What do you think?
Rate this book
Black Widow (2004) #1-6
Black Widow: Welcome To The Game
Collects Black Widow (2004) #1-6, Black The Things They Say About Her (2005) #1-6. The deadliest agent in the Marvel Universe has finally gotten out of the spy game! The Black Widow's not asking much — just a life of her own. But an assassination attempt provides a harsh reality check, kicking off a string of international killings that leads Natasha Romanoff back to a Russia she can barely recognize. Whoever said you can't go home again never reckoned with the Black Widow! People may say that she's a traitor, a murderer or worse. But one thing's for sure — the Black Widow is not to be crossed! The last man foolish enough to do so paid the highest price, but his powerful friends will ensure that Natasha doesn't get off easy - and not even Nick Fury can protect her this time!
287 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 8, 2020
14 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Richard K. Morgan
70 books5,636 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Richard K. Morgan (sometimes credited as Richard Morgan) is a science fiction and fantasy writer.
Richard K. Morgan (sometimes credited as Richard Morgan) is a science fiction and fantasy writer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 6, 2021
"You'll never guess what I'm doing at the moment. I'm fighting crime. Well, maybe that's dignifying it a little too much . . . I'm harassing criminals. It feels good, doesn't it? And its so easy. I've forgotten how inept, how stupid criminals are. I mean, that's why they're criminals, right?" -- Natasha 'Black Widow' Romanov's sly voice-mail message to friend Matt 'Daredevil' Murdock
Black Widow, in a tale where she is completely disconnected from her Avenger colleagues, goes on a roarin' rampage of revenge mission in the super-sized volume Welcome to the Game. After dodging an assassination attempt in the opening pages that interrupts her low-key lifestyle in the American Southwest, Widow quickly hits the road with a snarky SHIELD operative-turned-private eye (plus a friendly young hitchhiker they rescue from an attempted sexual assault incident) when she finds out that other women - who had also received combat and espionage training at the 'Red Room' in their Russian childhoods - are being murdered across the globe. It's a very cold-blooded - and just plain bloody, with shootings and stabbings galore - storyline with a strongly cynical heartbeat, but it was well-paced and heavy on action, suspense and dark humor. I'd even say it was close to a five-star rating, but there were two glaring missteps: some of the illustrations are haphazardly horrible in certain spots, and one of the antagonist operatives in pursuit of Widow is oddly and repeatedly a target of scorn for being a lesbian. I was surprised that some of the dialogue or attitudes about the character made it past the literal drawing board, as it was uncomfortably tone deaf for a 21st century publication. Otherwise, observing Widow dish out a hella lot of rough justice was just aces.
Black Widow, in a tale where she is completely disconnected from her Avenger colleagues, goes on a roarin' rampage of revenge mission in the super-sized volume Welcome to the Game. After dodging an assassination attempt in the opening pages that interrupts her low-key lifestyle in the American Southwest, Widow quickly hits the road with a snarky SHIELD operative-turned-private eye (plus a friendly young hitchhiker they rescue from an attempted sexual assault incident) when she finds out that other women - who had also received combat and espionage training at the 'Red Room' in their Russian childhoods - are being murdered across the globe. It's a very cold-blooded - and just plain bloody, with shootings and stabbings galore - storyline with a strongly cynical heartbeat, but it was well-paced and heavy on action, suspense and dark humor. I'd even say it was close to a five-star rating, but there were two glaring missteps: some of the illustrations are haphazardly horrible in certain spots, and one of the antagonist operatives in pursuit of Widow is oddly and repeatedly a target of scorn for being a lesbian. I was surprised that some of the dialogue or attitudes about the character made it past the literal drawing board, as it was uncomfortably tone deaf for a 21st century publication. Otherwise, observing Widow dish out a hella lot of rough justice was just aces.
March 8, 2021
Natasha has retired to New Mexico where someone comes to take her out. Turns out someone is wiping out all former Russian female agents but no one knows why. So Black Widow gets back in the game to track down the people responsible. It's a solid spy story but a little on the stodgy side. The sequel spins out of this with a Blackwater type, private security firm operating on American soil is after Black Widow.
