Customer Reviews

Black Widow: Deadly Origin

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Black Widow (Natalia Romanova, aka Natasha Romanoff) has been a consistent supporting character in the Marvel Universe from the early 1960s to the present day. Starting out as a villain, she became a hero (though keeping the codename that in a lot of ways doesn't fit her personality or modus operandi anymore; "Black Widow" makes sense for a honey trap, but not really for the accomplished superspy), and, while rarely having enough support to sustain her own stories, has been a regular feature in many titles, including "The Avengers". But now that she has a major role in the upcoming "Iron Man 2" film, it's time to get some material starring her on the shelves (this is one of two contemporaneous miniseries released early this year, with an ongoing series soon to follow). Some spoilers follow.

For a creative team we have writer Paul Cornell (most known in comics for his sadly short-lived "Captain Britain and MI13" series) and artists Tom Raney and John Paul Leon. Each artist works on a different part of the story, with Raney doing segments set in the present day and Leon handling the past. The story aims to both present a modern-day story and cover various significant episodes in Natasha's lengthy backstory. The focal points tend to be her relationships, of which she's had several (consequence of being a frequent supporting character): love interests include Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier/Captain America; also her current boyfriend), the first Red Guardian, Tony Stark (Iron Man), Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Matt Murdock (Daredevil), and Hercules. Also cameoing are Wolverine and her old handler, Ivan. Somewhat oddly for a project presumably aimed at selling trades to movie fans, it presumes a certain pre-existing knowledge of her history.

The resulting story is a bit scattershot. In terms of format, this is in a lot of ways trying to be a Jeph Loeb Batman story, an epic tour of a character's whole mythos ("Hush", for example), including both characters and storytelling types. "Hush" was twelve issues long; "Deadly Origin" is a third of that, and frankly doesn't have enough room to cover all this history in a satisfactory manner. The result is a lot of one- or two-page sequences of varying quality, though all beautifully illustrated by Leon. The present story is fairly straightforward, but Raney's art isn't as successful, and the transition near the end from spy drama to quasi-space opera is a bit of a stretch. Cornell does write a number of good scenes, but it never really comes together as a whole, remaining less than the sum of its parts.

If you're a big fan of the character, check it out; if you aren't, I'm not sure this is the project to sell you on her.

l knew nothing of the black widow , the booked helped with all of the lnformation

Natalia Romanova, AKA Natasha Romanoff, AKA the Black Widow, has lived many lives in the pages of Marvel Comics. Physically and mentally trained and manipulated by the Soviets from a young age to become a highly capable secret agent, she has changed sides, loyalties, and lovers many times since her introduction in 1964. Scarlett Johansson's thrilling portrayal of Black Widow in 2010's "Iron Man 2", and the expectation that both Johansson and Black Widow will be included in a 2012 "Avengers" movie, have created a new generation of fans.

For Natalia Romanova's latest fans, the Cold War might not even be a distant memory; the Marvel Comics graphic novel "Black Widow: Deadly Origin" is designed to summarize her complicated life. Paul Cornell is the author; Tom Raney and John Paul Leon provide the unique artwork.

"Black Widow: Deadly Origin" is told in fast forward and flashback. In the present, an abreviated phone call from her old Russian handler Ivan alerts Natalia Romanova to the implementation of the Icepick Protocol, a long-buried Soviet high-tech plot that now places at risk virtually everyone she has ever worked with or loved. On a rescue mission, Natalia will relive her past and confront her present while following a trail that leads to a shocking modern horror. Tony Stark, Captain America, Daredevil, and Nick Fury, among others, make cameo appearances.

"Black Widow: Deadly Origin" cleverly employs shifting scenes and changing art styles to rapidly narrate Natalia's life. Readers fresh from "Iron Man 2" but without background may wish to skim the plot outline at the back of the book for a sense of direction. For old and new fans, "Black Widow: Deadly Origin" is highly recommended to help pass the time until 2012's "Avengers".

I've only recently gotten into comics, and I found out early on that I like the character of the black widow. In that light I found this book to be a great crash course in her history as well as a very enjoyable read.

Natalia Romanova is a good supporting character who is almost always written as just that. In the wake of the Iron Man movie, Marvel is trying to correct that. They, I presume, wanted to relate a solid origin story while making you interested in seeing more. They missed, at least for me.
While Cornell is a good writer, the Widow's origin reminded me of one of those novels where you get to pick what happens next. Natalia's (or Natasha's) origin is a mish mash of classic Marvel tropes: the Super Soldier serum, agelessness, betrayal by a trusted ally and said betrayer's death. Shoehorned into that story were scenes from previous history we have of the Widow: her marriage to the Red Guardian, her relationships to DD and Hawkeye. All in all it was a painfully contrived retcon.
On the art side, another "meh". If you want to relaunch a character, do it with an artist of note. Tom Raney isn't a bad artist and maybe what I am feeling is just personal preference but it just didn't work for me. The flashback sequences by John Paul Leon were much more to my tastes. And finally, the covers by Adi Granov, a (usually) exceptional artist, just cemented my greatest complaint about the Widow: no two artists ever give her the same face! If you don't believe me, try looking up 10 different pictures of her and see if 2 are alike. Artistic license is all well and good but I consider this to be in the top ten of Marvel's editorial errors. Better to return to the 60's and 70's when all women looked alike than this. I like the Widow, I really do. Just not here. I'll be giving my copy to the library.

This collects the four issue Winter 2009-2010 Marvel mini-series centered on Russian superspy/superhero Natasha Romanova, aka the Black Widow. The narrative alternates between a mediocre present-day story and Natasha's "deadly origin" backstory from the U.S.S.R. to the U.S.A. The latter is the highlight of this volume for both its story and artwork, and it features a large cast of Marvel favorites (several of whom are Natasha's ex-boyfriends). The blockbuster film "Iron Man 2" has heightened interest in this character, and Marvel has published a new monthly Black Widow series starting in 2010. Fans of the character will probably enjoy this mini-series. Longtime Marvel Universe fans will enjoy the references throughout the origin half of this book, but new fans from the Iron Man film should be able to follow it as well. As a side note, all but the most diehard fans should skip Marvel's simultaneous but inferior mini-series "Black Widow and the Marvel Girls".

Art varied widely, from good to poor (especially in the last segment).

As a character, the Black Widow surely deserved a little more polished treatment.
Even though there were aspects of the story that were good, most of it were regurgitations of past elements in Marvel stories (Super Soldier serum? Pls...) and the story was both predicted and unbelievable.

Generally, I truly believed that Marvel's writers have hit a huge, disappointing BUMP not only with this piece but with most of Marvel lines as well. I stopped reading x-men books altogether. It seems like every other book can be summarized as "Magneto lives!" or "Magneto dies (again)".
So boring. So predictable.

We, as readers, fans and human beings of (at least) average intellect deserve better.