With all the multiverse hopping that we get to witness near the end of Marvel’s What If…? season one, it can be hard to keep track of which alternative universe each character is from and where they end up in the end, in particular Black Window.
Fear not, because here’s a breakdown of just what alternative universe it is Natasha Romanoff ended up at the end of the finale of the Disney Plus show.
Just to recap, What If…? is based on the premise of alternate universes that deviate in some way from the Marvel Cinematic Universe we’re familiar with. Various characters and scenarios are remixed slightly, bringing us the likes of Captain Carter, T’Challa Star-Lord, Zombie Scarlett Witch and Infinity Ultron.
The alternate universes converge near the end of the series, however, when the aforementioned Ultron successfully merges with Vision, gains the Infinity Stones after slicing Thanos in two, destroys his own version of the Earth by letting off every nuclear warhead at once, and is able to freely hop from one branch of the multiverse to the next.
It is from this version of the multiverse, nearly barren of all life, that our Black Widow is recruited by The Watcher to assemble his Guardians of the Multiverse to help defeat Infinity Ultron and restore order to all parallel worlds throughout the galaxy.
While the evil android is eventually defeated and all of the Guardians of the Multiverse return to their respective worlds, Black Widow has no home to return to.
The Watcher decides to place Black Widow in a world where she isn’t dead, giving her a second chance, but just where is that?
Though we’re not given an official explanation, it’s implied the world is from episode three, in which a vengeful Hank Pim has assassinated all but two Avengers—Captain America and Captain Marvel, dubbed the “replacement Avenger.” That very moniker is mentioned in the finale, in which Black Widow eventually successfully defeats Loki alongside the two Caps.
We’ll just have to see if this match-up continues its storyline for What If…? season two.