Even though Bill Sienkiewicz is involved, the art is not great. Turns out his finishes on someone else's layouts are kind of fugly.
Even though Bill Sienkiewicz is involved, the art is not great. Turns out his finishes on someone else's layouts are kind of fugly.
March 10, 2021
I'm a Morgan fan since I read Altered Carbon back in the proverbial day so imagine my delight and surprise to learn he had applied his trademark gritty-noir-action approach to an espionage tale set in the Marvel Universe featuring our very own favourite ageing-decelerated superspy, Natasha Romanova.
Sure it was a little rough around the edges in places and some things, like the use of the slur d*ke to refer to a lesbian antagonist, definitely haven't aged well but for the most part I was impressed with how right on and anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist a title from a mainstream publisher was allowed to be. This was long before the Disney takeover, of course, but even so...
The story is also quite aggressively feminist, which is refreshing to see especially when the story is written by a straight male. Natasha always tries to saves herself first, and the blundering men (including Old Timey Nick Fury and Matt Murdock) in her life tend to cause more problems than they solve.
Recommended, with qualification.
Sure it was a little rough around the edges in places and some things, like the use of the slur d*ke to refer to a lesbian antagonist, definitely haven't aged well but for the most part I was impressed with how right on and anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist a title from a mainstream publisher was allowed to be. This was long before the Disney takeover, of course, but even so...
The story is also quite aggressively feminist, which is refreshing to see especially when the story is written by a straight male. Natasha always tries to saves herself first, and the blundering men (including Old Timey Nick Fury and Matt Murdock) in her life tend to cause more problems than they solve.
Recommended, with qualification.
June 24, 2021
Getting ready for the movie. This was dope. This is a two part series, 6 issues each. I the first part, someone is having all the remaining widows killed off. Someone tries to take out Natasha. That didn’t work out so great for them. Now Nat wants to know why some one tries to kill her and enlists and ex SHIELD operative that owes her to help. I had a great time following these two on their hunt. Tracking down leads and forcing Out information. Along the way the reluctantly pick a stray. Due to a bad turn of events, the stray turns up missing. However, Black Widow finds who’s behind it all and takes them out and then dips back into hiding.
This is where the second part picks up. Nat finds out the stray is still alive and the Widow goes back on the hunt once again. Great action and the art, while a little rough around the edges, for some reason worked fine for this story. Never read anything from Richard K Morgan until now. I like his style. With the way it ended, I wonder if this continues somewhere.
This is where the second part picks up. Nat finds out the stray is still alive and the Widow goes back on the hunt once again. Great action and the art, while a little rough around the edges, for some reason worked fine for this story. Never read anything from Richard K Morgan until now. I like his style. With the way it ended, I wonder if this continues somewhere.
February 22, 2021
I really enjoyed the storyline and Natasha's backstory. The art took me a while to get used to but it fits the genre and action. One thing that REALLY bothered me are the homophobic remarks about Kestrel that seem to be the only thing to define her in the eyes of Nick Fury for instance, when she's actually driven by her want of revenge for the death of her partner. Okay, it's from 2004, but it's still not cool, the story didn't need that at all. 3.5
April 4, 2023
Открыв комикс в первый раз, довольно быстро закрыл его - арт Сенкевича и так не сильно мной любим, а тут он еще местами и довольно паршив. Но потом постепенно втянулся, благо история захватывает.
Наташа Романова ушла на покой и мирно занимается скалолазанием в горах Аризоны, когда ее пытаются убить. Она выясняет, что по всему миру прошла волна убийств бывших Черных Вдов (если они. конечно, бывают бывшими), а значит в очередной раз ей придется разбираться с тайнами своего прошлого (о которых она в этой серии знает прискорбно мало).
Никаких угрожающих миру катастроф, никаких Мстителей и прочих супергероев (почти), совершенно неонуарная история - гангстеры, корпорации неотличимые от гангстеров, продажные спецслужбы и политики на службе корпораций, семейное насилие и женское бесправие. И главная героиня, которая разбирается со всем этим дерьмом такими методами, что "героиней" ее точно не назвать, Каратель одобряет.
