CNN newsman Anderson Cooper is taking a somewhat unusual career turn - into a comic book star.
Cooper will appear in an upcoming edition of the comic book series Black Widow, published by Marvel Comics, the studio behind iconic characters such as Thor, Iron-Man, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk.
On the big screen, Black Widow has appeared in the films Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron, played by actress Scarlett Johansson.
Cooper has been written into the Black Widow comic book series, as himself, in a story that sees the "world renowned journalist and news anchor exposes the tangled web of the Widow's past".
The comic book series' head writer Nathan Edmondson says it shows "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.
Cooper makes his debut in issue12 of the current series, which will be published in November.
Edmondson said he met the news journalist some time ago and was surprised to discover he was a comic book fan.
"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 strategising 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."
Anderson, the son of the iconic New York heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, is one of CNN's highest profile news reporters.
He currently hosts Anderson Cooper 360° on the channel.
The character of Black Widow is one of Marvel's iconic female comic book heroes, dating back to the 1940s.
Created by writer George Kapitan and artist Harry Sahle, that first iteration of the character was noted for her moral ambiguity.
The modern Black Widow - a character with no apparent connection to the original - was created in 1964, by Stan Lee, Don Rico and Don Heck.
She is a member of a number of Marvel's superhero "teams", notably The Avengers.
