Word Balloons: Marvel reveals Black Widow’s ‘Deadly Origin’

BY MATTHEW PRICE Comments 0
Published: November 6, 2009

Marvel Comics’ Black Widow began as a Soviet spy, introduced as a foil for Iron Man in 1964’s "Tales of Suspense” No. 52. While her first few appearances saw her as an antagonist to Marvel heroes, she’s since joined with them, even leading the Avengers for a time.

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The Black Widow, aka Natalia Romanova or Natasha Romanoff, will be played by Scarlett Johansson in next year’s film "Iron Man 2.” Marvel is doing its best to catch up readers on the character before the film, starting this week with the comic-book series "Black Widow: Deadly Origin.”

"Deadly Origin” is written by Paul Cornell, who wrote an acclaimed revamp of "Captain Britain” for Marvel Comics and is known for his work as a writer on the "Doctor Who” television series. The art is by Tom Raney.

"A hidden enemy is killing everyone our heroine, Natalia, has ever been close to: romantic partners, friends, people she was kind to in passing,” Cornell wrote on his blog at Paul Cornell.com. "The first issue has guest appearances by Wolverine, the Winter Soldier and Joe Stalin, flashbacks courtesy of John Paul Leon.”

Several of Black Widow’s earliest appearances, in "Tales of Suspense,” "Amazing Spider-Man” and "Daredevil,” as well as her own solo story in "Amazing Adventures,” are collected in the hardcover "Sting of the Black Widow.”

The Black Widow also pops up in two hardcover collections from Marvel slated to come out before "Iron Man 2.” The first, "Iron Man: Deadly Solutions,” collects the first seven issues of writer Kurt Busiek and artist Sean Chen’s work on the title in 1998.

"I’d assume the decision to reprint it has something to do with the second Iron Man movie coming out, and maybe the way my run has a fair amount in common with the movies — Pepper Potts as a major character, the goatee, the ‘smart’ house — or because they want Iron Man/Black Widow material out at the moment, and there’s not as much as people might think,” Busiek wrote at his Web site, Busiek.com.

Several of Black Widow’s solo appearances will be collected in the premiere hardcover "Black Widow: Web of Intrigue,” slated for a March 2010 release. This collection will include the George Perez-drawn Marvel Fanfare Nos. 10-13 from 1983, as well as Bizarre Adventures No. 25, and the graphic novel "Black Widow: The Coldest War.”

Writer Devin K. Grayson wrote a Marvel Knights miniseries starring the Black Widow in 1999, with a sequel, co-written by Greg Rucka ("Whiteout”) in 2001. In 2006, sci-fi novelist Richard K. Morgan wrote a Black Widow miniseries titled "Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her.”

Speaking at Comic-Con International in San Diego this summer, Johansson played close to the vest with how the Black Widow character would develop in the "Iron Man 2” film.

"We don’t know necessarily whether the character is villainous,” Johansson said. "She does have a dark past, and I think that she is very seductive and distracting and … we’re not sure exactly where she’s coming from and what her intentions are necessarily.”

Though "Iron Man 2” won’t focus exclusively on the Black Widow character, there’s a good chance the character could return in more Marvel films.

"I would love to see the character come back and, as I was saying, kind of reveal more about herself,” Johansson said.

Until then, Marvel fans can discover more about the character through the pages of Marvel’s comic books.