Black Widow is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Most of these versions exist in Marvel's main shared universe, known as the Marvel Universe.

Claire Voyant

Main article: Black Widow (Claire Voyant)

Claire Voyant is the first costumed, superpowered female protagonist in comic books. Created by writer George Kapitan and artist Harry Sahle, she first appeared in Mystic Comics #4 (Aug. 1940). She kills evildoers to deliver their souls to Satan, her master. The character is unrelated to the later Marvel Comics superheroines who took on the codename.[1]

Natasha Romanoff

Main articles: Black Widow (Natasha Romanova) and Natasha Romanoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Natasha Romanoff[2] is the first character to take on the Black Widow codename in the modern mainstream Marvel Comics. She was created by editor and plotter Stan Lee, scripter Don Rico and artist Don Heck, and first appeared in Tales of Suspense #52 (April 1964). The character has been associated with several superhero teams in the Marvel Universe, including the Avengers, the Defenders, the Champions, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Thunderbolts. She has appeared in many other forms of media, including the major motion pictures Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Black Widow, wherein she is portrayed by Scarlett Johansson.

Yelena Belova

Main article: Black Widow (Yelena Belova)

Yelena Belova is the second character to take on the Black Widow codename in the modern mainstream comics who debuted briefly in Inhumans #5 (March 1999) and was fully introduced in the 1999 Marvel Knights mini-series Black Widow. A second miniseries, also titled Black Widow and featuring Natasha Romanoff and Daredevil, followed in 2001. The next year, she did a solo turn in her own three-issue miniseries titled Black Widow: Pale Little Spider under the mature-audience Marvel MAX imprint. This June to August 2002 story arc, by writer Greg Rucka and artist Igor Kordey, was a flashback to the story of her being the second modern Black Widow, in events preceding her Inhumans appearance.[3] Florence Pugh portrays Yelena in the MCU film Black Widow[4] and the Disney+ miniseries Hawkeye.

Publication History, List of Titles

Marvel Knights Grayson & Rucka Era

Black Widow Volume 1 (Marvel Knights; June - August 1999)[5] Legacy #1-3

Black Widow Volume 2 (Marvel Knights; "Breakdown Parts 1-3"; January - March 2001)[6] #1-3 [Legacy #4-6]

Black Widow: Pale Little Spider Volume 1 (MAX Comics; June - August 2002) #1-3

  1. Collected in Marvel Knights Black Widow by Grayson & Rucka (October 2018)[7]

Marvel Knights "Homecoming" & "The Things They Say About Her" Story-line

Black Widow Volume 3 "Homecoming" (Marvel Knights, By Morgan & Sienkiewicz; November 2004 - April 2005)[8] #1-6 [Legacy #8-12]

Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her Volume 1 (Marvel Knights; November 2005 - April 2006)[9] #1-6 [Legacy #13-18]

  1. Collected in Black Widow: Welcome to the Game (January 2020)[10]

Black Widow: Deadly Origin & Marvel Legacy -Canon Series

Black Widow: Deadly Origin Volume 1 (Miniseries; January - April 2010)[11] #1-4

Black Widow Volume 4 (June 2010 - January 2011)[12][13] [Legacy #1-8]

Widowmaker Volume 1 (By Jim McCann and David Lopez; Miniseries; February - April 2011) #1-4[14]

  1. Collected in Black Widow: Widowmaker (January 2020)[15]
    1. Fear Itself: Black Widow #1 (August 2011)
    2. Black Widow Saga #1 (March 2010)
    3. Material from Enter the Heroic Age #1
    4. Material from Iron Man: Kiss and Kill #1

Black Widow Volume 5 (March 2014 - September 2015)[16] #1-20 [Legacy #9-28]

  1. Collections include- Black Widow Vol. 1: The Finely Woven Thread (July 2014)[17]
  2. Black Widow Vol. 2: The Tightly Tangled Web (January 2015)[18]
  3. Black Widow Vol. 3: Last Days (Sept. 2015)[19]

Black Widow Volume 6 (May 2016 - May 2017)[20] #1-12 [Legacy #29-40]

  1. Black Widow by Waid & Samnee: The Complete Collection (March 2020)[21]

Black Widow Volume 7 "No Restraints Play" (Miniseries; March 2019 - July 2019)[22] #1-5

  1. Black Widow: No Restraints Play (July 2019)[23]

Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova #1 (November 2020)[24]

Black Widow Volume 8 (November 2020 - June 2022)[25] #1-15 [Legacy #41-55]

  1. Black Widow by Kelly Thompson: The Ties That Bind (April 2021)[26]
  2. Black Widow by Kelly Thompson: I Am the Black Widow (October 2021)[27]
  3. Black Widow by Kelly Thompson: Die by the Blade (May 2022)[28]

Alternative universe versions

Monica Chang

Further information: Monica Chang

Monica Chang-Fury is the second character to use the Black Widow codename in the Ultimate Marvel continuity, debuting in Ultimate Comics: Avengers #3.[29]

Jessica Drew

Further information: Spider-Woman (Ultimate Marvel character)

The Ultimate version of Jessica Drew is a female Spider-Clone who uses by the Black Widow alias.[30][31]

Black Widow 2099

The futuristic 2099 version of Black Widow is an African-American woman named Tania. She operates as part of the Avengers 2099 at the Alchemax corporation's behest.[32] Like black widow spiders, she literally eats her mates after having sex with them.[33]

