Broken Frontier

For Natasha Romanov, a dead man has as much influence from the grave as he had while living. His friends on Capitol Hill are coming after her, and this time, not even Nick Fury can protect her.

In a Texas cemetery, a young man named Jason stands at his father’s grave. Mikey, the wheelchair-bound man next to him, tells him that Natalya Romanov is responsible for his father’s death and the hard times that have fallen upon him and his mother. In Washington, Nick Fury gets a dressing down from the President about the same woman, the notorious and now #1 Most Wanted, Black Widow. But while Fury seeks Daredevil’s help on the matter, and Martin Ferris consults with a psychiatrist about the trauma he suffers from—for which Romanov is also responsible—she has made her way to Havana, where she meets Yelena Belova, the second Black Widow, who’s retired from the spy game to become a mogul. The two strike a deal—Romanov will lead a team to heist medical supplies Belova needs from a Florida "distributor" controlled by the Mafia. The op goes sideways, but the Black Widow gets the job done. But it’s her uncanny knack for going one step further than her opponent that sends her off in a different direction, and old foes from her last op after her.

Richard K. Morgan’s first Black Widow miniseries was one of the most underrated of last year. Exactly one year later, he’s back with a story that’s just as engrossing, his script carefully putting both new and old pieces in play while also striking familiar notes of intrigue, grimness, and the sense that Natasha Romanov, when she’s committed, just might be the most dangerous woman on the planet. But in Morgan’s hands it’s also the case that she’s the embodiment of Ernest Hemingway’s best quote: "The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are stronger at the broken places." Because she’s stronger at her broken places, Natasha Romanov has never been as compelling as she is now. Though jaded, burned-out, wounded in several senses of the word, an enemy of the state, and 40, she still has something to fight for. Every comics fan walks around with a dream-team of characters in their heads. Natasha Romanov is not only on mine, she’s running the show.

Everything that made Morgan’s story a great read last year is back this year. Pinpoint pacing. Dead-on but subtle characterization. Crack dialogue. And four plot lines that already begin converging by the time issue #1 ends. Natasha stands out for her hard-edged view of life, but also for her ferocious feminism, as well as her fairly low assessment of the male of the species. But Yelena Belova, the second Black Window, is also a major player in this issue, and she holds her own with what will always be the true Black Widow. Where Natasha is crafty, Belova is just as cunning, and the two together play off each other like a world-weary John Le Carre spy and an Ian Fleming femme fatale.

Sean Phillips of Sleeper fame does the layouts on Black Widow 2 #1, while Bill Sienkiewicz, as much a force of nature as the main character he brings to life, does finishes. While the relationship between layouts and finishes is perhaps more murky than that between penciller and inker, the combination on this issue more than gets the job done. Sean Phillips’ gift as a storyteller keeps Sienkiewicz’s eccentricities in check and the eye moving smoothly from panel to panel, as well as captures emotion in the characters’ reactions and expression. Likewise, Sienkiewicz’s edgy linework and grainy shading adds depth, texture, and mood that resonate extremely well with the script. While the result of their collaboration has an appeal all its own, the faces remind me a little of Howard Chaykin’s more recent work, particularly the dense, frenetic quality of Challengers of the Unknown.

There are several Marvel characters who, though thoroughly strong, could not carry their own series for very long. Successive volumes of miniseries seems the right way to go with the likes of Mystique, The Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, and Luke Cage, among others. Hopefully, Marvel will see volumes of miniseries as a viable option more than they already do. It works well for the Black Widow, and it could easily work as well for half a dozen other characters.