“Black Widow” #1 acts like a pilot episode, which is great for anyone who feels like they could use a “Natasha Romanov for Dummies” installment, but might feel slight for regular Marvel readers.
Written by Nathan Edmondson
Art by Phil NotoYou’ve seen Black Widow as an Avenger and even an Agent of Shield. But on her own time she searches for atonement for her past as a KGB assassin—in ways of which those teams just wouldn’t approve. From the darkest corners of the Marvel Universe, Nathan Edmonson (Who is Jake Ellis?) and Phil Noto (Thunderbolts, X-23) bring you a new ongoing series as gorgeous and mysterious as Nastasha Romanov herself
Nathan Edmondson is no stranger to taut spy thrillers having written a couple of spitfires in his Jake Ellis series and the acclaimed “Dancer”, both from Image Comics. His first Marvel 616 series places him in comfortable territory, but is perhaps the best evidence for why creator-owned work is becoming an increasingly popular and lauded subject in the world of comics. His Image series took chances with the content and the genre that just won’t often happen at the big publishers. On the other hand, you want Marvel Comics to feel like Marvel comics. We don’t want gratuitous violence or characters that don’t feel like the characters we’ve grown accustomed to. So while “Black Widow” #1 may not take any risks with the narrative and looks a little plain next to “Who is Jake Ellis?”, it’s still a solid Marvel comic.
Readers who have been around Marvel for a while now might know that Black Widow has a list of debts she’s created for herself. Acts of atonement for her less than savory past. If this issue is any indication, this series will be about how she goes about making those amends with herself. Actually, the premise is quite like Fraction & Aja’s “Hawkeye” – what does so-and-so do when they’re not bumming around with the Avengers? The similarity begins and ends there, but the point is that we’re looking at a very specific aspect of Black Widow’s life.
We open on one odd espionage job, and end on another. Each have their moments, but mostly help to establish a mood rather than compel you with anything in the way of an ongoing plot at this point. Along the way, we learn that Natasha has very specific requirements for who she’ll take a job from these days. In that way, she’s turning over a new leaf. She’s not delivering punishment to anyone who doesn’t deserve it – that’s for sure. Edmondson is careful not to soften her too much – even when he gives her a particularly tender moment with a special “friend” at the end of the issue. It’s clear that Edmondson has a terrific handle on her character. He’s got a great grasp of this type of mysterious and lethal character in general, actually. By making her a bonafide hero, however, Marvel has necessitated that she’s given all the patented anti-hero traits of a Marvel character, but with no bite to her yet. At least in this first issue, she’s not getting her hands dirty. There’s no real crisis of conscience to speak of and, truth be told, that is the thing that can tip a book like this from a simple “slick spy thriller” into something more.
While Marvel’s new status quo may be turning Black Widow into a more clear-cut character than suits her, Phil Noto’s approach to the art does give the book more character than it easily could have had. Noto’s use of warm colors throughout is an interesting choice. I’m comfortable saying that the majority of espionage comics utilize heavy shadow and dark colors to craft a mood, but Noto and Edmondson choose to take Black Widow out into the open a little more. There’s a burnt orange-red scheme that evokes the twilight of a villain becoming something more, and a ’70s crime movie flair to the visual style that is particularly appealing.
But all these brighter colors don’t do anything to harm the tension and the tautness of the narrative, which is where Phil Noto shows some enhancements to his patented art style. He chooses red outlines to sketch certain objects (most notably, a bomb-strapped-chest in the tense opening sequence) of note into the panels, making them pop to the eye and work even deeper into the overall color scheme. Where most comic art sticks to black ink outlines for everything, Noto experiments with different colors for outlining and different filters to create the illusion of texture in the images and on the paper itself. When the effects come together and work, they really work to create a unique visual flair. On rare occasions, it’s difficult to see what Noto was going for. As with any good experimentation, some pages will work better than others and Noto hits far more than he misses.
At the end of the day, “Black Widow” is a Marvel 616 comic, which generally means that it’s going to play safe with the character. That’s not inherently a bad thing. This comic is entertaining enough, but it feels like the Black Widow comic that you were destined to get with a character that Marvel wants to be prominent and popular moving forward with their motion picture line. It’s great that we have another female hero series to look forward to, and a visually compelling one at that, but it’s at the expense of a character that feels like she should be more complex than this. Marvel is telling us she’s complex, but until we see some truly tough and unique decisions being made in her quest for personal peace, we’ll just have another solid and professional spy comic from Edmondson.
Final Verdict: 6.9 – Browse
