The Boys are Back: A Review of Black Widow #1

(w) Mark Waid
(a) Chris Samnee
(c) Matthew Wilson

It was with barely-contained excitement that I opened my copy of Black Widow #1 yesterday. This was my most-anticipated title of 2016, considering it marked the reunion of my favorite team of creators, Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, along with colorist Matthew Wilson. I'm happy to report that they were every bit as good as I remember them to be, if not even better.

Basically, issue #1 is a 20-page chase sequence, in which Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, escapes from a Helicarrier in mid-flight, having stolen an undisclosed item then fights off a series of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to make good her escape.

Were it anyone except this team telling this story, I honestly don't know if they could have pulled it off with as much panache. I really love how Waid and Samnee basically hit the ground running with this story, and give the reader quite the mystery to chew on until the next issue comes out. After all, really engaging spy stories involve uncovering one mystery after another, and Waid and Samnee have laid down a pretty confounding one right off the bat.

What's striking is how there's minimal dialogue in this issue, and Black Widow herself doesn't even speak until the very last page, and even then only utters two words. Waid lets Samnee, who has taken on plotter duties with this series, do most of the storytelling, and he really runs with it.

Of course, stretching out a chase scene over an entire issue, no matter how talented the creative team, means that pretty much nothing else happens, and so it's understandable to decry what appears to be a bit of decompression, though given that this is apparently Samnee's first full plotted issue (he wrote and drew a short story in a Daredevil anthology last year), I'm willing to cut him a bit of slack, especially considering the eye-popping artwork that he and colorist Matt Wilson have turned in here, and especially considering that the lot of them now have me waiting on bated breath to see what happens next.

8.7/10