Review: Black Widow- The Sting of the Widow

Quick Summary

Pros: The collection has plenty of historical weight to it. Black Widow’s personal story is interesting. The artwork is positive throughout the book and provides several great displays of Black Widow’s talent.

Cons: The majority of this collection’s stories are lackluster at best.

Overall: This volume is high on Black Widow character development but low on storytelling. The stories collected here offer readers a chance to see some of Black Widow’s earliest comic appearances and see her develop in these early days. However, outside of character development and historical importance, these stories are not that entertaining and often come across as contrived. Diehard fans of Black Widow may still find this volume enjoyable but readers with little interest in her will not find much to enjoy.

Story

Black Widow: The Sting of the Widow collects several stories and story arcs that comprise some of Black Widow’s earliest outings as a solo character. For this reason, a few of the stories here are just fun to read from a historical standpoint, as they feature monumental moments in Black Widow’s history. These early stories also give readers a chance to see her character develop from her origin point onward. However, most of these stories are also lackluster when it comes to quality and have problems that prevent any of them from really standing out as a significantly positive adventure. In the end, this volume is a nice showcase for Black Widow but not a great collection of individual comics.

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The Sting of the Widow opens with a few stories that form some of the most important pieces of Black Widow’s history. The opening chapter introduces the world to her character, explains her connection to the USSR, and shows her early days as a villain. The following chapter begins the process of starting her first-ever solo journey and also modernizes her approach to heroics. These are key pieces of comic book lore that any fan should be able to enjoy from a historical standpoint.

In addition, these stories, and the rest of the stories collected in The Sting of the Widow, craft an interesting narrative around Black Widow as a character. They highlight how her troubled past has prevented her from living a happy life. It is also interesting to see her attempts at justifying her vigilantism, especially in the cases where it goes tragically wrong.

Unfortunately, outside of Black Widow’s personal narrative, the majority of the stories in this collection are pretty lackluster. Her team-up with Spider-Man feels contrived from the very start, as it never feels like the two have an actual reason to interact besides the fact that they both derive their names from arachnids. Then, the next story arc has a group of young people forcibly take over a building in order to start a volunteer organization. It is a ridiculous premise that shifts as it goes along, when their mission switches to discrediting an evil politician. The final few stories have less obvious problems but also fail to really generate that much excitement.

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Art

The most consistently positive aspect of The Sting of the Widow is easily the artwork. This entire volume contains contributions from a wide array of incredibly talented artists, all of whom produce some beautiful visuals. John Buscema’s work on the Black Widow’s first few solo adventures looks fantastic. His well-structured pages and energetic approach to action make these chapters exciting, even when the story gets a bit lackluster. This is especially noticeable in places where the dialogue and narration are minimal in order to simply let the visuals shine. In addition, later chapters, from artists like Gene Colan and Don Heck, are able to capture the darker and more serious tones found in these particular portions of the narrative.

The visuals in this volume are also notable in how they dramatically refine Black Widow’s costume. She goes from her somewhat ridiculous and way too ostentatious original design to the sleek outfit most modern fans recognize. John Romita and Jim Mooney’s improvements here change this character in a way that still has an impact to this day and, likely, will continue to have an impact far into the future. So, actually seeing this change take place makes the volume even more interesting to read.

Continuity

Black Widow: The Sting of the Widow collects stories from different points during Marvel’s Silver Age history. The first chapter, Tales of Suspense #52, directly follows the events of Tales of Suspense #51, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 2 (Review). The rest of the volume, follows Black Widow’s role in Avengers #76, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 8 (Review).  

The story here continues in Daredevil #82 and its following issues, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 8.

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Tales of Suspense #52 references the Crimson Dynamo’s role in Tales of Suspense #46, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 1 (Review).
• Amazing Spider-Man #86 starts out by mentioning Spider-Man’s battle with Kingpin from Amazing Spider-Man #85, collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 9. 
• Several elements from Black Widow’s past are mentioned throughout this collection.
  • Black Widow met Hawkeye in Tales of Suspense #57, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 2 (Review).
  • She began working with S.H.I.E.L.D. in Avengers #38, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 4 (Review). 
  • The story arc involving the Red Guardian is detailed across Avengers #41-44, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Vol. 4 (Review). 
• Daredevil #81 continues the story from Daredevil #80, collected in Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil Vol. 8.