CNN’s Anderson Cooper To Appear In Marvel Comic Book

CNN newsman Anderson Cooper will appear in an upcoming issues of Nathan Edmonson and Phil Noto’s ongoing Marvel Comics series Black Widow, according to Marvel.com.

Like many of Marvel’s current ongoing solo series, Black Widow chronicles the exploits of Natasha Romanov when she’s not on the clock for the Avengers. These exploits frequently involve wetowrks and black ops missions for S.H.I.E.L.D. and other clients.

Cooper’s role will be to question whether or not an ex-KGB assassin with a lot of “red in her ledger” is truly the kind of person the public should an accept as a protector.

“Anderson and his show and his journalism will be the catalyst for a major event in Black Widow’s journey right now,” explains Edmondson. “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.

“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 says that he met Cooper while living in Washington D.C. and they easily found common ground, as Cooper is a comic book fan. He later came up with the idea to use Cooper in Black Widow.

“I found that he was a comic book fan and reader and shared some of my work with him over a year ago,” he says. “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.”

Cooper anchor’s CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and has earned his reputation over many years reporting from from areas like Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Rwanda, Iraq, and New Oreleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. Edmondson says that, while Cooper while coopers’ delve into Black Widow’s history will make him an antagonist, he is not a villain.

“Very much like a lot of the reporting of military activity today—a lot of reporting of the really tumultuous geo-political situations in the Middle East and in other corners of the country—it’s very difficult to distinguish what we know from what we don’t know,” says Edmondson. “I think that’s where we rely on places like CNN and Fox News and people like Anderson Cooper to help us delineate things we know from what we don’t know. Even then, having exposed as much of the truth as we can, it’s very, very difficult to make determinations from the news on what you feel is just in regards to acts of justice, so-called acts of justice, around the world.

“Me personally, I think I’d be very skeptical about whether or not we should trust Black Widow, 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.”

Anderson Cooper’s investigation into the Marvel Universe will begin in Black Widow #12, on sale in November.