И это довольно феминистская и антикапиталистическая история - о том, как женщины вынуждены постоянно подстраиваться под устанавливаемые мужчинами стандарты и рамки, не отсвечивать, не быть слишком умными и независимыми, не сопротивляться, но даже несмотря на все это - их жизни все равно мелкая разменная монета в мужском мире, и неважно, западная ли это демократия и капитализм, или автократические социалистические режимы.
3,5 звезды, плюс еще полбалла за то, что все мужики в этой серии - изрядные козлы, даже те, что на Наташиной стороне (ну ок, кроме Мэтта Мердока), и это совершенно органично и не вызывает ни тени сомнения.
ЗЫ. В отзывах возмущаются гомофобным отношением ряда персонажей к лесбиянке-антагонистке (а также тому, что она антагонистка). Очень странно удивляться этому - гомофобных сексистских мужланов в погонах и сейчас выше крыши, а уж 20 лет назад тем более.
Наташа Романова ушла на покой и мирно занимается скалолазанием в горах Аризоны, когда ее пытаются убить. Она выясняет, что по всему миру прошла волна убийств бывших Черных Вдов (если они. конечно, бывают бывшими), а значит в очередной раз ей придется разбираться с тайнами своего прошлого (о которых она в этой серии знает прискорбно мало).
Никаких угрожающих миру катастроф, никаких Мстителей и прочих супергероев (почти), совершенно неонуарная история - гангстеры, корпорации неотличимые от гангстеров, продажные спецслужбы и политики на службе корпораций, семейное насилие и женское бесправие. И главная героиня, которая разбирается со всем этим дерьмом такими методами, что "героиней" ее точно не назвать, Каратель одобряет.
И это довольно феминистская и антикапиталистическая история - о том, как женщины вынуждены постоянно подстраиваться под устанавливаемые мужчинами стандарты и рамки, не отсвечивать, не быть слишком умными и независимыми, не сопротивляться, но даже несмотря на все это - их жизни все равно мелкая разменная монета в мужском мире, и неважно, западная ли это демократия и капитализм, или автократические социалистические режимы.
3,5 звезды, плюс еще полбалла за то, что все мужики в этой серии - изрядные козлы, даже те, что на Наташиной стороне (ну ок, кроме Мэтта Мердока), и это совершенно органично и не вызывает ни тени сомнения.
ЗЫ. В отзывах возмущаются гомофобным отношением ряда персонажей к лесбиянке-антагонистке (а также тому, что она антагонистка). Очень странно удивляться этому - гомофобных сексистских мужланов в погонах и сейчас выше крыши, а уж 20 лет назад тем более.
December 6, 2020
Generally interesting background story on Nat. Making the antagonist a lesbian felt homophobic at best. Using the word dyke twice (and once out of Nick Fury’s mouth) really soured me on the story. The antagonist’s (male) work partner dying motivates her - not her interest in women. And yet half of her panels are about other side-antagonists making snide comments about her sexuality. I’m sure that someone will tell me that it was actually “inclusive” and ahead of its time (2004-2005 for the original run of the series) which is all absolute bullshit.
It all makes me wonder why this was published as a bind up 15 years later in 2020.
It all makes me wonder why this was published as a bind up 15 years later in 2020.
January 20, 2020
A story of its time for sure, Widows characterisation is typical of the genre and some of the art is as you’d expect from a title published in 2005. It gives a good glimpse at Natasha’s past and offers more glimpses of the hero she becomes and what motivates her.
April 26, 2025
Black Widow: Welcome to the Game – This one’s a bit of an oddball, but in a good way. I really appreciated the gritty, noir-style vibe—it feels more grounded and realistic. The premise is solid: someone’s hunting Black Widows, and Natasha is determined to find out who. The pacing flows well, though the writing can get overly wordy at times. Natasha herself is portrayed as effortlessly cool, which I loved. That said, some of the attempts at feminist dialogue come off a little forced—like a man trying to write “strong female lines” without really listening to real conversations. It doesn’t ruin the story, but it does feel a bit dated (it was written about 20 years ago). Still, overall, it’s a fun, moody little noir story.
