MARVEL AVENGERS BLACK WIDOW #1: The Imitation Game

Set before the events of the MARVEL AVENGERS game. Christos Gage spins a thoroughly engaging and believable yarn retelling a story of Black Widow’s earliest days at S.H.I.E.L.D. He writes a convincing Natasha, strong and capable and mostly closed. The story focuses on Natasha, Nick Fury and Tony Masters (yes that guy…) specifically and we get a story of betrayals and secrets and lies.

The problem with one-off intro comics like this is they can come off feeling like complete fluff, the characters mere caricatures of their in canon counterparts, there to serve the higher purpose of the gaming product they are tied to. I’m really pleased to say that this comic doesn’t feel like that at all.

This is a perfectly believable piece of character history as Gage gives us insight into some of Black Widow and Taskmasters’ history with each other in this particular canon as well as Back Widow’s history with Fury all well wrapped up in a mystery that ultimately exposes a wolf amongst the sheep. Gage doesnt stop there, he also uses the opportunity to show us how the incident cements the relationship between Fury, Romanoff and her loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D itself.

Bandini’s art is excellent and there are some absolutely superb action splash kicks featuring Black Widow kicking butt balanced with strong, distinct facial expressions and great detail. Bandini’s Widow is poised and slinky deadly.

The strong art combined with Rachelle Rosenberg’s strong coloring makes for a slick well produced read that is thoroughly engaging from page one. I confess, my weakness for Black Widow content notwithstanding, I was not going to pick this issue up and did so on a whim. I am really glad I did.