by Courtney Key
A noted news personality will be making his comic book debut this November, Marvel announced today.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper, host of Anderson Cooper 360°, is set to appear in Black Widow #12, drawn by Phil Noto. The journalist will be asking tough questions about Natasha’s background, wondering “Is this the right Avenger for us?”
Writer Nathan Edmondson said in an interview on the Marvel website that the idea for Cooper’s involvement in the comic came from meeting the journalist when Edmondson lived in Washington, D.C.
“I found that he was a comic book fan and reader and shared some of my work with him over a year ago,” Edmondson said. “Then as we were strategizing upcoming issues of Black Widow I had this idea for an opportunity to involve him directly in the book. He was thrilled with the idea and we were thrilled that he was thrilled and so we set about setting the issue up and going through the steps for approval. Fortunately, it was all nice and easy and everybody involved was excited about the idea.”
Edmondson revealed that Cooper’s investigation of Black Widow will be a turning point for the super-spy.
“As a result of the way in which he exposes her and some of her actions, we’re going to see some pretty significant things change in her world,” the writer told Marvel.com. “We will more importantly see a fundamental change within her as she has to face a world that is now increasingly aware of her.”
However, Cooper will not be a villain in the comic. Rather, Edmondson explained, “It’s Anderson doing what he does best: looking for the truth and reporting on events. We imagine that in Black Widow’s world, as would be the case with many other Avengers, things she does can’t be ignored by the media and all it takes is somebody who knows how to ask the right questions to make her world very uncomfortable for her but in a way that is perhaps not unjust.”
Edmondson himself has a certain sympathy with Cooper’s line of inquiry in the upcoming comic. “Me personally, I think I’d be very skeptical about whether or not we should trust Black Widow,” he said, “especially trusting [her] knowing that she has the support and backing or at least the blind eye of our government. That is to say, does trusting her mean that we have to trust all of the government? I think that’s a very interesting and tricky question.”
Cooper won’t be the only television news personality hitting the pages of Marvel this fall. Marvel previously announced that the Stephen Colbert as Falcon artwork that was shown during the new Captain America announcement on The Colbert Report will be available as a variant cover for All-New Captain America #1, also coming to the shelves in November.
Source: Marvel.com
