High-octane adventures of Marvel’s deadliest superspy!Natasha Romanoff’s shadowy past once again threatens all she holds dear in a globe-hopping thriller! As the Black Widow’s house of cards comes crashing down around her, what will she do to keep her deepest secret buried? When a senator is seduced and assassinated, why does the trail followed by his journalist son lead back to Natasha? Meanwhile, a new Ronin is assassinating espionage agents around the world! The next two targets: Black Widow and Mockingbird! But Hawkeye is determined to unmask the killer! Let the spy games begin!COLLECTING: Black Widow: Deadly Origin (2009) #1-4, Black Widow (2010) #1-8, Widowmaker (2010) #1-4, Fear Itself: Black Widow (2011) #1, Black Widow Saga (2010) #1; material from Enter the Heroic Age (2010) #1, Iron Man: Kiss and Kill (2010) #1Written by Paul Cornell, Marjorie Liu, Duane Swierczynski, Jim Mccann, Cullen Bunn, Kelly Sue Deconnick & Joe AhearnePenciled by John Paul Leon, Tom Raney, Daniel Acuña, Manuel Garcia, David López, Peter Nguyen, Jamie Mckelvie & Brian Ching
Contributors: (W) Paul Cornell; Marjorie Liu (A) John Paul Leon; Tom Raney (CA) Adi Granov
In addition to his work in comics, Paul Cornell is a novelist and a TV writer. He has written Doctor Who for both mediums, famously creating the character Bernice Summerfield, and has since worked extensively in British television on such diverse programs as Robin Hood, Primeval and Casualty. His comics resume includes work on the Marvel titles Wisdom, Captain Britain and MI13, Dark Reign: Young Avengers and Fantastic Four: True Story.Marjorie Liu is a former lawyer turned New York Times-bestselling author most famous for her Dirk & Steele and Hunter Kiss series of romance novels. A diehard comics fan, her first foray in the medium produced the NYX series No Way Home. Subsequent credits include Black Widow, X-23 and Daken: Dark Wolverine (with Daniel Way); she has also written the novel X-Men: Dark Mirror.John Paul Leon majored in illustration at New York’s School of Visual Arts — where he studied under industry legends Will Eisner, Jack Potter and Walt Simonson, and first began working as a professional artist by illustrating a series of black-and-white images for TSR’s Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Leon broke into comics in 1992 with Dark Horse’s Robocop: Prime Suspect and followed this inaugural run with Static from Milestone Comics, a series which was later developed into the popular animated television show, Static Shock. After graduating in 1994, Leon continued working on some of the most popular characters in the comics world and lent his striking illustrations to numerous publishers in the field — including Marvel Comics’ New X-Men, The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, Avengers: The Ultron Imperative, Captain America, Daredevil, Marvel Shadows and Light, Moon Knight and Thor. But he is best known for his critically acclaimed vision of a reimagined Marvel Universe in the maxi-series Earth-X. Leon contributed artwork for the Superman Returns style guide and several Superman children’s books for Meredith Books. He also illustrated most of the licensing artwork for the blockbuster movie Batman Begins and worked on the critically acclaimed The Winter Men with writer Brett Lewis for Wildstorm/DC Comics.An alumnus of the Joe Kubert School, artist Tom Raney gained prominence at Marvel with short runs on Uncanny X-Men and Warlock Chronicles; Wildstorm, where he helped introduce the Stormwatch characters who became the Authority; and DC, where he helped revamp the Outsiders. His notable Marvel credits include Mutant X (a series he helped launch), a second Uncanny X-Men run, X-Men: The Search for Cyclops, Thor, District X and Ultimate X-Men. Since bringing to life the stunningly crafted Annihilation: Conquest crossover, he has illustrated the Secret Invasion: Inhumans, Dark Reign: Hawkeye and Black Widow: Deadly Origin miniseries.