"Spinning Doomsday's Web", by D. G. Chichester et al.: In this team-up with The Punisher, Peter "Doc" Malum was a US government scientist who invented a weapon system, the Pluto Project, where jets with supersonic engines can deliver H-bombs to any target on the planet at the speed of sound. Malum, however, was secretly a Serial Killer who murdered people in his spare time. When the government finds out, Project Pluto is mothballed and Malum goes on the lam. Years later, Malum is captured by the FBI, but his gang breaks him free, with Malum brutally murdering several FBI agents. When Black Widow tries to stop Malum, Malum beats her up and spits on her to humiliate her. Malum plans to create his own version of Project Pluto, murdering government officials while stealing the parts he needs. When Malum's assistant Cassady states that he thought they are just going to use Project Pluto to blackmail the world, Malum murders him, intending to use Project Pluto to devastate the world, just for kicks.
"Fun Dad", real identity Tech Ed, is the master of No Restraints Play, a website that targets poor children. The children are kidnapped, then taken to the streaming site where Fun Dad has donors bid on directing the torture sessions with the children. The children are then abused, tortured and eventually murdered on live camera. Seeking to cover his traps, Fun Dad tries to blow up a penthouse, killing the goodhearted businessman known as the Prince of Madripoor, before attempting to bomb and kill the children Natasha rescued from his sick dungeons, remaining as one of the most horrific enemies Natasha has ever faced even with her black history.
Vlad Dorchik is the chief torturer of No Restraints Play, who signs on for money and kicks. A brute of a man, Vlad is the one who carries out the torture sessions, happily carving up and murdering children with one surviving victim found by Natasha who had her limbs removed by Vlad. When he takes Natasha, Vlad attempts to torture her to death, starting with waterboarding.
Fan-Preferred Couple: By default of no longer being together, her and Bucky became this for comic audiences. With the films, her and Clint was also the most popular het couple (until Avengers: Age of Ultron revealed Clint's family), but even there Bucktasha is still popular.
She is also popularly shipped with Steve Rogers, the first Captain America.
Newer Than They Think: Much of Black Widow's mythology is a relatively recent addition; initially she was merely a loyal Soviet citizen and celebrity ballerina who, after the death of her husband, signed up to become a government agent, only to defect after a short while. The early 2000s gave us Richard K Morgan's two miniseries' which revealed these to be Fake Memories created by the Red Room, and she was actually an orphan they had taken in and subjected to Super-Soldier enhancement, and was actually one of many Black Widows.
Older Than They Think: An ass-kicking female spy with red hair and wears black catsuits? Natasha was around before Emma Peel.
Ship Mates: Bucky/Natasha shippers and Clint/Bobbi shippers get along swimmingly, and to a lesser extent the same goes for them and Matt/Elektra shippers.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Clintasha and Bucktasha fandoms don't have the best track record of getting along, resulting in many Clintasha fans bemoaning that she'd be prominent in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as it was bringing in Bucky's present day self. And then it turned out that her MCU love interest was actually Bruce Banner (though it didn't last), a ship that both sides were united in hating.
Complete Monster: Ivan Somodorov, from Forever Red, Natasha Romanov/Black Widow's Evil Mentor, was a former instructor at the Red Room, and was known and feared throughout the institution for his intense cruelty toward his students, all barely teenage children; Ivan subjected his students to horrific emotional and physical abuse, and would then psychologically tear them down completely before reforming them into emotionless weapons with the sole purpose of assassination. After strong-arming numerous scientists into his service by threatening their lives and those of their families, Ivan forced them to build him the O.P.U.S., a machine that used electroshock torture to implant into its victims a latent assassination programming; Ivan used this technology almost solely on children, before murdering all those who assisted him in the project. After implanting his dozens of new, unknowing, soldiers into various governments, Ivan planned to use them worldwide to kill hundreds of high-ranking government officials, scientists, and anyone who could get in his way, at which point he would use his new army of assassins to institute his own government and Take Over the World. When Black Widow attempts to thwart his plan, Ivan sics his Child Soldiers on her, knowing she will be forced to go easy on them. Black Widow has dealt with tyrants, assassins, and superpowered monsters throughout her career, but Ivan Somdorov was the worst of them all.
