Here we go again: A single comic with two 15-page stories in it, which means that I have to split coverage between two posts. This one deals with the Black Widow half of the first issue.
The story, despite having art by John Buscema, is pretty bad.
Her new outfit is cool though.
It starts off with her lounging in a slinky outfit and feeling “bored,” and receiving a phone call from a man who wants to fly her to Switzerland on what she assumes will be a date.
For a spy who recently defected from Russia, she certainly has embraced the capitalist lifestyle.
We meet future Black Widow “wrangler” Ivan Petrovitch, briefly, and that’s kind of important.
He will turn into Black Widow’s version of Microchip–part “handler,” part researcher, someone who can equip her with weapons, etc.
She stops some criminals.
With little effort.
She is trying to keep her identity secret.
And that’s the set-up for this comic.
What’s wrong with this story??? Not every Marvel Comic has to be “The Galactus Trilogy”, or “The Kree-Skrull War”, or “The Phoenix Saga”, or “The Avengers-Defenders War”. The Black Widow’s 1970 “Amazing Adventures” adventures were just fine little street-level capers where we are shown what the Widow can do. I don’t expect Natasha to step up every time Galactus or the Skrulls try to invade the Earth, ( contrary to what we were given in the 2012 ‘Avengers’ movie ) but she wasn’t built to fight off alien invasions or giant, planet-eating space gods. She is at her most effective battling street-level criminals, the same way Spider-Man and her former paramour Daredevil do. As for the debate over her Sixties ensemble versus her Seventies outfit, well, I frankly don’t think she could go wrong either way, but personally, the lavender outfit with the cape and black fishnets really works for me!! I wonder where you could go to buy an outfit like that-?? ( for my girl, of course ) And seriously, if Natasha is worried about the world learning who she really is, then wouldn’t it stand to simple logic to simply remain in the outfit with the face-mask-??? ( in comic-book world, those face-masks really work! ) And in closing, what’s all this about “Is there really a place for ( me ) in a world such as this-???” Well, why in the hell WOULDN’T there be-??? You’re only one of the highest-trained and highest capable operatives on the planet!!! She, of course, KNOWS this- she KNOWS that when push comes to shove, there will ALWAYS be employment for her at both SHIELD and the Avengers! So- what’s with all the melodrama-?? Pity poor me- the Deadly Black Widow, one of the deadliest intelligence operatives on the planet- oh, whatsoever am I going to do with myself-??? Oh, boo-hoo-hoo!! Right, ‘Tash. Anyway, a “C-” rating is a bit harsh for this series- I would give it an overall “B”! Nuff Said!!