrying out their coup. Daredevil pleads with Natasha to set him free, but she refuses. When Shanna comes to, she suggests that an emotional shock might overcome the Mandrill’s influence, so Daredevil reminds Natasha of their contentious parting last Christmas Eve. The gambit succeeds and Natasha releases Daredevil and Shanna, leading them to where the terrorists store all their jetpacks. After Natasha has rigged the jetpacks’ fuel source to explode, she, Daredevil, and Shanna fly out of the ship, discovering that it is now hovering above the White House in Washington, D.C. Black Widow sees the Mandrill’s large simian-shaped idol on the lawn with a blazing cauldron in its lap. Numerous Black Spectre agents have shed their bulky uniforms and are dancing around the idol. A contingent of soldiers have them surrounded but aren’t taking any action for some reason.
The three heroes crash into the Oval Office, where they find the Mandrill seated at the President’s desk. Daredevil attacks him immediately while the Black Widow takes on Nekra and Shanna deals with some of their agents. When the Mandrill makes a break for the roof, Daredevil goes after him. Black Widow keeps hitting Nekra with her “widow’s bite” stings until the villains’ airship suddenly explodes and crashes to the ground in flames. The conflagration breaks Nekra’s concentration, and she abruptly loses her invulnerability, enabling the Black Widow to finally knock her out. Daredevil returns and reports that the Mandrill is dead, having fallen off the roof, but since he didn’t examine the body, Shanna refuses to take his word for it. Outside, Shanna is furious when no trace of the Mandrill’s body can be found, and she castigates Daredevil for allowing her father’s killer to escape. Natasha comforts Shanna as best she can as the soldiers finally move in and take the remaining Black Spectre agents into custody. Due to her dangerous mutant powers, Nekra is remanded into the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. Natasha sees that Daredevil, who clearly feels terrible, becomes further dispirited when the Army general overseeing the mopping-up operation suggests that the proper response to the incident is further mistrust and oppression of those who are different—the very attitude that drove the Mandrill and Nekra to a life of crime in the first place. Natasha then accompanies Daredevil and Shanna back to New York City, where Matt informs the still-hospitalized District Attorney Nelson of the conclusion to the Black Spectre case. It was Black Spectre, Natasha learns, that tried to assassinate Nelson last December. She’s also surprised to discover that Shanna is the niece of San Francisco Police Commissioner O’Hara—it was her father that he went to Africa to bury, and he’s currently in New York as well.
A few days later, Matt takes Natasha, Shanna, and Commissioner O’Hara to the airport for their flight back to California. At the gate, Matt suggests that he may move back to San Franciso eventually, after he helps Nelson get the D.A.’s office back on track. Natasha is dubious, though, given that Matt has been officially reinstated as Assistant District Attorney. After the O’Haras have boarded the plane, Natasha and Matt bid each other an awkward farewell, as neither can quite find the words to express their feelings. Finally, Natasha just kisses Matt, then turns and boards the plane without another word, reeling with conflicting emotions.
June 1967 – On the first of the month, Natasha and Ivan are evicted from their north-shore mansion for having fallen too far behind on the rent. Feeling like an utter failure, Natasha decides they’ll have to live out of their Rolls-Royce until they can figure out what to do. She wonders if all the other costumed crime-fighters have lucrative day jobs like Matt. Ivan starts reading the classified ads in the newspaper, hoping to find gainful employment, but despite his engineering skills, he doesn’t have any luck. After about a week, Natasha finally works up the nerve to call Matt for help and finds a public phone booth. Unable to reach Matt at the New York Hilton Hotel, she swallows her pride and phones District Attorney Nelson, who’s finally been released from the hospital. Nelson informs her that his sister, Candace Nelson, has been kidnapped and Matt has gone to Florida as part of their investigation. Natasha declines to leave a message, merely asking Nelson to have Matt call her when he can. After she hangs up, though, Ivan points out that Matt can’t very well call them if they don’t have a phone. Berating herself, Natasha decides to prowl the rooftops for a while to clear her mind. Later, she meets up with Ivan again in Golden Gate Park. In the wee hours of the morning, Natasha breaks into an unoccupied penthouse apartment to use their phone to try Matt again. He answers this time but quickly cuts her off, saying he’s right in the middle of something. When she hears a woman’s voice asking Matt if it’s the Black Widow on the phone, Natasha becomes angry, assuming that Matt has brought a date back to his room for sex, and hangs up on him.
