“я понимаю только потому, что люблю.”

HER SECRETS remain unconquered and unsolved. Radiant beauty and stark, hideous ugliness, gladness and sorrow, greatness and tragedy and brutal, savage cruelty— over all these she draws a veil of impenetrable mystery, smiling with soft, unscrutable eyes. — Meriel Buchanan, Recollections of Imperial Russia

Profile

⪢ NAME. Наталья Романова / Natasha Romanov ¹
⪢ A.K.A. Black Widow, Ebon Flame, Nadine Roman, Nancy Rushman, Natalia Shostakova, Oktober, Yelena Belova, &c.
⪢ DOB/AGE. c. 1928, eighty-nine.²
⪢ HAIR/EYE. Auburn / blue, formerly dyed black.
⪢ HEIGHT/WEIGHT. 5′7″, 135lbs
⪢ CANON POINT. varies

First Impressions

⪢ APPEARANCE. Natasha has red hair, pale skin, and classic Slavic features. Natasha isn't physically imposing, and she probably prefers not to be. But there is an innate grace and ruthless economy to her physical actions, and confidence in her bearing.

Wardrobe-wise, she favors simple, classic silhouettes and neutral colors. Natasha likes trench coats and other film noir stylings. Her makeup is pretty spare.

⪢ VISUAL. one, two

⪢ LANGUAGE. Natasha is a native Russian speaker but defaults to General American, an accent she has worked hard to master. She has tends toward formal syntax, and she can affect a Russian accent but only does this when she feels like it. She is also .

Skills and Abilities

⪢ FIGHTING SKILLS. Natasha is a formidable martial artist, as well as an expert markswoman and Olympic-caliber gymnast. This is not particularly impressive in her universe and she usually has a hard time punching her way out of problems, but it does mean she can beat most people up.

⪢ SPY SKILLS. Basically if you can think of something vaguely related to the espionage genre chances are Natasha can do it. Breaking and entering, being charming at dinner parties, industrial sabotage, sneaking around in vents, wearing unrealistically convincing facemasks, check check and check. She is good enough at lying that Matt Murdock has difficulties reading her.

⪢ COMPUTER SKILLS. Natasha is no technology whiz by the scrap cave standards of her universe, but she has a very specific familiarity with electronic security systems. She knows what wires to cut to diffuse a bomb or deactivate an alarm.

⪢ MYSTERIOUS COMIC BOOK SERUM. Natasha has been the recipient of one of many Soviet science serums. This allows is what allows her to be youthful despite being an active agent in the 60s. The exact effects vary from writer to writer; I think Natasha works best without powers or enhancements, so that's how I play her. Note that since being resurrected in a clone body in Tales of Suspense #104, this serum may or may not still be in her system. Comics were a mistake.

1. Natasha Romanov is an anglicization of the Russian name Наталья Романова. In Russian, family names take grammatical gender, hence -ова instead of -ов; it is not uncommon to use the masculine form when translating names to English. Наталья is sometimes transliterated as Natalia, and Natasha is a common diminutive or nickname, like Bob is for Robert. Other variants include “Natasha Romanoff” or “Natalia Romanova” — it's all the same name, translated slightly differently. For more information see this post.

2. Physically, vague late twenties.