"Black Widow: Widowmaker"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Black Widow: Widowmaker” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Natalia Romanova was rescued as a baby by Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov in the former Soviet Union in 1928. In 1938, Ivan sent young Natalia to train with Taras Romanoff. Taras became like a father to Natalia. In 1940, James Howlett/Logan, the man who would become Wolverine, killed Taras. Natalia then worked in partnership with Ivan. In 1956, Ivan was gravely injured. James “Bucky” Barnes/Winter Soldier offered Ivan and Natalia a serum that would heal Ivan and extend both Ivan and Natalia’s life spans. Natalia accepted the offer, against Ivan’s wishes. In 1957, while training as a Black Widow agent in the Red Room, Natalia was introduced to Alexei Shostakov, the Soviet super soldier the Red Guardian. Alexei gave Natalia the nickname “Natasha.” Soon after, the two were wed. In 1963, the Soviet government faked Alexei’s death. Natalia went on to become a member of the Avengers and a superhero herself. Ivan continued to stay by her side. Though Natalia thought of Ivan as a father figure, Ivan had romantic feelings for Natalia. After repeated rejections after many years, Ivan finally left Natalia. Natalia eventually learned Alexei was alive. Years later, Natalia received a phone call from Ivan, warning her Icepick Protocol had been activated, right before he was murdered. When Natalia came to confirm the body was in fact Ivan’s, Ivan’s head was missing. Natalia went to Russia to try to learn about Icepick Protocol, and discovered that she had been implanted with nanites that could be passed on to the people she was close to, which could be passed of from those people as well, and could cause those infected with them to go into a psychotic rage. After saving Clint Barton/Hawkeye from his wife Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird and giving them the cure, Natalia went off to give the cure to others afflicted by the nanites. Superspy Nick Fury, former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., gave Natalia the access codes to a H.A.M.M.E.R. government launch facility. Natalia broke in and flew to space, where she discovered a Soviet weapon called the Dreadnought floating in orbit over earth. Natalia discovered who the mastermind behind Icepick Protocol was, to her great horror, and was forced to face the past to save earth from nuclear annihilation.

                Natalia mysteriously received a black rose and a ribbon. She went to see her old spy contact the Black Rose to see if he was involved, be he denied any part in sending Natalia the items. On her way to see her boyfriend James Barnes/Captain America, she was attacked. Tony Stark/Iron Man had Wolverine investigate the attack. After finding the items, Wolverine returned to the hospital to watch Natalia after her surgery. Natalia escaped from the hospital. Tony Stark, Hawkeye, and Captain America learned that Natalia was attacked because Natalia had been implanted with a device that was recording information about superpowered individuals and was accused of selling their secrets to the highest bidder, and the device was extracted from inside of Natalia. Tony Stark’s assistant Virginia “Pepper” Potts was attacked by Maki Matsumoto/Lady Bullseye, and Natalia was framed for the attack. Natalia was attacked by Elektra Natchios, who was furious she had been spied on. Elektra let Natalia go after a fight to a standstill where Natalia told Elektra that she was not selling the information. After the fight, Natalia collapsed from her injury. Black Rose discovered Natalia and stitched Natalia up. Natalia flew to London, England to find Ned, son of the tech genius inventor of the device Natalia had been implanted with. Ned told Natalia Sumi was the man who had sold out Natalia to, and Sumi had bought Ned’s father’s tech out in exchange for money and a place to live. Sumi sent Russian agents Ninotchka and Boris after Natalia and Ned, and though Natalia was able to defeat the agents, she was unable to save Ned. Sumi taunted Natalia that Sumi knew about Natalia’s baby. While on a train, Natalia confronted Lady Bullseye, who she paralyzed with an injection and tried to learn who was behind Natalia’s predicament. Lady Bullseye did not give Natalia what she was hoping for. James found Natalia, but Natalia refused to let James get involved in her situation. Natalia visited the family of the woman who delivered Natalia’s stillborn child. In Munich, Germany, Natalia was confronted by a robotic body sent by Imus Champion, the man who was really Sumi. Natalia attacked the robot but was arrested afterwards by Captain America. Natalia escaped lockup, and the arrest had been planned by Natalia herself. Natalia then confronted Imus to the finish.

                Natalia went undercover to the opera to intercept a device for targeted assassinations, code-named “Tiny Dancer,” and deliver it to the Secret Intelligence Service. Natalia was surprised to discover what Tiny Dancer was and getting it to her clients was harder than she thought it would be.

                Tony Stark/Iron Man went undercover to Russia to recover stolen armor, with Natalia’s help. Tony went to make a deal in disguise but was caught by industrial spy Sunset Bain. Sunset hacked Tony’s brain and sent Tony in temporal armor to travel to the past to destroy Avengers Mansion at the first meeting of the Avengers, and Natalia had to find a way to shut down Tony’s brain to save the Avengers.

                Senator Whit Crane was running for vice president of the United States. He was seen with a mysterious “Woman in Black,” then dropped out of the race, and was found dead. His son Nick was a journalist and hoped to find the woman responsible for the death of his father. Kate Horsley/Fatale and Natalia both wanted to find out Nick’s source about the Woman in Black. Fatale got to Nick first and pretended to rescue Nick from the Black Widow. Natalia was able to separate Fatale and Nick and took Nick to a safe location. Natalia attempted to stage an abduction of both Natalia and Nick and bring them to a C.I.A. interrogation site in Poland run by a friend of Natalia’s to force the source out of Nick, but the staged abduction turned real. Nick and Natalia escaped the camp, but discovered Nick and Natalia were being framed for Senator Crane’s murder and went on the run. Nick and Natalia were on a train out of Poland when they were attacked by Russian agents Fantasma and Crimson Dynamo. Fatale rescued Nick and Natalia from the Russian agents. Nick told Natalia and Fatale that his source went by the name “Sadko.” Natalia and Fatale tracked Sadko to Bulgaria and teamed up to investigate Sadko’s true identity, but Sadko wanted Natalia and Fatale dead.

                An assassin called Ronin was striking the South Kuril Islands, islands that were disputed between Russia and Japan. Hawkeye and Mockingbird were investigation the death of a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and discovered that there was a killer targeting spies, and Mockingbird and Black Widow were on the list. Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Dominic Fortune went to Russia to meet up with Natalia, where they found themselves under attack. Natalia brought Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Fortune to a Red Room training facility, where the killer had struck. Russian super agents Crimson Dynamo, Fantasma, Sputnik, and Perun attacked Natalia, Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Fortune, due to the fact that Hawkeye had previously claimed the Ronin costume and identity, but Hawkeye was innocent of these killings. After a grueling fight, Natalia and Hawkeye escaped, and Mockingbird and Fortune left on a plane to Japan. Natalia informed Hawkeye that Natalia knew the killer as Sadko. Natalia and Hawkeye encountered the Madame, and during their fight, Natalia deduced where and who the new Ronin was. Natalia, Hawkeye, Mockingbird and Fortune met up on Iturup and faced Ronin and his army at the foot of an active volcano.

                Natalia and Alaine Racine/Peregrine teamed up in France to rescue hostages from cyborg villain Rapido and stop terrorists from leveling London.

                Okay, we’ve now got our synopsis out of the way, let’s move on to the next phase of this review: my input. First off, we’re going to start with what I thought of this graphic novel. I will say that I found this book to be relatively enjoyable. I liked reading it. Let’s break it down storyline by storyline. “Deadly Origin” was interesting because it blended Natalia’s history with her present and revealed a lot of her background. It was fascinating learning some of the facets of her past that I didn’t previously know about, and the twist at the end of the storyline was great as her past actions inadvertently nearly caused nuclear annihilation. However, I didn’t like how the art of the flashbacks looked compared to the art from the present scenes. “The Name of the Rose” was actually my favorite storyline. I enjoyed reading as the mystery unravel. However, the artwork detracted from my visual enjoyment, but the story itself was good. “Coppelia” was short but sweet, and the Tiny Dancer’s actual purpose led to an interesting read. The artwork was also visually appealing to me, so that made the read entertaining. “Iron Widow” was a fun read, watching Tony Stark trying to change for his deal, and still getting set up even though he came in disguise. I also found the artwork in this issue to be satisfactory. “Kiss or Kill” was highly enjoyable, I loved how the story kept twisting and turning as it went on, and Fatale was an interesting character. I’m torn about the artwork in this storyline because sometimes it looked good to me, and then at other times I just didn’t like how it looked at all. The consistency of the quality of the artwork varied, and there were times where I liked the art, and times I didn’t. “Widowmaker” was a greatly entertaining story arc, Hawkeye is one of my favorite Avengers, and the team up was an exciting one. The true identity of Ronin was a twist I didn’t see coming, and the end battle was exciting. I also felt the artwork was great from both of the artists who penciled this storyline. “Fear Itself” was an interesting issue, seeing her take down a hostage crisis and stop a terrorist attack single-handedly was quite satisfying. However, the artwork itself wasn’t quite so satisfying for me. I also enjoyed how several of the storylines connected, even though they came from separate series. The continuity was much appreciated, and the continuing themes but featuring different characters made the read more interesting. Overall, I highly enjoyed reading the stories, but there were times where the artwork wasn’t so appealing. I also have to critique the choice of the title for this collection. My opinion is that the title should reflect the majority of the overall content of the book. The longest storyline in this collection was “The Name of the Rose,” but other options were “Deadly Origins,” “Kiss or Kill,” and “Widowmaker.” I honestly think any of the latter three choices would be appropriate titles for this collection, but if I were the editors, I probably would have leaned in more for “Deadly Origins” or “Kiss or Kill” for the title as I feel those represent this volume better. However, I still find myself able to support “Widowmaker” as the title, despite not feeling it was the best title for this collection. Finally in my examinations, we’re going to talk about the cover. I feel like the front cover should be an accurate preview of what the reader should expect to see in this collection, meaning it also represents the majority of the overall content of the book. This book sports a cover of Black Widow posing with two guns in the foreground, in front of a motorcycle, with Wolverine and Winter Soldier standing in the background. I feel like this book should have featured a cover with just Black Widow on it. While Wolverine and James Barnes are recurring supporting characters in this collection, I feel that this cover does not deliver on a promise of a team up with Black Widow, Wolverine and Winter Soldier as I came to expect from viewing the cover. I actually feel like that cover is highly misleading as there are few points where all three characters appear on the same panel in this collection, and James Barnes and does not appear alongside Wolverine as Winter Soldier at any point in this collection, just as Captain America, so I feel like the choice of cover was actually poor to use for a solo issue, and especially poor to use to represent this whole book. However, I do feel relatively positively about the book itself, based on story, but the art sometimes left a little to be desired.

