Thunderbolts: The Saga Of Yelena Belova (Widowmakers: Red Guardian And Yelena Belova

by Devin Grayson, J.G. Jones (cover_art)

Collects Black Widow (1999) #1-3, Black Widow (2001) #1-3, Red Guardian And Yelena Belova, Winter Guard #1-4 And Black Widow (2020) #7-10.

Yelena Belova's journey from adversary to ally of the Black Widow! Natasha Romanoff's time as the Black Widow may be running out - because Yelena Belova is gunning for the mantle! Yelena is the first student in Red Room history to exceed Natasha's skills, and now she's determined to eliminate her predecessor and claim the title for her own! It's a war of the Widows that will rage from the Middle East's deserts to New York's Upper West Side! But Yelena's path will soon place her square in the crosshairs of her home country alongside Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian! Together, they face a race across Russia - pursued by the Winter Guard! And finally, Yelena finds her destiny as the White Widow, helping Natasha protect San Francisco from a terrible threat!

Genres: Comics, Marvel

Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2025

About the author

Devin Grayson is an avid gamer, former acting student, and enthusiastic reader fortunate enough to have turned a lifelong obsession with fictional characters into a dynamic writing career. She has a B.A. from Bard College, where she studied creative writing with novelist Mona Simpson. Best known for her work on the Batman titles for DC Comics, Devin has been a regular writer on Catwoman, Nightwing, and The Titans, and contributed to the award-winning No Man’s Land story arc. With the publication of Batman: Gotham Knights in March of 2000, she became the first (and, sadly, only as of 2020) female to create, launch and write an ongoing Batman title.

Additional career highlights include the launch of the critically acclaimed series Omni for Humanoids, Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, an original novel featuring Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, and USER—a highly personal three-part, creator-owned miniseries about gender identity and online role-playing, originally published by Vertigo and newly available as a collected edition hardcover through Image. Devin is also the creator of Yelena Belova, a Marvel character staring in the upcoming MCU Black Widow movie (played by Florence Pugh), Damien Darhk, a DC character now appearing regularly in CW’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow (played by Neal McDonough), and Catalina Flores, a DC character recently featured as the super-villain Tarantula in The Lego Batman Movie.

Frequently cited for compelling character development and nuanced exploration of complex themes, Devin’s work has been showcased in mainstream media such as USA Today and Working Woman as well as in alternative press such as The Village Voice, The Advocate, and Curve magazine. Over the years, she has written in several different media and genres, from comic books and novels to video game scripts and short essays. She is currently working on an original graphic novel for Berger Books.

Devin lives in Northern California with her husband, step-son, devoted Early Alert Canines Diabetic Alert Dog, and somewhat less devoted cat. Openly bisexual, she is a passionate advocate for the GLBTQ community, as well as being a committed environmentalist, and a public speaker for T1 Diabetes awareness and Diabetic Alert Dogs. She is always happy to take on a new challenge, especially if it involves making some new fictional friends.

Reviews

[Harlow Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wintergaurd storyline is absolutely amazing and I loved the addition of Red Widow. Black Widow (2020) gets a bad wrap, but besides the weird storyline with her fake child I thought Apogee was an amazing villain and his followers had such cool characteristics.

[Rachel's Comics · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hi there. I did not finish this, and I am ashamed of that, but for whatever reason it just didn’t get me. See my last two reviewed items for details, but this was a collection of Yelena Belova stories (I rated a couple of them separately) that include Natasha. Maybe I’m just not into as into comic Yelena as I am movie Yelena (oh Florence Pugh, thank you for your service) because I just could not get into this. By far these were the worst Black Widow stories I’ve read. I stopped before the Red Guardian and Yelena portion of the collection because frankly without Nat, I really do not care. I’m sorry. The last story in this collection was a Black Widow story Id read and reviewed already (Nat gets brainwashed into thinking she has a family and normal life). So really it was just the middle stuff I didn’t read.

[Court · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super fun: however, it is a compilation of like Yelena’s greatest hits and while it is in chronological order, its little bits from multiple series. I still really enjoyed it you can see how different the comics are from the MCU (I prefer some of the MCU changes) but I had a lot of fun reading and it’s made me want to go back and read some of the complete series featured.

[Megan Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of her most important moments! I feel like I really know her as a character now!

[Caitlin Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely loved getting to know more about Yelenas story in the comic world. Wasn’t a huge fan of the Winters Guard (did love to see Alexei though!) but loved the rest of it!

[Josie 🥀 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greg Rucka did his big one on that 2001 run, best part of the collection for sure.

[alittleghostwithabook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was…okay? I was kind of disappointed, especially considering how much I love Natasha (comic and MCU) and Yelena (who I previously only knew from the MCU). I was very interested in Yelena’s comic origin, and I did end up loving her dynamic with Natasha.

I didn’t like the face-swap comic, because Daredevil kisses a very confused Yelena Belova and this is just…okay? This is her lesson? I wasn’t a fan of Yelena’s comic with Alexei either, I found it a little boring, though I did find the Winter Guard interesting. Lastly, I have found I don’t love Kelly Thompson’s writing style much. I read her Kate Bishop comic and I found it okay, and I think the voice she gave Kate worked for her, in a way the same voice doesn’t work for Yelena and Natasha for me. Although this is something I expected, it should be noted that the way Yelena and Natasha’s bodies are sexualized does take away from my enjoyment.

A lot of the art styles were very beautiful, but I didn’t really have a favorite way Yelena was depicted. Mostly, I love the dynamic between Yelena and Natasha and the way their motivations and beliefs as spies differ.