Marvel’s Black Widow is FINALLY coming to theaters and Disney Plus after a yearlong
delay.
If your memory is a little hazy about everything Black Widow got up to in the MCU before her
death in End Game, or if you’re thinking “Wait, spoiler alert, she DIED?!” then
boy do I have the video for you.
Instead of going back and watching Scarlet Johanson’s NINE previous MCU appearances
to prepare Black Widow, this video has got you covered.
Here’s a full recap of Black Widow’s history throughout the MCU.
Throughout the MCU we learn of Natasha Romanoff’s backstory that pre-dates her first appearances.
She was born in Russia and at a young age was recruited by the KGB.
She attended the Red Room Academy where she was educated and indoctrinated in spycraft,
eventually leading to her becoming one of the world’s greatest assassins.
She was forced to do a lot of pretty messed up stuff at far too young of an age, including
murdering innocent people.
Her past in the Red Room will haunt Natasha throughout her time in the MCU.
Eventually, her skills as an assassin put her on SHIELD’s radar as a threat, so they
send their agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, to take her out.
But Clint sees something worth saving in her, and helps her defect from Russia and join
SHIELD.
Which leads us to Natasha’s first official appearance in the MCU...
Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, is first introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
in Iron Man 2 as a new employee of Tony Stark at Stark Industries.
In reality, this is all a cover, as she’s actually a SHIELD agent working with Nick
Fury to assess whether or not Tony is worthy of joining the Avengers Initiative.
Spoiler alert: Tony gets the gig!
Natasha is given a greater focus in her next outing, the first Avengers movie.
Working alongside SHIELD, Natasha is a key figure in assembling the Avengers team, personally
recruiting Bruce Banner, and quite literally beating some sense into a brainwashed Hawkeye.
This movie gives us a lot of backstory on Natasha.
She earns Bruce’s trust by telling him about her time as a child spy and recounts with
Clint their shared history as SHIELD agents, including an infamous operation that happened
in Budapest.
Might we get a glimpse of that Budapest mission in the Black Widow movie?
After helping to assemble the Avengers and saving the world from an alien invasion, Natasha
partners up with Steve Rogers, who you might know as Captain America.
During Captain America: Winter Soldier, Natasha and Steve team-up with Sam Wilson, aka Falcon,
to take down the mysterious Winter Soldier and the villainous organization HYDRA.
Steve has history with the mysterious assassin, as the man is revealed to be his old friend
Bucky Barnes, similarly frozen in time.
Like Natasha, Bucky has been brainwashed by the enemy and is trained to follow orders
upon the reading of a series of code words.
Natasha has her own history with Bucky.
In her early days as a SHIELD agent, she was assigned to protect a scientist, but the Winter
Soldier managed to hunt them down, shooting Natasha in the stomach and killing the scientist.
By the end Captain America: Winter Soldier, Natasha and Steve have saved the world from
another major threat, put a serious damper on HYDRA’s plans and have brought Bucky
Barnes closer to redemption.
Next up for Natasha is Avengers: Age of Ultron.
It’s here that Natasha’s budding relationship with Bruce Banner begins to come into play.
As the Avengers are once again assembled to take on HYDRA, Natasha begins utilizing a
lullaby to help bring Bruce back down from his Hulk state.
While hiding out at Clint’s family home, it’s revealed that Clint’s wife is pregnant
with a boy that they’ll name Nathaniel, after Natasha.
Natasha sees the family life that Clint has and dreams of a similar one with Bruce.
Bruce rejects the idea, as he’s dangerously violent and can’t have children.
Natasha reveals that she also sees herself as a monster due to her Red Room training,
and was sterilized to prevent what the Red Room considered “distractions.”
Natasha and Bruce find comfort in one another and debate running away together, but superhero
duty calls!
The Avengers travel to Sokovia to battle the villainous Ultron.
Although they defeat Ultron after an epic battle, A Hulk-ed out Bruce decides it would
be better for the world if the Hulk wasn’t in it, so he flies off to an unknown location.
With Bruce gone, Natasha decides to help Steve lead a new team of Avengers, which includes
Falcon, War Machine, Wanda Maximoff, and Vision.
And that brings us to Captain America: Civil War.
Following the destruction of Sokovia in Age of Ultron, and an unfortunate event in Lagos
at the start of Captain America: Civil War, the United Nations, represented by General
Thaddeus Ross, wants the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords, which would force them
to abide by stricter regulations and oversight.
The decision over whether or not to sign the Sokovia Accords fractures the Avengers, with
Tony Stark leading the charge in favor, and Steve Rogers leading those who opposed.
