Black Widow #13 - Marvel Comics

BLACK WIDOW No. 13, March 2022

As standalone, flashback adventures go, Kelly Thompson’s narrative for this second instalment to her “Die By The Blade” storyline must surely have delighted the vast majority of its audience by taking the Avenger’s fans back to “her days in Madripoor” and her “first encounter with the Living Blade.” Indeed, it is difficult to imagine just what else the Eisner Award-winner could do to make this twenty-page periodical’s pulse-pounding plot any more thrilling; “If running is not an option, then I have no choice but to go on the offensive.”

For starters, the comic’s impressively dramatic opening deals with the ordinarily ever-confident Black Widow encountering the shock of an opponent who is seemingly more than a match for her finely-honed close-combat skills. Admittedly, this is no way appears to hinder Natasha Romanoff’s famous determination to best the mysterious swordsman who disconcertingly can penetrate her defences at will. But the utter surprise etched upon her face when she suffers a devastatingly bloody knife wound to her shoulder from ‘out of nowhere’ makes it crystal clear that this book isn’t going to contain the usual tale of the ex-Soviet spy ultimately besting a super-villain.

In addition, the American author’s technique of allowing the reader to know what this publication’s titular character is actually thinking, courtesy of some excellently penned text boxes, really adds to the tension. It’s clear that the former-KGB agent really isn’t pulling any punches to escape the deadly attention of the Living Blade, and equally emphasises just how aware of her surroundings the heroine is, when she realises her mere presence is endangering the customers of a packed out night-club.

Rafael T. Pimentel’s dynamically-drawn pencils are also well worth noting, with the Brazilian illustrator’s ability to project Natasha’s raw emotions through her eyes ably amplifying Thompson’s sub-thread of Romanoff’s increasing alarm at being backed into the tightest of corners without any hope of either escape or clemency. However, it is perhaps the artist’s savagely violent, and oft-times desperate fight scenes, which really help hammer home the point that the Black Widow really is being pushed to the very limits of both her formidable fighting prowess and impressive physical abilities.

The regular cover art of "BLACK WIDOW" #13 by Adam Hughes