The following evening, Black Widow is patrolling a busy entertainment district when she hears gunshots. Going to investigate, she is startled to see that Daredevil is back in San Francisco. After taking out the gunmen and freeing their hostage, Black Widow and Daredevil kiss with surprising passion, much to the delight of the gawking bystanders. Unfortunately, one of the crooks manages to escape while the heroes are thus distracted. When they are unable to track him down, the couple pauses on a rooftop to discuss Natasha’s dire circumstances. Matt is flabbergasted that a woman of Natasha’s many talents is basically unemployable since all her training is in espionage. Without warning, they are attacked by the Owl, who’s brought along two henchmen in a helicopter with a machine gun. As it turns out, the Owl has been running a protection racket in San Francisco lately, and the two gunmen from earlier were shaking down business owners in the neighborhood. The Owl manages to inject Daredevil with a fast-acting poison, defeating him, and the Black Widow is knocked out when a bullet from the helicopter grazes her forehead. She comes to later in the villain’s lair, finding herself strapped down to an examination table in a laboratory. Daredevil, still unconscious, is similarly bound next to her, his head in a helmet that’s wired to a sinister-looking machine. Learning that the machine will read Daredevil’s mind, destroying his brain in the process, Black Widow breaks free of her restraints and battles the Owl and his henchmen. During the fracas, she severely damages the Owl’s machine with her “widow’s bite” sting. However, the villain forces her to surrender by holding a gun to Daredevil’s head.
The Owl offers to exchange Daredevil’s life for that of a woman who’s living in a particular apartment, so the Black Widow agrees to kidnap her, hoping some means of foiling the diabolical scheme will present itself. When she arrives at the penthouse, Natasha is shocked to discover that the intended victim is Shanna O’Hara. Together, they work out a plan to rescue Daredevil and defeat the Owl. After Shanna has changed into her leopard-skin bikini, Natasha takes her to the warehouse where the Owl has set up his laboratory. Shanna pretends to be unconscious as the Black Widow carries her inside and demands that the Owl keep his side of the bargain. As expected, the Owl attempts to double-cross the Black Widow, whereupon Shanna springs into action, overcomes one of the henchmen, and frees Daredevil from his bonds. The Owl is shocked, having thought Shanna was just an ordinary veterinarian. Daredevil punches his old foe in the face, knocking him into his mind-tap machine and completely wrecking it. Intent on escaping, the Owl leaps out a window, but Daredevil pursues him. Black Widow and Shanna fight with the henchmen until Ivan comes charging in moments later alongside Lt. Paul Carson of the SFPD. A few minutes after that, Daredevil returns, carrying the unconscious Owl. The heroes then assist Carson with taking all the crooks into custody.
A few days later, Black Widow and Daredevil say goodbye to each other atop the Golden Gate Bridge. Natasha has declined Matt’s offer to rent an apartment for her and Ivan, though she’s allowed him to put them up temporarily at an inexpensive hotel. To return the favor, Ivan has built Daredevil a new billy club to replace the one he lost, and Matt is impressed with the grizzled old Russian’s technical skills. He asks Natasha one more time to come back to New York with him, but she doesn’t want to be financially dependent on him, fearing the effect it would have on their relationship. She knows she’s too proud to be with him as anything other than an equal. Accepting this, Matt kisses her and says he’s left plane tickets for them if she should change her mind. He then heads off to the airport to catch his flight home. It’s a painful parting for both of them, and Natasha remains on the bridge, brooding, for much of the day. She knows what she has to do, though she had hoped to leave that part of her life behind forever.
July 1967 – Having run out of options, Natasha contacts S.H.I.E.L.D. and tells Nick Fury that she’d be willing to accept some freelance assignments. Nick is happy to welcome the Black Widow back into the fold and advances her enough money to rent an appropriate apartment for her and Ivan to live in. Soon after, Nick comes through with an assignment that is right up the Black Widow’s alley. Though she finds returning to the world of international espionage distasteful, Natasha throws herself into it and is devastatingly effective. After having been defeated in combat by the Man-Bull, the Disciples of Doom, Magneto, the Lion God, Stilt-Man, Ramrod, Kraven the Hunter, Nekra, Mandrill, and the Owl, Natasha’s success as a spy helps her rebuild her self-confidence. When bizarre weather phenomena sweep the globe, pelting San Francisco with snow, sleet, and hail, Natasha and Ivan are baffled. Despite a thorough investigation by S.H.I.E.L.D., the cause remains a mystery.