June 1, 2022
The art, though not my favorite, goes well with the story. It starts with a good pace, then some things get lost along the way, with a few loose ends or unnecessary stuff. And like almost every Marvel story, it ends in a bit of a rush. It could be better.
August 14, 2020
This isn't a Natasha who worries about red in her ledger.
August 25, 2021
I've never read much Black Widow, but am reading some of her solo runs in preparation for seeing the movie. That said, this collection was relatively disappointing. By and large, I am not a fan of spy/espionage works, which a lot of this run is. I've never read any of the books of her time with Daredevil, so have no background on their interaction or relationship.
Overall, the artwork was mediocre (especially the second run), despite the stellar cover work.
All said, this collection wasn't bad, but it just wasn't for me. If you like Black Widow, spy books, espionage, or want to learn more about the character, this is a worthwhile read. If you aren't a fan, or don't care, these are easily skipped.
Overall, the artwork was mediocre (especially the second run), despite the stellar cover work.
All said, this collection wasn't bad, but it just wasn't for me. If you like Black Widow, spy books, espionage, or want to learn more about the character, this is a worthwhile read. If you aren't a fan, or don't care, these are easily skipped.
April 9, 2023
I love good Widow-goes-rogue story, and this was top notch: the badassery, the ability to balance women vs. male fighting techniques, the back story layout. There are a lot of aspects that I liked about this story.
But, like many female superhero stories, there were things that annoyed me. The ever present cleavage, the hindering outfits that are cut so deep I'm sure a breast would have fallen out during combaat, the pointless two complete pages of Nat being practically naked, and don't forget the n!pples that starred to appear alongside Yelena.
To sum it up, the story was great. I would honestly read it again, but the oversexualization of the characters definitely could have been limited or cut out entirely without hindering the story.
But, like many female superhero stories, there were things that annoyed me. The ever present cleavage, the hindering outfits that are cut so deep I'm sure a breast would have fallen out during combaat, the pointless two complete pages of Nat being practically naked, and don't forget the n!pples that starred to appear alongside Yelena.
To sum it up, the story was great. I would honestly read it again, but the oversexualization of the characters definitely could have been limited or cut out entirely without hindering the story.
July 5, 2021
I read this one just to say I'd completed the Morgan Black Widow run, and it was more of the same like the first book.
This was the definition of man trying to write a feminist book, but manages to be more sexist than ever.
It never felt like Natasha, or her story, everything revolved around men and male persuits, and the whole thing didn't make sense.
And, the art style was not my favourite at all.
This was the definition of man trying to write a feminist book, but manages to be more sexist than ever.
It never felt like Natasha, or her story, everything revolved around men and male persuits, and the whole thing didn't make sense.
And, the art style was not my favourite at all.
April 26, 2022
Really liked these two stories that were back to back tellings of Natasha after quitting the spy game.
Guest starring Nick Fury, Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and Yelena.
These are dark stories of American Corporate greed and a president that is lining his pockets in all the wrong ways.
Natasha is cold and distant and dark in these stories. Not at all warm and fuzzy.
Great stories.
Guest starring Nick Fury, Matt Murdock (Daredevil) and Yelena.
These are dark stories of American Corporate greed and a president that is lining his pockets in all the wrong ways.
Natasha is cold and distant and dark in these stories. Not at all warm and fuzzy.
Great stories.
November 10, 2022
This is one of my favorite Black Widow stories. Can you ever truly leave the espionage game? These two story lines take some dark and interesting turns. Natasha will definitely find out. With some old and new allies Natasha with all her talent faces a new challenge. I enjoyed this one more than I was expecting.
December 10, 2023
While some homophobia does appear present that makes the book feel dated as part of the turn of the 21st-century’s embrace of an edgy aesthetic, Black Widow: Welcome to the Game presents a highly engaging espionage story about the fall of the Soviet Union.
