Welcome to The Comic Book Virgin, the series where I dive headfirst into the world of comics and never look back.
This week: “Black Widow: Deadly Origins”
Y’all, this is the Black Widow comic that answered my prayers. Mostly because I have no idea what happened with the Black Widow. But now I do. It’s rad.
This comic was written by Paul Cornell, and I think that he did an excellent job. Natasha Romanov’s story is incredibly complex; filled with Cold War rhetoric, futuristic science, and is packed with a lot of names and faces to keep straight. This being said, it is important that the author get the story across without losing anyone who may be new to the story, like myself. The comic wasn’t chronological, either. Having a story that bounces back and forth across the years, in this case spanning from as far back as 1928 to the present, will be very hard to keep orderly. Cornell manages to pull this off as well.
Natasha Romanov was found in the burning ruins of Stalingrad by Ivan Bezuhkov, who ends up being a father figure for most of the issue. From there, she is dropped off in the care of Taras Romanoff, who teaches her hand-to-hand combat. Eventually, she is taken by the Red Room, a facet of the KGB. The Red Room injects her and other girls with a super human serum, similar to that of Captain America. These girls are called the Black Widows.
After her husband’s death was faked by the KGB, Natasha goes to the West, where she did freelance work for SHIELD but also worked with The Avengers. The comic shows her various involvements with Tony Stark, Hawkeye, Bucky Barnes, and a brief altercation with Captain America. Throughout the comic, Natasha is also working to save the people she was once close to from Icepick Protocol, which would kill off anyone she’s ever kissed with small robots left in Natasha’s lipstick. Which is pretty freaking cool. Dangerous, but cool.
That’s all for “Black Widow: Deadly Origins“. Overall, I thought it was really interesting and I really enjoyed learning about the Black Widow.