Captain America and Black Widow have a son – or, at least, in one alternate future reality, they do. Marvel Comics has always enjoyed delving into the Multiverse, using the concept as a springboard for a plethora of “What If?” scenarios.
Greg Johnson, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost developed one of the most delightful in the great animated film Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow. This was a magnificent animated epic set in a future timeline in which Earth’s Mightiest Heroes gathered to defend the world. They were a great combo, and it didn’t take long for them to join the Marvel Comics Multiverse.
In an epic time travel adventure that saw the entire timestream break down, writer Brian Bendis introduced the Next Avengers into comic book canon. To save the timestream, Kang the Conqueror enlisted the help of the Avengers of the present, who traveled to a dystopian future planet ravaged by Ultron’s armies, where they were tasked with rewriting history in order to restore the timestream. The Avengers never fully grasped the reality of who they were dealing with, which is probably for the best given that nearly all of the Next Avengers are linked to them. Captain America and Black Widow’s kid, James Rogers, is an example. In honor of his father, he wields a sophisticated energy shield to devastating effect. He has similar superhuman abilities to both of his parents, including all of the perks of the super-soldier serum and likely the delayed aging of Black Widow.
On the surface, Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers appear to be diametrically opposed; one is a straight shooter who values honor and loyalty, while the other is Marvel’s top super-spy. However, as the old adage goes, opposites do occasionally attract. Despite this, there is considerable indication that James Rogers was made artificially through genetic manipulation rather than conceived naturally. Natasha was sterilized when she was a youngster, thus she should never be able to have children in any timeframe.
Surprisingly, there was never a romantic relationship between Black Widow and Steve Rogers in the comics, although one of Natasha’s key relationships is with Bucky Barnes, Steve’s successor as Captain America. The MCU hasn’t really pursued that notion, opting instead for an unexpected romance between Black Widow and the Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, many viewers thought Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Steve Rogers’ Captain America had quite the chemistry. Who knows, with the MCU’s embrace of the Multiverse in the next What If…? series, it may yet happen.