April 10, 2024
This book was okay. Usually, I really enjoy reading about the Black Widow🕷️, but there were parts I didn't like in this book😑. It was too violent and dark for me to enjoy😱. I did like that both Natasha and Yelena were in the story🙂. ~ Koala🐨🎮
March 13, 2020
Maybe 3.5
November 5, 2020
3.5, the second mini series in the collection is stronger than the first.
November 21, 2020
The story gets five stars but the art gets 2 stars. I really have to like the art otherwise what’s the point of reading a graphic novel?
August 17, 2021
Nice story, and fantastic illustrations!
August 18, 2021
Visceral. Unrelenting. Must read for Black Widow fans.
August 28, 2021
Part of black widow's story is told
January 15, 2022
Natasha romanoff beating up rapists is something i didn’t know i needed in my life
July 14, 2022
Always have live for Black Widow! She is hard-core and a badass! Love my girl! One of the best at what she does; kicking ass!
November 3, 2023
Black Widow Graphic Novel
Great Graphic Novel
Richard K Morgan has surpassed himself again.
The plot and characterisation are superb.
A fantastic read. I would recommend.
Great Graphic Novel
Richard K Morgan has surpassed himself again.
The plot and characterisation are superb.
A fantastic read. I would recommend.
October 1, 2025
Ive highkey read this thrice and I still have no fucking idea what happened
January 30, 2022
EDIT; holy shit the author is a TERF. Fucking gross, doubly taints this run.
Gonna be real here; I was gonna give this 4 stars at first (first half has some gratuitous fan service that I find distasteful but is otherwise ok) but then I found out almost everyone who worked on this - especially the writer - is a man. Which makes a lot of the gender commentary fall flat, knowing that. Also I don’t like where the second half goes, in terms of escalation (also there’s a homophobic slur; I know this is from 2005 but still), or how it has an open ending. Still. Decent story; I liked how Yelena showed up; amazing art.
EDIT 2: Okay, I'm back because I have Additional Thoughts. Going into spoiler territory here + for the new Black Widow movie;
Gonna be real here; I was gonna give this 4 stars at first (first half has some gratuitous fan service that I find distasteful but is otherwise ok) but then I found out almost everyone who worked on this - especially the writer - is a man. Which makes a lot of the gender commentary fall flat, knowing that. Also I don’t like where the second half goes, in terms of escalation (also there’s a homophobic slur; I know this is from 2005 but still), or how it has an open ending. Still. Decent story; I liked how Yelena showed up; amazing art.
EDIT 2: Okay, I'm back because I have Additional Thoughts. Going into spoiler territory here + for the new Black Widow movie;
November 14, 2021
Two different series in this collection. The writer is the same for both and the story is pretty good. This can, I guess be read on it's own without to much previous knowledge of Black Widow. That does make some of the main characters more mysterious, but their roles within the story still make sense. I only know the really old Black Widow stuff, but most of the rest of her history and supporting cast is a mystery to me, so if I had known more about say Yelena Belova and Phil Dexter, their roles in the story may have had more meaning.
Big draw and detraction is the art. Looks like this should be great with pencils by Bill Sienkiewicz and Sean Phillips. It's a little confusing where they did breakdowns and finishes, but it kind of looks like some one came in the do finishes to keep from breaking a deadline. The first series fares better, with some cool painted, sketchy affects that Sienkiewicz is known for. But the second series has some really heavy inking. It's still good, but looks muddy and flat in some places. And if you hate Greg Land like I do, don't worry, he only did the covers.
Big draw and detraction is the art. Looks like this should be great with pencils by Bill Sienkiewicz and Sean Phillips. It's a little confusing where they did breakdowns and finishes, but it kind of looks like some one came in the do finishes to keep from breaking a deadline. The first series fares better, with some cool painted, sketchy affects that Sienkiewicz is known for. But the second series has some really heavy inking. It's still good, but looks muddy and flat in some places. And if you hate Greg Land like I do, don't worry, he only did the covers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews