New To You Comics #75: Hunter And Prey In ‘Black Widow: SHIELD’s Most Wanted’
by Tony Thornley
With the comics industry continuing to battle the effects of the pandemic,
Brendan Allen and I are continuing to talk about comics that the other might not have read. I’m more of a capes, laser guns and swords guy, while Brendan loves dark magic, criminals and things that go bump in the night. This week, we dive deep in one of the most recent solo outings for Marvel’s latest movie star!
Marvel’s
Black Widow was never really a solo star until around the turn of the century when she starred in a series of well-received miniseries. Prior to that, she’d been a guest star or member of a team. That clearly began to change in 2010, when
Scarlett Johansson was cast as the character in
Iron Man 2. Since then, the character’s profile has steadily grown and she’s starred in multiple series from some of Marvel’s greatest creators.
The one which stands out the most is 2016’s
SHIELD’s Most Wanted, a twelve issue story from
Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson and
Joe Caramagna. The creative team was just coming off a years-long
Daredevil run (one of the best in the character’s history), and could have had their pick of any character in Marvel’s pantheon. They chose Natasha Romanoff, and set the Widow on one of the most high octane adventures in her history. And trust me, every Black Widow story is high octane.
When Natasha is blackmailed by one of the most brutal spymasters she’s ever faced, she’s thrown into a race against time, and a battle against the darker corners of the Marvel Universe. She’ll travel the world, battle old friends and new foes, and betray her closest allies. It’s all in a day’s work for the Marvel Universe’s greatest super-spy.
Tony Thornley: I’m going to be real straightforward about this book. I’m not a huge Widow fan, which is why I’ve only read this book once before. However, I am a HUGE fan of Waid, Samnee and Wilson as a creative team. They connected about a year into Waid’s Daredevil run and not long after they started being credited as storytellers, rather than distinct but separate parts of the creative team.
So a few years removed from this, I really dug reading it. I think on the writing side there’s a couple weak spots but the art is just stellar stuff. What did you think?
Brendan Allen: I think this is the part where I admit I have never read a single
Black Widow comic until today? There are so many characters in the Marvel Universe, I’ve never really known where to get started with any of them. Most of my knowledge of the character comes from her inclusion in the MCU, and I haven’t actually seen all of those either. I always forget where I am in the franchise, end up watching one I’ve already seen, then get frustrated and shut the thing off. My kids are getting old enough to watch some of them now, so maybe I’ll go back to the beginning and re-watch the whole thing over.
That all being said, I’m not super familiar with the character, and this book made me like her and want to get into some of the other stories at some point. Not a whole lot of backstory, but what we get here is right in line with the character’s identity as an elite ninjamurderspy.
Tony: Yeah, this is VERY structured to be a “Baby’s First Black Widow” story. It’s evergreen, and it has a lot of the hallmarks of her character in there. Plus it includes enough of the larger universe that you get an in if you have a very general working knowledge of Marvel.
I like Waid a lot even if I don’t think his work has quite been as strong in recent years. However when he’s working with Samnee, he’s back on the top of his game. He’s got a great eye for character dynamics, and really getting to the root of the character. With Nat, he gets deep into her loner side.
I think the best depiction of that is when she callously betrays Iron Man about two-thirds into the story. She has a mission and needs to get things done. Unfortunately, that does mean hurting one of her oldest friends and confidantes, but mission ahead of relationships. She can deal with the latter afterwards.