Natasha ultimately sides with Tony, feeling that she should be held accountable for all
of her past actions.
Tensions come to a head in a spectacularly awesome way as Team Cap and Team Iron Man
fight at an abandoned airport.
During the fight, Black Widow lets Steve and a rehabilitated Bucky escape.
The rest of Team Cap is captured and arrested, and Tony informs Natasha that the same would
happen to her due to her letting Captain America escape.
And so, Natasha Romanoff was now a fugitive.
And now let’s briefly put in a pin in this Black Widow history lesson.
Because this is apparently the period of time when the new Black Widow movie takes place.
With Natasha on the run following her letting Steve Rogers escape, it seems that our favorite
female assassin decides to return home to Russia for a family reunion.
What happens while she’s there?
Well, we’ve got to watch Black Widow to find that out.
What we do know is that she’ll come back in touch with her sister, Yelena, and they’ll
be battling the villainous Taskmaster.
It remains to be seen what sort of ramifications or surprises are in store that could affect
the entire MCU.
But let’s get back to class, shall we...
After the events of Civil War, Steve drops Bucky off in Wakanda to fully deprogram him.
Natasha returns from her hopefully super exciting and entertaining trip to Russia to join Steve
in rescuing his imprisoned team.
While most decide to return home to their normal lives, Sam decides to join Natasha
and Steve on the run.
The trio are off running secret missions for SHIELD when they get a call from Bruce Banner
asking for their help.
You see, there’s this guy named Thanos who wants to assemble all of the infinity stones
in order to wipe out half of the universe’s population.
So Black Widow, Captain America, and Falcon return to join the Avengers in their fight.
General Ross wants the team arrested, but is dismissed.
The team is back together!
And with that comes a brief, awkward reunion for Natasha and Bruce, who have bigger problems
to worry about than their budding relationship.
Since one of Thanos’ coveted infinity stones is embedded into Vison’s skull, the Avengers
head to Wakanda for help in removing the stone.
While there, a rehabilitated and deprogrammed Bucky rejoins the team as Thanos and his army
make their attack.
And that’s where our team of Avengers band together to fight off Thanos and defeat his
massive army, saving the day!
...No, Thanos wins and collects all of the infinity stones, snapping his fingers and
wiping out half of the entire universe.
Natasha and the remaining Avengers manage to track down Thanos and make him pay for
crimes, but it doesn’t change the fact that half of their friends are now dead, let alone
half of the entire universe.
5 years pass and Natasha is forgiven of her crimes and takes over as leader of the Avengers.
While most of the other Avengers are now disillusioned and scattered, Natasha has hope that things
will get better.
The Avengers changed her as a person.
They gave her family.
They gave her hope.
Her character is finally coming to peace with her past and actually forgiving herself.
And that hope isn’t misguided, because Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, escapes the Quantum Realm
with a plan to bring back everyone who died.
A time heist.
Natasha helps reassemble the Avengers, including a newly tatted up Clint, who’s been off
the grid and exacting vigilante justice on those he deems deserve it, like the Yakuza.
Clint’s entire family was wiped out by Thanos’ snap, but Natasha offers him a chance to bring
them back.
The plan?
The Avengers will travel back in time to various points from MCU past to collect the stones
before Thanos and use their power to bring everyone back to life.
The team splits up to travel to various past times for various stones, and Natasha and
Clint are tasked with traveling to Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone.
Unfortunately, the only way to retrieve the stone is via sacrifice.
Both Natasha and Clint are willing to sacrifice themselves to save each other and half of
humanity.
They share an emotional goodbye, and both believe they should be the one to make the
sacrifice.
They begin fighting in an attempt to save the other and sacrifice themself.
Ultimately, Natasha wins the fight, forcing Clint to let her go.
Natasha falls to her death, giving her life to save her best friend and bring back the
billions of lives lost due to Thanos’ snap.
Due to her sacrifice, Clint receives the Soul Stone.
The other Avengers retrieve their own stones, and with the infinity gauntlet they are able
to bring back everyone who was lost.
Due to Natasha’s selfless act, the entire universe was saved.
Oh, and Tony Stark sacrificed himself too, but he’s the only one who gets a big emotional
funeral.
Sorry, Nat.
You deserved better.
And that’s the (current) entire history of Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Let me know some of your favorite Black Widow moments in the comments below and feel free
to share your theories about what happens with the Black Widow character moving forward
in the MCU.
As always, thanks for watching and I’ll see ya in the next one.