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Black Widow created by Lee, Rico and Heck & is © Marvel Entertainment.
Bendis clarifies that though the story started in Avengers, the story involved the entire Marvel Universe. “It stars the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Moon Knight, Black Widow, it goes all over the place,” the writer says.
Nick Spencer, of course, wrote the book for the Fear Itself tie-in issues, and has done some other work at Marvel, which, imho, hasn’t lived up to the promise of his indie stuff. Luke Ross has drawn Natasha before, he was one of the artists of Brubaker’s Captain America run, but I think his stuff looks better when he’s not trying to line-up with Epting. So, let’s start off with the thing that rings alarm bells:
S.H.I.E.L.D. brings the biggest twist in their approach to the team — using similar technology to what the original Nick Fury employed in 2004-2005’s Secret War, the team’s memories of their adventures will be erased following each mission. Thus the existence of this Secret Avengers a secret to even the Avengers that are a part of it.
“Avengers make for terrible S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They’re used to calling their own shots, you can’t really trust them with high intel because one of them goes bad every week, or turns out to be a Skrull,” Spencer said. “At the same time, they have mindwipe and memory implant technology. The trick is, the last time they did it, it blew up in their faces and basically set off a chain of events that brought down S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, they’re going to try it again — the temptation to get their hands on weapons like the Hulk is just too great.”
This is the exact kind of abuse Natasha left espionage to escape, why she actually defected to the Avengers and not SHIELD, and why she would up quitting both for a time. That is her superhero origin story, through every needless retcon— she reclaimed her humanity from people who thought of her as a tool. So, any way you slice it, this is a giant leap back for her.
More news from NYCC! After taking a break from Avengers Assemble for an arc, Natasha will be the spotlight character in #12-13: The Widow’s Ledger, with DeConnick words and Pete Woods on art. Here’s some stuff DeConnick has said about it:
I think Natasha is a terribly broken human being. Not broken like a train wreck, broken like — cold; Ice cold. I don’t think she lets herself feel much of anything; certainly not very deeply. Feelings affect the mission, you know? I think Natasha is constantly calculating — the concept of the ledger for her — whether it’s literal or figurative, it’s brilliant. She’s forever calculating her next move, her mistakes, her wins and her debts. I don’t think she regrets her past, but I do think she has calculated atonements to make.
I think this is true and also that it’s not— Natasha does feel a lot, and very deeply, I think an intense fire smoldering under a cold exterior has been a thematic with her going way back, certainly to Conway, at least. And the keenest difference between the film version of the character (and it’s certainly the film which inspired the title) and the 616 one is that the older, more experienced Natasha has learned how to admit that to herself. Natasha no longer tries to deny her emotions; she hides them, to keep them safe. The comic book version might say that love is for children, but she doesn’t believe it.
Natasha: It’s not the length of a life that matters… just the depth of it. The chances we take. The paths we choose. How we go on after our hearts break. Hearts always break. And so we bend with our hearts. And we sway. But in the end… what matters is that we loved… and lived.
Marjorie Liu was really smart about how she wound four decades of disparate characterization into one cohesive, thematic whole. Increasingly since the Frank Miller era she’s been presented as an efficient and detached ex-Soviet agent, but for the first few decades of her existence she was a creature of broken hearts, star-crossed loves, and melancholy. And I think Natasha is much more interesting when both parts of her are allowed to exist in tandem. There’s always, of course, a tension between feelings and “the mission”, and she can twist the logic of her compassion in bizarre and cruel ways. (See also: Breakdown #1-3.)
I don’t think DeConnick’s Natasha was unfeeling in her previous treatments, so I’m not worried about this arc. But I do hope, in general, that the character isn’t regressed a decade— to being unsure how to feel, how to operate in a superhero world and not a spy one— for the sake of matching up movie plot arcs. Because her history is just not as well known, nor thought to be as important as Steve Rogers’. But it’s more important to me.
As far as her own free will — I expect everyone has a different take on this. My Natasha takes responsibility for all of her actions as choices. She just doesn’t allow herself the messy human behavior of wringing her hands and second guessing everything. What’s done is done; it is what it is. You own it, make good where it’s owed and move on. Period.
I think this soundbyte of DeConnick’s is quite nice, though. We all know how surly FYBW is about all the retroactively inserted brainwashing in Natasha’s basckstory, making her more of a victim in her own story. (If you didn’t know how surly FYBW is about this: the answer is very.) But no matter what version of her backstory you’re dealing with, I don’t think Natasha thinks of herself as a victim, as a pawn. She sees herself through her own choices.
This has been an incidence of TL;DR, I am looking forward to this very much. Especially excited about seeing Natasha and Jessica Drew interact, since lady plus lady interactions from DeConnick’s pen are forever a delight.
A new roster and creative team for Secret Avengers has been announced. I have Thoughts, but I’ll pool them tomorrow after they talk about it at NYCC for realsies. For now, though, some words from new/old writer Nick Spencer about Natasha:
“She has a such a higher profile than ever. She’s kind of the leading female character at Marvel at this point.”
I think the search for the “leading female character at Marvel” is something people like to talk a lot about but doesn’t move the real conversation forward. Necessary disclaimer aside, Spencer’s statement is generally the position of this blog. The further position of this blog, of course, is that it’s really messed up that they haven’t given her a book or spotlight title (until now?!?!)
As for “Black Widow,” while she won’t have a new Marvel NOW! title, she’s currently appearing in “Avengers Assemble,” “Secret Avengers,” AND “Winter Soldier.
Axel Alonso (who tells us we can expect Mockingbird to get “less face time” and Spider-woman to show up maybe in Avengers Assemble)
The thing is, Black Widow hasn’t said more than a sentence in Secret Avengers since Remender took over, and in Winter Soldier she’s knocked out and brainwashed, which might make for an interesting story is probably not what people are looking to get into after watching her be the opposite in the Avengers film. Marvel is really missing a huge opportunity here, one the capitalized on fantastically with Hawkeye. And given the lack of leading ladies at Marvel right now, when it’s such a hot-button issue, it’s disheartening to not see them take the opportunity and run with it. I’m excited about Captain Marvel and I’m excited about Red She-Hulk, but it seems with the way Alonso sort of side-steps the issue that it’s a distinct possiblility we won’t be getting any female leads packaged under the Marvel NOW banner, while the Distinguished Competition brings out at least one per wave. I hope that I’m wrong.
But it’s disappointing to me as someone who wants to buy more Marvel books and wants to be able to recommend them to others.
Another low-powered Avenger the Punisher will be wary of tangling with is Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow. “They’re from a much more similar world,” Rucka said. “I think Frank respects Natasha for who she is and what she can do, but not in the same way he respects Cap. This is adversarial respect. I think Natasha is the one person he’s been very careful not to underestimate.
