Black Widow #7

Recap
A NEW STORY ARC, A NEW MISSION! With a new suit, a new base of operations, new allies and a new perspective, Natasha sets her sights on a mysterious emerging villain in San Francisco known only as Apogee. But Natasha might not be as ahead of the game as she thought, and not everyone in her orbit is exactly what they seem. San Francisco desperately needs the Black Widow...it just doesn't quite know it yet.
Review
Issue seven is the second chapter of Black Widow’s new status quo, and with that comes a new city, a new-ish partner, a new costume, a new threat, and it’s looking pretty good so far. Marvel has been going all out with this creative team, and it really shows. It’s a bit heavy on the superheroic part of Nat’s life, but that’s fine. I don’t always need a 1980’s noir Cold War era spy thriller, I just hope we can get one from time to time.
Nat’s still trying to mentally process the events of the last arc, and it looks like it could potentially be a crippling trauma that she’ll have to deal with. I have faith that Kelly will be able to bring the appropriate emotional gravitas needed for both the character and the fans to deal with something of that magnitude. Especially since it feels like she’s finally finding her bearings with the book. Only time can tell, and I’m hoping the payoff will be worth it.
Nat and Yelena bring Lucy under their wings as she’s processing gaining powers that were thrust upon her by her former employer. We have a race against time for Nat and her crew to figure out what the substance was that gave Lucy her powers, before she hurts herself or someone else. Lucy’s characterization still has a ways to go in order to develop into a more well rounded character, because right now she’s feeling a tad like a stand-in for Hazmat, a supporting character in Kelly’s CM book. Also wondering what drug she was exposed to in order to gain these powers.
Kelly’s working on building a strong supporting cast and relationships, both of friendship as well as respect between the women, and it’s nice to see. We’ve seen them interact before, but with this it feels like we’re going to get something substantial growth between the two women. Both have a very distinct voice, which will hopefully benefit Yelena as she’s fully integrated into the Marvel universe. We also get Anya Corazon, Spider-Girl, into the book as one of her agents, and this could be an interesting development. It almost feels like she’s building a covert Birds of Prey book under the guise of a Black Widow solo, and I am here for it. Kelly really has a knack when it comes to building complex and natural friendships between characters, (as can be seen in her handling of Carol and Jessica Drew’s friendship in Captain Marvel) and it shows here.
Elena Casagrande returns to art duties on this issue, and everything she draws is gorgeous. She really has an eye for current fashion trends, and it feels nice. We’re not exposed to a lot of over sexualization of the women here, which has been a real boon with this book. Too often we are subjected to seeing them in scantily clad, and forced into inhumanly unnatural poses.
I hope to see these two in this book for a long time to come.
Final Thoughts
Black Widow by Thompson and Casagrande looks to be a book with absolutely amazing art, and a story where we can be treated to a deep introspection for the characters involved. Hopefully this run takes off with fans, because it’d be a real shame to lose it just after finding its feet.
Black Widow #7: Even Though I Try, I Can’t Let Go
- Writing - 9.5/109.5/10
- Storyline - 9.3/109.3/10
- Art - 9.7/109.7/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 9/109/10