                Next up, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know some of you have been here before so you know what I’m about to explain, I’ve done it over seven dozen times at this point, but every time I do a new post, I know I have readers who have never been here before, so I have to do it once again, so if you do know this, just bear with me for a few sentences while I explain it to the newbs. So, the question I’m posing here is, is this book accessible? Accessible means can a person who knows absolutely nothing about Black Widow comics obtain a copy of this book, read it, and follow the story as it is written, with no difficulties? So, my answer to that question is yes. This book is extremely standalone. These are all limited series or one-shots that really don’t continue directly off of storylines from other series, with the exception of “Fear Itself: Black Widow,” but even that doesn’t feel to me like knowing the main event “Fear Itself” is actually a necessity to comprehend this issue. I don’t feel like having outside knowledge of Marvel Comics is essential to read this book. Despite this book being marketed as Vol. 2, every series in this book starts with issue #1, so there are no previous issues to any of the issues contained in this collection. If you are looking for a place to start reading Marvel Comics, I wouldn’t say this is the best starter book, but I feel it is definitely a book that a person who has never read a Marvel Comic book before can begin with.

                Next up, we’re going to move on to one of the core components of my review: the numeric score. I won’t say it’s the most important part of my review, everything in these reviews has some kind of essentiality for being in it, so I can’t say any one paragraph in this review is the reason everyone is reading this review for. However, this is, in my opinion, highly essential to my reviews and they would not be complete without it. So let me start off by explaining my scoring system. The system is extremely simple: I score on whole numbers ranging from one to ten. My lowest score is a one, and that means this book was so awful that every copy not sold should be immediately gathered up and obliterated, then all the prints that could be used to recreate this abomination should be wiped clean to prevent the continuation of this horrible piece of trash’s existence. Okay, that is extremely extra, but it illustrates my point that this book is just awful. However, if I give a score of a ten, that means this book is sheer perfection and I will never understand it if this book does not become a bestseller and if every copy doesn’t get sold and if it doesn’t have to get reprinted every few years. Now, I am very much not easy to please, and I will not give out a ten if a book truly is not perfection. So, what I’m looking for in a graphic novel is a constantly entertaining story, consistently appealing art, a title that perfectly captures the essence of the story, and a cover that accurately represents the content of the book. So we’ve established that I did enjoy the story, I found the art to be hit-and-miss, the title wasn’t absolutely perfect in my opinion, and I don’t believe the cover delivers on what it shows on the front of the book as actually being what comprises the majority of this book. So, looking at all of this, and putting it all together and churning out a score, what I have to rate this book at is… a seven! While the story was good, the artwork and the cover brought my score down a bit.

                Next up on our list of topics to discuss is the recommendation. In this paragraph, I answer two questions. Question number one is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? Would I tell you, if you are interested in reading this book based solely on what I have just spent the past few hours writing, to go out to your nearby bookstore, or preferred online retailer, or favorite comic book shop, or local library, or Marvel fanatic friend or relative’s house, and procure this book and read it as soon as you possibly can? The second question is, regardless of if I would actually recommend this book personally, what kind of audience might appreciate this book, besides the obvious target group of fans of Marvel, Black Widow, or the creators? So, to answer the first question, yes, this book has my personal recommendation. I’d totally tell you to read it if my words have piqued your interest in perusing through this collection. To answer my second question, I think that this book would appeal to fans of spy stories, espionage stories, stories with mysteries, stories with lots of plot twists, and stories with a strong female lead.

                Okay, we’ve reached the point where I’m getting ready to wrap things up. There are a few things I would like to say before I go. I’ve been doing this blog for over five and a half years now. I’ve compiled over 180 posts, so keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more content. Over seven dozen of these posts are reviews of Epic Collections just like this one. I currently collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after its release and if possible, post a review. If you liked this post, feel free to check out my reviews of “Black Widow: The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” and “Black Widow: Chaos” for more content about Black Widow Modern Era Epic Collections. In addition to these reviews, I’ve also reviewed some prose novels, manga, and comic book events. I’ve also written short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s other kinds of content to enjoy here as well. I post on a very frequent basis. My next post will be a review of “Ultimate X-Men: World Tour” you can expect to see that post sometime within the next two months following this post, most likely a lot sooner than that. I plan to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, so you can expect to keep seeing posts on this site for quite some time, unless I do something to prevent myself from being able to type. That’s all I have to say for now except Tim Cubbin… out!