Natasha: There’s a lot of people to whom I have done wrong in my life. This, I will admit. I very well may have— whatever this is— I very well may have it coming. But I do not care. I have done bad things, but I have done much good, too. Real good. I will not go out quietly. And I will not go out this way. I will go when I want to go. When I want to. I hope this you can understand.
Matt: A little bit. Yes.
Natasha: I am glad I’m here. Matthew— I do miss you. And I do love you. You know that. I miss us. I do. But I’m sorry, that’s not why I came.
I’ve posted this before, but it’s my favorite Natasha scene from Bendis’s Daredevil. I love Natasha’s simple non-apology for her past actions, and the counterpoint to Matt’s semi-assumption that she’s here because of him, because of them, because of what they used to be. The Widow is a four-issue arc fundamentally about the dangers of not moving on, which plays into Bendis’s larger narrative regarding Milla and Karen Page, the women and guilt Matt cannot let go. Natasha is offered as a contrast to this, the old girlfriend who won’t let an old relationship define her, who refuses to let her past be the sole arbiter of her future. And in doing that, in honestly moving on, she can revisit the past without it gnawing her up.
From Daredevil #63, by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.
