The biggest challenge for a Marvel super-spy: staying hidden, if the hired assassins don't get you, the restlessness might. Natasha Romanoff dives into the shadows in the first issue of her new series as writer Kelly Thompson opens the latest Black Widow #1. Artist Elena Casagrande renders the action for the page with the aid of colorist Jordie Bellaire. The first issue of the new series places its main character as the central mystery with stylishly kinetic action. With a distinctly intriguing personality for its title character, the new serial shows a lot of promise in its opening chapter. 

Black Widow has been contacted by Captain America to do a little last-minute infiltration. It's no problem for her. She likes this type of work. She gets back home only to find that there's someone's been there. There's an encounter. Then the narrative shoots ahead. She's working with a construction company. When Hawkeye spots her in the background of a TV news location shoot, he calls-up Bucky. Neither of them has heard from her in a long time. They're going to go and check on her. When they do, they will find that she's in a romantic relationship, but will they find her before she's accosted by agents of the assassin known as Arcade? 

Thompson deftly manages a very narrow characterization for Black Widow. She's narrating much of the issue, so she's the center of the action, but Thompson manages to keep her the central mystery in the narrative. The sudden disconnect from the opening of the issue and its second half makes for a pleasantly disjointed experience that mirrors the personality of its hero. Seen from page and panel, she's acting impetuously and erratically, but since the reader isn't privy to all the background on her life, there might be something deeper going on in her psyche.

Casagrande has done elegant work on similar characters for DC. She's managed to find a look for Black Widow in costume that is distinct from...say...Catwoman, who ha a very similar costume. Casagrande has found a very distinctive personality for the world in which she lives as well. Natasha Romanoff moves across the page with fearless graceful confidence. A great deal can be read into Natalie's facial expressions as an apparently off-duty super spy working in construction. Everything about her posture seems relaxed, but ready. It's a smart, ephemeral look that settles over everything as the world seems to be moving around her. 

The disconnect between the first half and the second half of the first issue is potent. There's a real balance between Black Widow and Natasha's lives that makes for an interesting contrast. If Thompson and Casagrande can maintain that balance while keeping the mystery of the composite character solidly present, this could be a strikingly well-composed series. Arcade's addition as a villain could make this a very existentially trippy journey into espionage--particularly if the adventure somehow finds itself into the potentially surreal territory of Murderworld.  

Grade: A