In other media

See also

References

  1. ^ Gerber, Jamie (Jun 27, 2018). "20 Weird Things About Black Widow Even Hardcore Fans Might Not Know - 3". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  2. ^ Daniel Way (w), Steve Dillon (a). Wolverine: Origins 16 (October, 2007), Marvel Comics
  3. ^ De Blieck Jr., Augie (July 16, 2013). "Revisiting Marvel's Beezer & Belova". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  4. ^ Lussier, Germain (July 20, 2019). "Here's What Happened in the Black Widow Footage Marvel Showed at Comic-Con". io9. Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  5. ^ "Black Widow (1999) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  6. ^ "Black Widow (2001) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  7. ^ Grayson, Devin (2018). Black Widow : the complete collection. Greg Rucka, J. G. Jones, Scott Hampton, Igor Kordey, Dave, Kemp, Wes Abbott. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-302-91400-4. OCLC 1029890146.
  8. ^ "Black Widow (2004 - 2005) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  9. ^ "Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (Volume)". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  10. ^ Morgan, Richard K. (2020). Black Widow. Welcome to the game. Bill Sienkiewicz, Goran Parlov, Sean Phillips, Dan Brown, Cory Petit, Chris Eliopoulos. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-302-92125-5. OCLC 1127065323.
  11. ^ "Black Widow: Deadly Origin (2009 - 2010) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  12. ^ "Marvel Entertainment, Comics, Series, Black Widow 2010 - 2011". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  13. ^ "Black Widow (Volume)". Comic Vine. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  14. ^ "Widowmaker (Volume)". Comic Vine. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  15. ^ Black Widow. Widowmaker. Paul Cornell, Marjorie M. Liu, Duane Swierczynski, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Joe Ahearne, Jim McCann. New York, NY. 2019. ISBN 978-1-302-92144-6. OCLC 1111395466.((cite book)): CS1 maint: others (link)
  16. ^ "Black Widow (2014 - 2015) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  17. ^ Edmondson, Nathan (2014). Black Widow. Vol. 1, The finely woven thread. Phil Noto, Clayton Cowles, Ellie Pyle. New York. ISBN 978-0-7851-8819-3. OCLC 880194433.
  18. ^ Edmondson, Nathan (2015). Black Widow. 2, The tightly tangled web. Phil Noto, Clayton Cowles, Ellie Pyle. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-7851-8820-9. OCLC 884809737.
  19. ^ Edmondson, Nathan (2015). Black Widow. Vol. 3, Last days. Phil Noto, Clayton Cowles, Jake Thomas, Ellie Pyle. New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-7851-9253-4. OCLC 904421874.
  20. ^ "Black Widow (2016 - 2017) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  21. ^ Black Widow [2016] : the complete collection. Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson, Don Heck, Goran Parlov, Bill Sienkiewicz. New York, NY. 2020. ISBN 978-1-302-92129-3. OCLC 1140133582.((cite book)): CS1 maint: others (link)
  22. ^ "Black Widow (2019) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  23. ^ Soska, Jen (2019). Black Widow. No restraints play. Sylvia Soska, Flaviano, Joe Caramagna, Veronica Gandini. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-302-91673-2. OCLC 1103993007.
  24. ^ "Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova (2020) #1 | Comic Issues | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  25. ^ "Black Widow (2020 - Present) | Comic Series | Marvel". Marvel Entertainment. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  26. ^ Thompson, Kelly (2021). Black Widow by Kelly Thompson. Vol. 1, The ties that bind. Elena Casagrande, Rafael De Latorre, Jordie Bellaire, Carlos Gomez, Federico Blee, Cory Petit. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-302-92483-6. OCLC 1155599943.
  27. ^ Thompson, Kelly (2021). Black Widow. Vol. 2, I am the Black Widow. Elena Casagrande, Rafael De Latorre, Elisabetta D'Amico, Jordie Bellaire, Cory Petit. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-302-93013-4. OCLC 1245926595.
  28. ^ Thompson, Kelly (2022). Black Widow. Vol. 3, Die by the blade. Rafael De Latorre, Elena Casagrande, Rafael T. Pimentel, Elisabetta D'Amico, Jordie Bellaire, Cory Petit. New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-302-93254-1. OCLC 1308724607.
  29. ^ Burlingame, Russ (November 2, 2014). "Could the Avengers: Age of Ultron Mystery Woman Be Avengers AI's Monica Chang?". Comicbook.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2017. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  30. ^ Michel Fiffe (w), Amilcar Pinna (a). All-New Ultimates #1 (April 9, 2014), Marvel Comics
  31. ^ Moore, Matt (January 10, 2014). "In Marvel's Ultimate universe, fate looms large". Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  32. ^ Peter David (w), Will Sliney (a). Secret Wars 2099 v#1, (May, 2015), Marvel Comics
  33. ^ Peter David (w), Will Sliney (a). Secret Wars 2099 #3 (July, 2015), Marvel Comics
  34. ^ Goldman, Eric (January 28, 2015). "Marvel's Agent Carter Exclusive: Showrunners Reveal Who Dottie Works For". IGN. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  35. ^ "Into the Future". Avengers Assemble. Season 3. Episode 13. August 22, 2016. Disney XD.
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