Black Widow (2004) #2

Bw02

With Parlov taking over the layouts, all of a sudden it reminds me of Ennis.

Well, not really. Morgan does a fine job with Natasha—his brief first person narration works, instead of the usual, lengthy nonsense male writers do when writing first person narration for female characters—but the only other female character in the issue is so bad Jeph Loeb could’ve written her.

Some evil spy lady is—shocker, a lesbian—and violently lusting after a waitress. It’s like Ennis done bad.

Otherwise, the issue is good. It’s not as strong as the first issue because there’s not as much going on. None of the action scenes are memorable. Morgan sort of front-loaded it, especially for a six issue series. His second issue is a bridging issue, which is odd.

I’m confident he’ll get back on track, since he doesn’t leave it here… he just slows down.

Black Widow (2004) #1

Bw01

I’ve read this Black Widow series before, but it’s been so long I forgot Bill Sienkiewicz does the art. I remembered it was good, but I didn’t remember why it’s good. So it’s a nice surprise.

Richard K. Morgan doesn’t have any Marvel Universe stuff here. It’s just a retired spy story so far—Natasha keeps trying to get out (moving to Monument Valley to rock climb, what’s more American than that?), and they keep pulling her back in.

It appears the bad guys are some Blackwater stand-in. Or something. With ex-Soviets along for the ride.

The issue gets Natasha from retirement to being on the run; along the way she acquires a sidekick and plays superhero for a scene. But it’s a really tough scene. The book’s only a Marvel Knights title, but mean-spirited enough it could’ve been a MAX.

Natasha’s ruthless (appropriately) and vicious (appropriately).

Black Widow (2001) #3

Bw3

Yuck, there’s a lot of design work from Hampton this issue.

A painter shouldn’t do eighties advertising style design. It just doesn’t work out.

Oddly, nothing works in this comic. Well, except some of Hampton’s skies. He has some beautiful upstate New York blue skies with clouds here.

Otherwise, his work is just wrong throughout. It gets even worse when he’s got to do talking heads scenes and relies on the design stuff. I guess it’s not as static as doing paintings, but—combined with Grayson and Rucka’s weak dialogue—the scenes don’t work.

At the end, the writers try a lot to make the Marvel Universe seem really dark and complicated—way too complicated for someone like Daredevil to understand—and it all comes off like Grayson and Rucka are writing a spec script for a bad Bond movie.

The series is a stinker, but the skies are nice.

Black Widow (2001) #2

Bw2

Well, the second issue—when Rucka and Grayson reveal the plot (Natasha and S.H.I.E.L.D. are out to discover the blond Black Widow’s boss’s plans to sell weapons to a foreign power)—is a whole lot less compelling than the first.

More annoying Daredevil running around. Hampton doesn’t even try not to make him look silly around the spies.

Hampton’s actually the whole reason to read the comic, it turns out. Not his action scenes, which are still painfully wrong, but his New York location paintings. There are some beautiful, scenic panels in here. It’s a shame he had to have Black Widow and Nick Fury running around in them. They should have just left the characters out and released the issue as a travelogue.

Of course, things don’t go as planned (it’s a spy story), but it’s hard to care. Grayson and Rucka write insipid characters; they waste their MacGuffin.

Black Widow (2001) #1

Bw1

Now, I generally like Scott Hampton—well, in theory anyway, I remember he’s done some good Vertigo stuff—but who thought he’d be a good fit on a Black Widow book? All of the art, because he’s not doing fully painted backgrounds, looks way too designed and artificial. There’s zero flow to it. It’s like Marvel hired a painter and asked him not to really paint, just paint by numbers.

Still, it’s sort of impossible not to be interested in the title because it features Natasha and S.H.I.E.L.D. kidnapping the blond Black Widow and doing a Face/Off procedure, switching the Widows’ identities. Grayson and Rucka don’t get to an explanation, just the immediate aftermath of the change. It’s compelling.

Of course, since it’s Grayson, there’s this terrible Daredevil characterization (he’s basically just a horny dimwit who follows Natasha around and works freelance for S.H.I.E.L.D.).

It’s bad, but definitely diverting.

Black Widow (1999) #3

Bw3

Grayson’s back to true form here, with terrible dialogue and sexy smooth talker Matt Murdock. It appears he’s got a cell built in to his Daredevil costume. He shows up towards the beginning, talking to the Black Widow II. I’m sure this story wasn’t Grayson’s idea—maybe someone at Marvel thought it sounded good—but it’s just a stupid plot.

Especially the way the last page suggests all these double-crosses Grayson never even hinted at earlier.

Jones basically has one job this issue. Make a fight scene compelling. He fails miserably. Some of it is his page composition, some of it is just the art.

As for Grayson’s resolution to last issue’s cliffhanger—it’s exceptionally weak. Maybe she thought she needed it to probably weigh a three issue limited series. Regardless, she ruins whatever paltry good will the previous issue earned.

Oh, and when Grayson talks gender, Widow reeks.

Black Widow (1999) #2

Bw2

So who shoots her (Natasha) at the end? Is that SHIELD? Why’s SHIELD shooting her?

This issue might be better written than the last. The conversation between Natasha and Matt is nowhere near as bad, though Grayson’s characterization of him as a lech seems a little off. Well, no, it seems a lot off. Grayson makes Daredevil a pig.

What’s striking is how much I hated the art this issue. Maybe I was just being nice to the first issue. Jones draws everyone’s head veiny and fat; the comic is full of hideously ugly people. He doesn’t even bring enough inks to them to make them look interesting. Thin, veiny ugly fat heads. How engaging.

Grayson has an interesting plot development, Natasha doing something unexpected, and it finally makes Black Widow interesting (while hugely problematic)

So interesting it encourages one to check out the resolution.

Shame about the fat heads.

Black Widow (1999) #1

Bw1

For some reason, I was expecting more from Jones. I wasn’t expecting anything from Grayson (and, oh, did she deliver), but Jones… I thought he’d at least do a consistently good issue.

Instead, it’s like he’s alternating. One panel is good, the next isn’t. He has these terrible eyeglass lenses, which makes Matt Murdock’s cameo doubly painful (Grayson’s dialogue, which is supposed to be romantic banter between Matt and Natasha, is laughably bad). The action scenes are similar. Sometimes he does all right, other times his proportions all of a sudden change. The issue has some well-paced fight scenes, but it ends with this drawn out sequence of Natasha escaping in a truck. Jones turns a page of action into four or five. All wordless too.

Grayson can’t even make it compelling when Natasha runs afoul of her replacement.

I don’t know why, but I thought it’d be better.