Black Widow #13 // Review
It was Madripoor. Years ago. Natasha ran into a trained killer who quite nearly could have eviscerated her. It’s not something she’s thought about a whole lot since then...at least not in the pages and panels and thought balloons that have been hanging around her in recent years. The story of Madripoor comes to light in Black Widow #13. Writer Kelly Thompson opens her four-part “Die By the Blade” storyline in an issue drawn by Rafael T. Pimentel with colors by Jordie Bellaire. It’s a simple story in a sleazy place with occasionally stiff art that nevertheless manages some impressively sharp bits of composition.
The Black Widow has just run into The Living Blade. Again. He was a deadly assassin that she’d run into on to while on assignment in one of the most totally evil places on earth in the Marvel Universe. She survived, but it was one hell of a battle. He had a sword, the element of surprise, and the upper hand. She...had a knife. Things got complicated. She made a stand in one of the darker corners of Madripoor. She survived because she decided to be a hero. It’s shaken Natasha ever since.
Thompson delivers a breezy one-shot story as lead-in to her next arc with Natasha. The bulk of the story has The Living Blade chasing the Black Widow through Madripoor. The three-page stand at the end of the issue may not have the kind of impact it needs to really catapult the story into its second part next month, but it has a cleverly distinctive feel about it that makes for a satisfying ending. Thompson doesn’t really take advantage of the setting all that much. It’s a tight focus on Natasha’s thoughts as she runs away from a guy with a sword. Thankfully, there really doesn’t NEED to be a whole lot of atmosphere to move the story along. It’s a very straightforward chase.
Forced crowd-out the panel with conflict between hero and villain, Pimentel isn’t really given much of a chance to deliver on the distinctive visual flavor of Madripoor. Black Widow DOES look beautifully focussed and poised in combat under Pimentel’s pen, but movement and motion can feel a bit awkward in a flow of action that really should be more fluid. Some of the panel composition is gorgeous, though. Bellaire’s colors dreamily drown Natasha’s memories of Madripoor in sickly garish pastels that are a perfect fit for the setting.
It can be really, really difficult to make any mega-villain seem like a towering threat in advance of a multi-part series. The Marvel Universe is cluttered with vicious killing machines. They all seem more or less alike. Thompson gives The Living Blade just enough personality by issue’s end. There’s honor in The Living Blade that lends a nicely conspicuous kind of dramatic gravity to a storyline that should be a lot of fun in the course of the first half of 2022.
