Marvel's Black Widow Prelude written by Stan Lee and others
As a preparation for the movie, Marvel has published one of its "Prelude" volumes, based on individual comics sold in the lead-up to the movie's release. This book came out a year ago, since the movie was supposed to come out a year ago. I finally read it through Hoopla. Here are the contents...
Black Widow Prelude #1-2--This two-issue lead-in to the movie is entirely a recap of Black Widow appearances in other Marvel films. This reads like a shameless money grab by the publisher. I guess if you haven't seen the movies, the content is new, but why are you reading this if you haven't been following the MCU all along? The end recommends seeing more in Marvel's Black Widow.
Tales of Suspense #52-53--The first appearance of Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff has her facing off against Iron Man as a Soviet scientist tries to defect. Iron Man's decent treatment of her (like leaving her alive after her failure) forces her to stay in America rather than face the inevitable back in Moscow. She tries to be bad but Iron Man still keeps her from doing bad and saves her life. Her fate is left for further issues to reveal. The end recommends reading more in Black Widow Epic Collection: Beware the Black Widow trade paperback.
The Avengers #43--The issue features the first appearance of the Red Guardian, the Soviet answer to Captain America. Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow has been captured and taken to a secret Chinese base. The Avengers get some intel that Hawkeye and Hercules (yes, the son of Zeus is also an Avenger in the comics) use to go free her. They wind up battling the Red Guardian. The end recommends reading more in Black Widow Epic Collection: Beware the Black Widow trade paperback.
The Avengers #196--The issue features the first appearance of Taskmaster, a villain who can imitate any move or tactic as soon as he sees it. At first, he thought of using this ability to be a superhero, but he realized there's more money on the other side. Then he realized there is more safety in training lackeys for other supervillains rather than being a supervillain himself. One of his trainees tries to defect to the Avengers, blowing Taskmaster's scheme and drawing the attention Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The end recommends more Taskmaster action in Taskmaster: Anything You Can Do... trade paperback.
Web of Black Widow #1--Natasha infiltrates one of Tony Stark's swanky fundraiser parties to take down a villain she helped back when she was a bad gal. She tries to keep Tony out of it but you know how Iron Man is. The end recommends reading more in The Web of Black Widow trade paperback.
So basically, this graphic novel is just a bunch of half stories given so that the reader will buy more comics or a ticket to the movie. Ho-hum. I'm glad I borrowed this digitally from the library. I may borrow those other trade paperback on Hoopla.
Mildly recommended.
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