Publication History
The Black Widow's first appearances were as a recurring, non-costumed, Soviet-spy antagonist in the feature "Iron Man", beginning in Tales of Suspense No. 52 (April 1964). Five issues later, she recruited the besotted costumed archer and later superhero Hawkeye to her cause. Her government later supplied her with her first Black Widow costume and high-tech weaponry, but she eventually defected to the United States after appearing, temporarily brainwashed against the U.S., in the superhero-team series The Avengers No. 29 (July 1966). The Widow later became a recurring ally of the team before officially becoming its sixteenth member.
The Black Widow appeared for the first time in her trademark skintight black costume in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 86 (July 1970). In short order, she starred in her own series in Amazing Adventures #1–8 (Aug. 1970–Sept. 1971), sharing that split book with the feature Inhumans. Immediately after her initial solo feature ended, the Black Widow co-starred in Daredevil #81–124 (Nov. 1971–Aug. 1975) and then in the super-team series The Champions, which ran 17 issues (Oct. 1975–Jan. 1978).
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Black Widow appeared frequently as both an Avengers member and a freelance agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She starred in a serialized feature within the omnibus comic-book series Marvel Fanfare #10–13 (Aug. 1983–March 1984), written by George Pérez and Ralph Macchio, with art by penciller Perez. These stories were collected in the one-shot Black Widow: Web of Intrigue No. 1 (June 1999).
The Widow guest-starred in issues of Solo Avengers, Force Works, Iron Man, Marvel Team-Up, and other comics. She appeared in several mid-1980s issues of Daredevil, as well as a four-issue arc in issues #368–371 (Oct. 1997–Jan. 1998) and as a recurring guest in Daredevil vol. 2 (1998–present). She co-starred in two graphic novels—Fury/Black Widow: Death Duty with Nick Fury, Marvel UK's Night Raven and Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday's Web with the Punisher—as well as a three-issue arc, "The Fire Next Time", by writer Scott Lobdell and penciller Randy Green, in Journey into Mystery #517–519 (Feb.–April 1998).
A new ongoing Black Widow comic title debuted in April 2010. The first story arc was written by Marjorie Liu with art by Daniel Acuna. Beginning with issue No. 6 (Sept. 2010), the title began being written by Duane Swierczynski, with artwork by Manuel Garcia and Lorenzo Ruggiero.
Read more about this topic: Black Widow (Natalia Romanova)
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