Natasha Romanoff has been around since 1964, but she didn't get much of a chance to lead her own book until the 2010s. That's good news for new readers. Instead of decades of continuity to wade through, you can jump into any of these collections and be caught up in a single volume.
Here are four places to start, in the order they were originally published.
Black Widow Modern Epic Collection: Chaos (2014)
Strip away the team-ups and the Avengers baggage and you get this: Natasha, alone, doing spy work. Phil Noto's art gives the whole book a moody, cinematic quality, more spy thriller than superhero comic. If you came to Black Widow through the MCU and want her doing what she does best, start here.
Black Widow by Waid & Samnee: Complete Collection (2016)
A tight, 12-issue arc built like a ticking clock. Chris Samnee's art is kinetic and stripped down, all motion and staging, no wasted space. This one reads fast and shows Natasha at her most vulnerable, a good contrast to the coldly professional Edmondson run before it.
Black Widow by Kelly Thompson (2020)
This is the one to lead with if you want to impress someone. Kelly Thompson's run reframes Natasha's rogues' gallery as former friends she's betrayed, which raises the emotional stakes well past typical spy plotting. It's also the most recent take, and it shows how far the character has evolved.
Worth bragging about: this series won the 2021 Eisner Award for Best New Series, comics' equivalent of an Oscar. The Ties That Bind collects the very first arc of that award-winning run.
Bonus pick for Florence Pugh fans: Thunderbolts: The Saga of Yelena Belova
If you're walking in because of Florence Pugh and want to know more about Yelena, this collection traces her from Red Room-trained rival to ally to White Widow, pulled from three different miniseries across 25 years. Fair warning: it's a sampler, not one continuous story, so it jumps around in art and era. But it's a fun deep dive once you already know Natasha's world.
Where to find them: All four core picks are in stock at Alter Ego Comics. Stop in and we'll point you to the shelf.