Marvel Comics
various writers and artists
This volume collects some of the earliest appearances of Marvel's Back Widow, Natasha Romanova. In fact, these are so early in her career, the character still doesn't even have a last name by the end of this volume, still being referred to in her civillian identity as simply Madame Natasha.
The Widow's first appearance, facing off against Iron Man from the pages of Tales of Suspense No. 52, is the lead-off story in this collection. This volume is not for completists, however, as the next story included is Amazing Spider-Man No. 86, wherein the Widow first adopts her modern costume. The intervening adventures for the character are summed up in a text piece, but one gets the idea this involves several years' worth of guest appearances in many Marvel books.
Following her appearance in Amazing Spider-Man, the Black Widow moved to headlining Marvel's Amazing Adventures comic with the Inhumans. The first eight issues of that title's Black Widow stories are included, followed by her guest-appearance in Daredevil No. 81, which is the last adventure reprinted here.
Overall, these stories depict a Black Widow who goes from villainous Russian saboteur to immigrant-American superheroine and espionage agent. She is a very competent fighter employing martial arts skills along with her trademark Widow's sting and weblines. She tackles some villains along with a few social injustices, as comics of this time period sometimes did, but there is a heavy soap opera quality that is also present in comics from this time period which starred a female lead. That melodramatic quality might detract for some, but overall this is a solid read for anyone curious about the beginnings of the Black Widow character.
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