Black Widow: The Saga of Yelena Belova

Yelena Belova’s journey from adversary to ally of the Black Widow!

Natasha Romanoff’s time as the Black Widow may be running out -- because Yelena Belova is gunning for the mantle! Yelena is the first student in Red Room history to exceed Natasha’s skills -- and now she’s determined to eliminate her predecessor and claim the title for her own! It’s a war of the Widows that will rage from the Middle East’s deserts to New York’s Upper West Side! But Yelena’s path will soon place her square in the crosshairs of her home country, alongside Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian! Together, they face a race across Russia...pursued by the Winter Guard! And Yelena finds her destiny as the White Widow, helping Natasha protect San Francisco from a terrible threat!

COLLECTING: Black Widow (1999) 1-3, Black Widow (2001) 1-3, Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova (2020) 1, Winter Guard (2021) 1-4, Black Widow (2020) 7-10

Devin Grayson is best known for her award-winning work on DC’s Batman books -- including Batman: Gotham Knights, a title she created, and Nightwing. She has also worked at Marvel on X-Men: Evolution, as well as penning Black Widow and Ghost Rider miniseries for Marvel Knights. She has had an essay published in She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology and Other Nerdy Stuff, scripted an MMORPG, and written several articles about her experience with insulin-dependent diabetes and her Dogs4Diabetics-trained medical-alert dog, Cody.

Eisner Award-winning writer Greg Rucka is the author of nearly a dozen novels -- seven featuring bodyguard Atticus Kodiak and three featuring Tara Chace, the protagonist of his Queen & Country comics. He has also penned several short stories, countless comics and the occasional nonfiction essay. In comics, he has written stories featuring some of the world’s best-known characters -- Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman -- as well as creator-owned properties such as Whiteout and Queen & Country, both published by Oni Press. His work has been optioned several times over, and his services are in high demand in a variety of creative fields as a story doctor and creative consultant.

Kelly Thompson has a degree in sequential art from the Savannah College of Art & Design and wrote the cult hit Jem and the Holograms for IDW. She published her first graphic novel, Heart in a Box, with Dark Horse in 2015 and has written two novels: Storykiller (2014) and The Girl Who Would Be King (2012). Thompson debuted at Marvel in 2015, co-writing Captain Marvel & the Carol Corps and A-Force. She has since made a name for herself on such books as Hawkeye, West Coast Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, Deadpool and the Rogue-and-Gambit-starring Mr. and Mrs. X. Thompson’s Black Widow won the 2021 Eisner Award for best new series, and her Infinity Comic collaboration with Gurihiru, It’s Jeff! is a delight.

J.G. Jones is one of the new century’s brashest and boldest art talents. An in-demand cover artist, his lush art designs have adorned covers to Y the Last Man, Villains United and Catwoman, among others. In 2000, Jones came together with Grant Morrison for a startlingly fresh take on the Kree mythos in the limited series Marvel Boy. Shortly thereafter, he teamed with writer Greg Rucka on the original graphic novel Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia, providing full interior art. In 2003, he was part of a bevy of top artists who took part in the Avengers Finale one-shot for Marvel. His most high-profile work wound up being a partnership with writer Mark Millar on the Top Cow limited series Wanted in 2003-04, which only four years later would turn into a box-office smash starring Angelina Jolie. He spent 2007 turning in covers for the entire run of 52, DC’s popular weekly comic series. Jones later teamed with his Marvel Boy collaborator Grant Morrison on the DC event Final Crisis.

A student of Will Eisner, painter Scott Hampton had his first professional comic-book story, the three-page ＂Victims,＂ published in 1981 in Warren Publishing’s Vampirella #101. In the years since, he has worked on such iconic properties as Batman, Sandman, Black Widow, Hellraiser, Hellboy and Doc Savage, as well as creator-owned projects such as The Upturned Stone. Hampton adapted his favorite ghost stories into comics form in 2004’s Spookhouse. Outside comics, he has illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, and he wrote and directed the short independent film The Tontine in 2006.

Jan Bazaldua brought her hyperkinetic art style to Spider-Man for a star-marking run with writer Brian Michael Bendis as the young Miles Morales took on the all-new Sinister Six. She burnished her reputation on titles including Mr and Mrs X and Loki, and her fast-growing list of Marvel credits now includes X-Force, Winter Guard and a trip to the far-off galaxy of Star Wars.