Natasha Romanov has been a secret agent, codename Black Widow, since the days of the Cold War, when she served Mother Russia faithfully until defecting to the West and throwing in with the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. She is the epitome of sleek, calm, beautiful and dangerous, and for many years she has been an underused character in the Marvel Universe, rarely achieving anything close to her full potential.

She comes into her own in Black Widow, a collection of two three-issue miniseries that thrust her into conflict with Yelena Belova, a next-generation Russian spy who seeks to claim the Black Widow name.

The first section, written by Devin Grayson, is fast-paced and taut, a thriller in the James Bond vein, filled with explosions, misdirections, a global threat, exotic locations and, of course, beautiful women. Both agents are ordered to retrieve a deadly bioweapon being tested in the Middle East, and both are determined to prevent the other from getting there first. It's a battle of wits and strength, fresh training vs. honed skills, experience vs. youthful enthusiasm, auburn hair vs. blond.

In the second chapter, Grayson and Greg Rucka script Natasha's surgical strike against Yelena, a mind game of both drastic dimensions and subtle persuasions in which Yelena is forced to believe she has somehow become Natasha. While the details of exactly how this was accomplished are left vague -- plastic surgery? brain transplant? -- the story of Yelena's growing confusion is extremely well executed. While not nearly so exciting as the first chapter, this tale is fascinating in both concept and portrayal, if a bit rushed in pacing.

J.G. Jones, artist for the first miniseries, paints a lovely picture. His images are sharp, detailed and heavily nuanced, and they carry the action along in an eye-catching style. In the latter issues, Scott Hampton fares less well; his art is rough and less realistic, and his characters all seem to have stuffy noses. His landscapes and background details, on the other hand, are very well handled indeed.

Combined, the stories make for a very good graphic novel, one that shines a much-needed light on an overlooked heroine.