We’re also doing Punisher/Black Widow, which is another movie. It’s things like that, that don’t get the same amount of play the bigger shows do, that take up the day.
— Jeph Loeb
Fuck Yeah, Black Widow
Fallaces sunt rerum species
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Review: Punisher War Zone #2, “Protocol”
Natasha: Now I’m going to find the Punisher.
Logan: It’s a big world. Good luck with that.
Natasha: Logan… I don’t use luck.
For about a year now, Greg Rucka has been writing about the Punisher by not writing through the Punisher.
Natasha: No way of telling who it is the bullet’s meant for. I save myself for obvious reasons— and spare the mad doctor as the only one knowing where and how far along his hellish missile is back. Firing a Widow’s Bite blast back along the trajectory. Too far to have an impact directly…
Frank: Can’t see!
Natasha: …but through the glass of the sniper’s scope, it’s as good as right on top of him, the burst blinding.
Frank: Clever.
So Punisher War Zone #2 is out this week, and I plugged it earlier when the preview came out, and I’m plugging it again now because it’s seriously the best Natasha’s been written since Warren Ellis did his thing a year ago, and Natasha fans might miss it because it’s called Punisher and not Avengers. I’ll post a full review over the weekend, probably, even though I usually wait for arcs to close out so that I can talk about them in context. I just want to talk about this issue that bad.
One think Rucka seemed to have forgotten, though, is that Natasha and Frank have met many times before. This is one of those times. What do you know, they fought. Notice how Natasha deflects a bullet with her fists like it’s not even worth internally narrating.
From Punisher/Black Widow: Spinning Doomsday’s Web by D.G. Chichester and Larry Stroman.
Preview: Punisher War Zone #2, on sale December 5th by Greg Rucka and Carmine Di Giandomenico
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.
— Greg Rucka, on Punisher War Zone
Frank: Okay, Widow— you’ve been pretending to be boss for months, now. You have to step up.
Matt: One of our own is missing… we have to do something…
Natasha: We hit the street, work our contacts, try to grab one of these shockers and find out where they have Helen.
This was another one of those teams-that-weren’t, where Natasha put herself in charge of Punisher and Daredevil. Who, bee tee double-u, do not really get along.
I’m not sure there’s anyone in 616 who can match Natasha in terms of really out there leadership positions. She’s been acting Director of SHIELD, led of the capital-A Avengers, but also supervised this machismo street team-up and a wacky Hollywood hodgepodge of magic beings and mutant cast-offs. She doesn’t have a set leadership persona or inspire-o-matic aura, but she’s very good, I think, at reading her circumstances, and being what people need when they need it.
From Marvel Knights #5, by John Figueroa and Alberto Ponticelli.
