Invisible Woman #2
J.A. Fludd
Recap
In this issue’s flashback to “Sue Richards, Agent of SHIELD,” after another successful mission concludes with a bang, Sue and her English spying partner Aidan Tintreach follow up on his earlier attempt to hit on her (last issue) by Aidan confiding in Sue that his actual “type” is not American and blonde but Irish and ginger. Remember that.
Returning to Sue’s adventure with The Black Widow in Madripoor, the women’s search for the captured Aidan takes them to a bar where they seek information from a slimy character named Changdao. To earn the intel that Changdao can provide her, Susan must win a drinking contest with a mountainous Asian thug. Naturally, Changdao has cheated and poisoned the liquor. But Sue has also cheated; she didn’t drink a drop—she only cloaked the contents of the shot glasses to make it look as if she drank it all. The thug drops dead; our Invisible Woman—who has been to dinner with Dr. Doom, remember—remains very much alive. After Sue and The Black Widow have made short work of Changdao’s other minions, Changdao himself is shot dead by a sniper (you’ve got to love these espionage yarns—no one’s life is worth a plugged nickel), whom the two heroines must then pursue.
The merry chase ends with the assassin snuffing both himself and his driver, and The Black Widow searching the assassin’s getaway car to find a brief containing a picture of—wait for it—Aidan’s lovely, freckled, red-haired, and very Irish wife, Colleen. Now what has she got to do with all this? For that, we’ll have to come back next issue, when Sue must go looking for her.
Review
As expected, we continue to see that The Invisible Woman can handle herself just fine outside the Fantastic Four milieu of super-villains and cosmic menaces. As smart as she is brave and beautiful, she shows herself to be capable of thinking a couple of jumps ahead, which in the espionage genre is highly conducive to staying alive and in one piece for the end of the mission. The whole bit about the real nature of Aidan’s attractions and the reveal of his wife makes Aidan’s previous flirtation with Sue an interesting misdirection. I was expecting this to be the story of Sue going to rescue another man who wanted her but couldn’t have her. (Remember, in The Fantastic Four she was engaged to Reed Richards but tempted by Prince Namor, The Sub-Mariner in one of Marvel’s most famous subplots that is still referenced to this day.) Throwing in a wife for Aidan who’s very different from Sue makes the whole thing veer in an unexpected direction. Well done, Mark Waid.
The art by Mattia De Iulis continues to serve the story well. It might not be ideally suited to The Fantastic Four, but for a project like this it works fine. The penciling/inking and coloring conjures up all the moods and atmospheres that the story requires and moves things along at exactly the right pace. It’s a brisk, easy read with good action. We’d expect an entirely different “feel” if this were a Fantastic Four adventure, but as a spy story goes, it works.
I give the cover a “9” only because it’s one of those covers that put the logo at the bottom instead of up at the top where it belongs. I’m a traditional sort of guy about some things.
Final Thoughts
I’d still have preferred to see how The Invisible Woman would handle herself if she were on her own in the kind of adventure that we normally associate with The Fantastic Four. But this miniseries shows us how truly resourceful and fearless she is. Not for nothing is Susan Richards the second in command of Earth’s greatest adventuring team. Reed would be proud of her.
Invisible Woman #2: Secret Agent Woman
- Writing - 9/109/10
- Storyline - 9.5/109.5/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 9/109/10
- Cover Art - 9/109/10