CNN's Anderson Cooper has his suspicions about Natasha Romanov a.k.a. Black Widow. He doesn't quite believe her status as a reformed KGB operative and assassin and wants to know, "Is this the right Avengers for us?"
Cooper asks that question and more in the new Marvel comic Black Widow #12, available in November. The host of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°" makes his Marvel Universe debut in the comic written by Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto.
"Anderson and his show and his journalism will be the catalyst for a major event in Black Widow's journey right now," Edmondson said in an interview for Marvel. "And 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. We will more importantly see a fundamental change within her as she has to face a world that is now increasingly aware of her," Edmondson said.
As he does in real life, Cooper will dig deep to find the truth.
"Things she does can't be ignored by the media," Edmondson said. "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."
The comic writer first came into contact with Cooper while living and working Washington D.C. He approached the CNN reporter for the issue because of his fair reporting style and his "significant public persona."
Edmondson doesn't consider Cooper a villain - that title goes to Red Skull. His investigation will scrutinize Romanoff's mission, but he only has the best intentions to give a "lucid representation of facts," Edmondson said.
Real people in the Marvel Universe aren't unprecedented.
President Barack Obama appeared on the cover of the Amazing Spider-Man #583 in 2009. The issue entitled "Spidey Meets the President" celebrated Obama first inauguration and became the best-selling comic book of the decade.
The band KISS also faced off with Marvel villains Mephisto and Doctor Doom in 1977. The issue was the first in the series Marvel Comics Super Special.
"It's inherent in our creations that they live in the real world," Marvel Comics writer Paul Tobin told Today.com in 2011. He wrote the four-issue series Models Inc. that featured "Project Runway" host Tim Gunn.
Marvel creator Stan Lee has always wanted to keep his characters based in the real world, as opposed to DC Comics' fictional locations.
"Even though they were superhero stories, I wanted to make them seem as realistic as possible, so I wanted to set them in a real city," Lee told The Austin Chronicle in 2013. "I didn't want a Gotham or Metropolis. I lived in New York, I knew New York, and it's the greatest city in the world to set a story in."
