Black Widow #9 - Marvel Comics

BLACK WIDOW No. 9, September 2021

Beginning with the titular character being brutally stabbed by a horde of Apogee’s super-powered disciples, Kelly Thompson’s opening for Issue Nine of “Black Widow” may well have had fans of the former-Soviet assassin thinking that perhaps the Avenger might not necessarily survive her latest encounter with the San Francisco-based villain. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the fact that Yelena Belova is apparently dead by this point in the four-parter’s storyline, many readers would probably have thought that Stan Lee’s co-creation was about to be permanently replaced by her blonde-haired "sister-in-arms” throughout the rest of this ongoing series’ run; “This will not happen. Not like this. Suit will do its job for a while. But that would will be mortal if this takes too long.”

Equally as enjoyable as this shock start is the development of Romanoff’s ‘backup crew’ consisting of Lucy, Craig and Anya Corazon, who genuinely seem to gel reasonably well together so as to provide Natasha with both the ingredients and expertise necessary so as to provide an antidote to “Apogee’s mass dosing”. Admittedly, it could be argued that the Black Widow stumbling upon the ‘sole’ scientific member of the Olio group who could synthesise a solution to her problem is conspicuously contrived at best, but this ‘lucky find’ was originally conceived by Belova during the White Widow’s own investigation into the shady shenanigans of Hux Advisors LLC.

In addition, the inclusion of Spider-Girl as part of this book’s badass trinity really helps sell the Black Widow’s ability to defeat a county-wide criminal organisation without its author needing to resort to the ‘tried and tested’ method of top-tier guest star appearances. Instead, it soon becomes very clear that between the three elite fighters, there’s every chance the drug-taking cartel of mysterious hooded cultists and smart-suited gunmen are going to fail in their felonious endeavours; “I remember you tried to kill me. And also you. And I don’t remember you, but I don’t like the look of you either.”

Quite possibly this book’s only brief bout of discombobulation therefore comes with this twenty-page periodical’s pencilling, which swaps between the pictures of Elena Casagrande and Rafael De Latorre. Luckily both artists are more than capable of prodigiously portraying this comic’s butt-kicking protagonists, so the sudden shift in slightly different styles at the end of its first act isn’t quite as disconcerting as perhaps it could have been if two more contrasting illustrators had been employed.

The regular cover art of "BLACK WIDOW" #9 by Adam Hughes