The Black Widow Strikes Omnibus

Tales of Suspense #52-53, 57, 60, 64

by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Ralph Macchio

Collecting the complete early adventures, solo series and rare graphic novel appearances of the Black Widow! From her debut as a Russian spy through her early days with the Avengers and her character-defining solo series, the story of Natasha Romanoff is one of comics' most captivating. She evolves from villain to teammate and finally into a hero all her own. She plays the spy game and fights in the dark corners of the Marvel Universe. And not one of her foes will soon forget the sting of the Black Widow!

COLLECTING: TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) 52-53, 57, 60, 64; AVENGERS (1963) 29-30, 36-37, 43-44; AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) 86; AMAZING ADVENTURES (1970) 1-8; DAREDEVIL (1964) 81; BIZARRE ADVENTURES (1981) 25; MARVEL FANFARE (1982) 10-13; SOLO AVENGERS (1987) 7; BLACK WIDOW: COLDEST WAR (1990); PUNISHER/BLACK WIDOW: SPINNING DOOMSDAY'S WEB (1992); DAREDEVIL/BLACK WIDOW: ABATTOIR (1993); MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (1988) 135; DAREDEVIL ANNUAL (1967) 10; FURY/BLACK WIDOW: DEATH DUTY (1995); JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1951) 517-519; MATERIAL FROM AVENGERS (1963) 16, 32- 33, 38-39, 41-42, 45-47, 57, 63-64, 76

Genres: Comics, Fiction, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

872 pages, Hardcover

Published April 7, 2020

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent collection of this iconic Marvel heroine. some of the best art in the business did some of her early stories. Recommended

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars. So this was a mixed bag of stuff. The heavy lifting came in the Tales of Suspense and the old Avengers issues. Yes this stuff was from the 60s and 70s and can feel dated with the writing, however I had fun with this stuff. Makes me want to read the rest of the Avengers comics from this era. The stuff with her sharing a book with the Inhumans was solid. Black widow helps some kids who were out to feed the homeless but were getting hounded by some crooked politician. The Marvel Fanfare issues probably had the best artwork. George Perez brought his A game here. Then we get into some of the Marvel Graphic novel stuff. The Coldest War, Death Duty and Punisher Black Widow were not that good. I don’t even know why the put Punisher in that book. He barely said 5 words and really wasn’t given much to do. However, the graphic novel Daredevil/Black Widow: Abattoir was good. It had a nice hand painted art style that was dope. Nice action and a great since of suspense here. Jim Starlin had a winner. The Marvel Comics Presents issue had the worst art I’ve ever seen in a comic. My goodness was that bad. Loeb finishes the book off with a 3 issue story in Journey into Mystery: Black Widow. Not the greatest story but decent. Overall, had a fun time learning a bunch about Natasha as she’s in my top five favorite Marvel characters.

[boofykins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This omnibus is quite impressive. Featured in this volume are almost all of Nat's appearances from her first appearance in the pages of "Tales of Suspense" #52 from 1964 all the way to her solo arc in "Journey Into Mystery" #517-518 from 1998. Major exclusions would be her stint in the pages of "Champions" #1-17 from 1975-1978 and her run as co-star on Daredevil in issues #81-124. There are nice synopses of these particular runs included in this omni which I thought was pretty cool.

Listen, I'm not going to pretend that the stories collected within are all absolute bangers. Some are great, some are not. I chose to rate this book based off what it is, and what it is, is the evolution of the Black Widow character from day one all the way through the 90's. It's a book for the fans. Give this to a novice comic book reader and they probably aren't going to be blown away. Some readers are turned off by Silver-Age, some don't like Bronze-Age, some loathe the 90's. They're all here! Also included are the Marvel Graphic Novels that Nat starred in and there is a lot of cool art in this book.

My favorite parts of the book were "Amazing Adventures" #1-8, ESPECIALLY issues #3-5, which feature Gene Colan on pencils and Bill Everett on ink. "Bizarre Adventures" #25 had some awesome B&W art, and of course, "Marvel Fanfare" #10-13. George Perez. Nuff Said. I even enjoyed each of the graphic novels collected in this omni, which looking them up individually on Goodreads seems to go against consensus. I don't care. I'll enjoy them if I wanna!

I'd recommend this book to anyone that wants to read it. For anyone that doesn't... don't. I won't make you. This isn't Soviet Russia. You have the freedom to make you're own decisions!

[Catherine B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. The beginning was my favorite, and then they seemed to pick and choose between a few different stories after completely skipping about a decade. (I believe this era is or will be covered in other omnibuses?) After the jump, there wasn't a lot of individual stories but several longer ones. It felt it took longer to read some of these.

All in all, I would recommend it, but it is the first omnibus I've read so I don't know if its the norm.