August–November 1967 – Natasha sends Matt a telegram informing him that she’s planning to return to New York before the end of the year. She says she just needs a few months to straighten out her finances and settle her debts in San Francisco. She then works a series of lucrative cases for S.H.I.E.L.D., undermining a resurgent HYDRA and other threats to world security. She hopes to replenish her savings before having to face Matt again so she can afford to give up espionage and return to being a full-time superheroine.
December 1967 – Hearing that the Hulk is rampaging though San Francisco, Black Widow heads to the scene to see if she can help the authorities contain the green-skinned brute. On the way, though, she suddenly finds herself trapped within a force-field bubble. Try as she might, she is unable to escape. After about 18 hours, the force field vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared. She then learns that, while she was trapped, Loki led an invasion force of Asgardian warriors against Washington, D.C., only to be repelled by Thor and the U.S. Army. The Hulk, who was similarly imprisoned, leaves the city of his own accord before Natasha can encounter him.
On New Year’s Eve, Natasha and Ivan fly to New York City. Matt comes out to LaGuardia Airport to greet them. However, while in baggage claim, they must go into action as the Black Widow and Daredevil to deal with a gang of machine gun-toting terrorist hijackers. They take out all but one gunman, who has them pinned down behind the baggage carousel until Ivan gets the drop on him and beats him senseless. Leaving Ivan to deal with the luggage, Black Widow and Daredevil take off. As they swing across the Queensboro Bridge, Natasha is thrilled by the falling snow, something she hasn’t seen for a couple of years. When they arrive at Matt’s new brownstone in the Lenox Hill neighborhood on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, he makes it clear he wants to talk about their relationship. Somewhat reluctantly, Natasha admits to feeling like Daredevil’s sidekick when they’re fighting crime together, which she fears is eroding her sense of self. Clearly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, Matt changes the subject, pulling out his tuxedo and saying they’ve got a swanky party to get ready for. As soon as Ivan arrives with their suitcases, Natasha changes into a daring evening gown with a fur wrap. Ivan grumbles about changing into a tuxedo as well but complies when Natasha insists. Matt seems unusually nervous about something.
Arriving at a Midtown apartment building, Natasha is infuriated when it turns out that Franklin Nelson and his fiancée, Debbie Harris, are hosting the party. She nearly storms out, but Matt and Ivan urge her to let bygones be bygones. Matt insists that Nelson deeply regrets prosecuting her on a false murder charge and that he was manipulated into doing it by Mister Kline, the time-traveling robot, and nearly resigned as D.A. in the wake of it. A few minutes later, Nelson approaches her sheepishly and tries to apologize but is interrupted when a horde of HYDRA agents crash into the apartment, spraying a sedative gas. Ivan loses consciousness immediately, along with some of the other guests. Matt bolts into a bedroom, pursued by a couple of enemy agents. Natasha is impressed with how fiercely Nelson is fighting off two HYDRA agents trying to restrain him. She pulls one of her “widow’s bite” weapons from her handbag and slips it on her wrist, only to get kicked in the head and knocked out.
When she comes to, Natasha sees that Nick Fury and over a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have arrived on the scene and are taking the HYDRA agents into custody. However, their leader, who calls himself the Jaguar, has escaped, prompting a bitter argument between Nick and Daredevil. Contessa Valentina Allegra de La Fontaine soon enters and reports that the Jaguar slipped through the S.H.I.E.L.D. security perimeter, as they were not prepared for his superhuman speed. Daredevil is irate that Nick’s agents let their foe get away. Nelson and Harris are confused as to why they would be targeted by HYDRA, so Nick explains that S.H.I.E.L.D. is considering Nelson for its new board of directors. The agency is being reorganized, he tells them, and will no longer be under the direct command of the President of the United States. Several candidates for the new board of directors are being considered, chosen from various sectors of public service. Nelson is honored but says he’ll need to think it over. Harris is worried about HYDRA attacking them again, but Nick insists S.H.I.E.L.D. can protect them. When Ivan wonders aloud where Matt has gotten to, Daredevil takes the hint and swings off, wishing Nelson good luck. Matt then emerges from the bedroom a moment later, claiming to have been knocked out during the fight. Nick and his agents take Nelson to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters to debrief him for a few hours, leaving a small detachment to guard Harris. Natasha, Matt, and Ivan say goodnight and head back to Matt’s townhouse. After dropping off the two lovers, Ivan drives back to keep an eye on Nelson’s apartment building. Happy to be reunited at last, Natasha and Matt ring in the new year with a joyful, if chaste, celebration.
Notes:
January 1966 – The Black Widow’s adventures continue in Daredevil #97 and following. She and Daredevil help the Avengers defeat Magneto in Avengers #111, whereupon the Black Widow officially becomes a member of the team. However, she resigns at the conclusion of the following issue after the defeat of the Lion God. The Lion God is most likely the Nubian god Apedemak, who is related to the Egyptian pantheon.
February 1966 – In Daredevil #102, we finally learn Natasha’s full name as writer Chris Claremont introduces her patronymic, Alianovna. Also in this issue, Carl Kaxton is misidentified as “William Klaxton.”
March 1966 – Though Daredevil would certainly recognize Peter Parker as Spider-Man, whom he’s encountered several times, he apparently feels it would be unethical to reveal the web-slinger’s secret identity to the Black Widow and feigns ignorance on the subject.
May 1966 – The global wave of violence is caused by the invading demons of Sominus, as seen in Adventure into Fear #14–15. Almost immediately afterwards, Dormammu tries to annex the earth into his Dark Dimension in Avengers #118. The Black Widow and Daredevil remain behind the scenes in a sequence depicting various characters battling the monsters.
November 1966 – Black Widow and Daredevil make a brief cameo appearance in Man-Thing #1, just long enough to save Jennifer Kale from the firing squad.
December 1966 – Moondragon and Captain Marvel team up with the Avengers to defeat Thanos in Captain Marvel #31–33. It seems likely that telepathic manipulation by Moondragon is at least partly responsible for Matt and Natasha’s break-up, by amplifying Natasha’s anger as well as Matt’s sexual desire. Moondragon may not even be aware that she’s doing it, if it were the result of the subtle influence of the Dragon of the Moon on her psyche, a situation revealed in Defenders #138.
May 1967 – The Black Spectre storyline crosses over into Marvel Two-in-One #3. Shanna O’Hara’s immunity to the Mandrill’s influence is probably due to the inhabiting spirit known as the Queen of the Pride that she inherited from her mother (as revealed in Marvel Fanfare #59). In addition to destroying the TV transmission tower atop the Empire State Building, Black Spectre agents also sabotage similar media infrastructure across the country, disrupting television broadcasts nationwide, as well as cutting long-distance telephone lines and jamming shortwave radio frequencies. Furthermore, the Mandrill tells the U.S. military, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four that he has an atomic bomb ready to destroy New York City should they interfere with his plans to overthrow the federal government—a claim eventually revealed to be a hoax. The Mandrill does indeed escape at the end and flees with some of his thralls to South America. The disposition of the unconscious Nekra is revealed in the flashback in Spider-Woman #16.
June 1967 – The woman in Matt’s hotel room in Daredevil #116 is actually Candace Nelson. She’s just staying with Matt while he and her brother try to sort out her complex legal situation, but Natasha has no way of knowing this.
July 1967 – Black Widow’s return to the life of a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative is essentially an Untold Tale of the Original Marvel Universe, as it was never explained how she got back on a firm financial footing. She will be seen working for the agency later on, so this seemed like the most common-sense solution. The bizarre weather disruptions are the result of Dormammu kidnapping Gaea in Doctor Strange v.2 #8–9.
December 1967 – Black Widow is behind the scenes during the Asgardian invasion depicted in Thor #233. Nick Fury’s attempt to recruit Foggy Nelson brings us up to Daredevil #121. The reorganization of S.H.I.E.L.D. is likely in response to last year’s Secret Empire plot, which involved their leader becoming President of the United States, as detailed in OMU: POTUS – Part Three.
Jump Back: The Black Widow – Part One
Next Issue: The Black Panther – Year Five
