Black Widow: The Sting Of The Widow

Reprints Tales Of Suspense #52, Amazing Spider-Man #86, Amazing Adventures #1-8, Daredevil #81
Written by Stan Lee, N. Korok, Gary Friederich, Mimi Gold, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway.
Penciled by Don Heck, John Romita, John Buscema and Gene Colan.
Inked by Don Heck, Bill Everett, Jim Mooney, Sal Buscema, John Verpooten and Jack Abel.

Variant cover.

Black Widow observes Spider-Man & gets some inspiration

The Black Widow (known as Natasha Romanoff in her private life) has decided to change her approach to crime-fighting. She observes Spider-Man and designs a costume and weapons that copy his own.

Peter Parker's love life is complicated (as usual);
Black Widow puts on her new costume for the first time.

Her bracelets shoot ropes that let her swing all over the city. They also emit an electric charge she calls the Widow's Bite that stuns her opponents in battle.

The Widow decides to attack Spider-Man directly, to see what she can learn. She has him in trouble, since he's still reeling from a previous fight. But the webhead rallies and Natasha realizes she's in a bit over her head.

Later, Black Widow's housekeeper Maria asks for Natasha's help. Maria's son Carlos owes money to a mobster named Rizzo. When he fails to pay Rizzo the money, Carlos is taken captive. But the Widow tracks him down, frees Carlos and makes easy work of Rizzo's gang.

Black Widow saves Maria & Carlos from Rizzo's thugs.

Subsequently, we learn that Carlos is a member of the Young Warriors, an activist organization dedicated to protecting civil rights of Puerto Rican Americans. The Young Warriors take over a building with plans to serve free breakfast for poor children. But Anthony Scarola, a corrupt local politician, keeps an office in the building. Scarola sends a gang of armed thugs to take out the Young Warriors.  But the Black Widow shows up and helps the Warriors maintain control of the building.

On Christmas Eve, Natasha's chauffeur Ivan Petrovich finds a young man on a bridge. He's planning to jump off and commit suicide, but Ivan saves him and brings him back to the Widow's apartment.

The young man (we never learn his name) tells them his backstory. He arrived in New York with no place to live and was taken in by a man called the Astrologer, a criminal who used the stars to plot his schemes.  The Astrologer plans to ransom the city's supply of type O-negative blood. When the young man rebelled against the Astrologer, he felt like he had nowhere to go, which led him to the bridge.

Suddenly, the Astrologer and his goons storm Natasha's apartment. The young man saves Natasha's life, but falls to his death in the process. Black Widow is crushed by his death and is determined to bring the Astrologer to justice.

After that, Black Widow is lured to a remote motel. Upon arrival, she's jumped by two men. Natasha learns they work for a criminal who calls himself the Watchlord. The Widow learns that Watchlord was a child in Germany when his country was occupied by the Soviet Union. His father was killed by the Soviets, so Watchlord has declared war on all Russians. He plans to kill Natasha and Ivan as part of his anti-Russian crusade.

Lastly, Daredevil has been beaten by his foe the Owl and is sinking to his death in the Hudson River.  But the Black Widow shows up and rescues DD from drowning. Natasha will team up with Daredevil and help him try to stop the Owl.

Black Widow takes on the Owl.

Review:
I've always been a fan of the Black Widow.  My first exposure to her was in during the years she was partnered with Daredevil.  But the Widow deserves better than what's reprinted in this book.

Story:
The first story reprinted here (from Amazing Spider-Man # 86) was written by Stan Lee and is pretty good. We get the first appearance of Black Widow's iconic black body suit.

Natasha seems to have the upper hand, until Spider-Man breaks loose.

But Natasha's solo adventures that follow aren't a lot of fun. They were written by five different writers (not a good sign, since there are only 8 issues reprinted) and each tale is only 10 pages long.

First off, most of the villains here are just generic gangsters with no super powers. They never feel like a credible threat and Natasha easily defeats them. Black Widow by this point had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. and helped the Avengers, so she should've been given better adversaries.

The one villain who has super powers is the Watchlord. But his powers are ill-defined and he's never been seen again. Plus, his motivation is silly, even for a supervillain. Watchlord's father was killed by the Soviet Army, so he wants to kill everyone from Russia? Including Ivan and the Widow, who have both defected to the United States?  Watchlord's name isn't even very memorable.

A note about the writers: The story from Amazing Adventures #4 was written by Mimi Gold, one of the first women to write a superhero story. 

I found the stories that featured the Young Warriors to be the most interesting. The Young Warriors are obviously based on the real-life Young Lords organization. This made the story an interesting product of its time. For more info on the Young Lords, click here.

The last tale in this book, from Daredevil #81, is good, but it drops the reader in the middle of a multi-part story. This is a problem I have with in general with reprint books that are built around characters rather than storylines.

Daredevil teams up with the Widow.

Art:
The art in this book is a bit better than the stories. The first story reprinted contains art by John Romita Sr. inked by Jim Mooney (a great penciler in his own right).  John Buscema penciled a couple of the Widow's adventures and his work is great as usual. The splash pages drawn by Buscema are especially nice.  Here's one:

 And another:

Gene Colan is one of my favorite comic artists of all time. But his pencils here are inked by Bill Everett, best known for his Golden Age creation of the Sub-Mariner. Everett was  a legendary artist, but I felt like his inks made Colan's work look fuzzy. Colan pencils the last story here too, and it's an improvement. I love the way Colan draws Natasha's underwater rescue of Daredevil:

How does it look?:
Based on what I've seen of the original issues, these reprints look great. No recoloring in this hardcover.

Nice "Daily Bugle" splash page; Next page features a brief cameo of J. Jonah Jameson & Peter Parker!

Extras:
The first story in the book features Black Widow's first appearance in Tales Of Suspense #52, from the Silver Age. We also get Natasha's entry from The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe. 

Black Widow: The Sting Of The Widow was generally disappointing. Natasha deserves better. But I'll give the book a marginal recommendation due to the art of Romita, Buscema and Colan.

J.A. Morris' rating:

 .5


2 and a half Sals.