After an emotional story that saw Natasha Romanoff discover what life is like with having a partner and son to call her own family that status quo is no more. Natasha had to make the tough choice of having her family go into hiding without knowing where they are because of all the villains targeting her. Now Natasha is back to being Black Widow. What will her life be like now that she is getting back to her superhero/super spy life? Let’s find out with Black Widow #6
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Artist: Rafael De Latorre
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Somewhere in San Franchisco, Black Widow is taking on a person who has been given superpowers by the Apogee. Black Widow overcomes the power advantage the guy has by breaking both his arms and then knocking him out with her Widow Sting.
Later, Black Widow breaks into a pharmacy to get some medicine to help recover from the fight. While there she notices a toy duck that reminds her of James and Stevie (her ex-fiancé and son, respectively).
We then see six days earlier at the San Francisco Flower Market, Natasha stops a girl from trying to steal her wallet. The girl runs away and Natasha decides to give chase. Natasha corners the girl and tells her to pick her targets better next time. The girl does not want to hear any advice from Natasha. Natasha then offer the girl to help her.
Yelena then shows up and the girl decides to leave. Natasha throw the girl her wallet. As the girl takes off Natasha notices that she some skill. Yelena notices this as well and thinks they should recruit her. Natasha says no to the idea because she does not plan on creating their own Red Room.
In the present, Black Widow is found by another superpowered guy from the Apogee. Black Widow wastes no time in ziplining to the top floor of the building she is in.
More people with superpowers show up as she gets to the penthouse. Seeing that she is outnumbered Black Widow sets off an explosion. This creates an opening for her to cover the penthouse in smoke. With everyone’s sight obscured Black Widow quickly takes out all of the superpowered people in the penthouse.
Black Widow leaves one guy left standing to send a message to the Apogee that San Francisco is her city now. She then tosses the guy out the window with a parachute she opens for him.
Black Widow then contacts White Widow (Yelena Belova) to let her know that the Apogee wasn’t in the penthouse. Black Widow then tells White Widow to prepare a spare room at their place as she is brining someone with her. We then see that Black Widow has found the girl from earlier unconscious in the penthouse. End of issue.
The Good: It’s back to business for Natasha Romanoff and that is exactly what we see happen with Black Widow #6. In the process we see the story around Apogee being one of the big villains that this series will be dealing with continued to be set-up. Given the events of the first story arc this is exactly what needed to be done to further cement the future of the latest Black Widow series.
The thing that stood out most from Black Widow #6 is how we are seeing Natasha not waste any time in taking on the Apogee threat. Even if she doesn’t know who Apogee is she is being active about finding and stopping them. It is different from most superhero comics where we see heroes like Spider-Man and Iron Man normally acting when villains attack. Natasha is not like that as Black Widow. She is still a spy at her core and she uses that training to get leads on where Apogee possibly is.
This makes the action even better as it acts an extension of how Natasha approaches figuring out how to take down the Apogee. Both in her fight against the guy with super strength and the penthouse battle we see that she immediately recognizes the disadvantage she against all the superpowers. But in quickly realizing this Natasha is able to figure out how to best use her abilities to get the advantage.
With the guy with super strength it was about breaking both his arms to get him in position to knock him out with her Widow Sting. Then with the penthouse battle she immediately blurred everyone’s vision with smoke so she could use her skills and speed to take advantage of all the confusion. It all works to establish Natasha back as Black Widow and show that even with superpowered people on Apogee side she won’t go down easily.
The other think that Thompson does in Black Widow #6 is further progress the bigger ambition Natasha now has after the events of the first arc. We saw at the end of Black Widow #5 that Natasha isn’t simply getting back into the superhero and spy game. She now has bigger plans after seeing how several villains teamed up to destroy her.
Bringing in Yelena Belova as White Widow to work with Natasha moving forward is a good first step in this plan. Thompson waste no time in showing the chemistry the two have as we see them acting like sisters in the way they talk with each other. Yelena even calling out how even though Natasha doesn’t want to use the name Red Room for what she has planned it does sound similar works for this dynamic. It provides a tease for what we may see happen as Natasha could be looking to mentor young people, like the girl who tried to steal her wallet, to use spy skills for the side of good.
Rafael De Latorre knocked it out of the park with the artwork on Black Widow #6. Latorre continued the style that Elena Casagrande established for this series extremely well. It all fits with the super spy world that Natasha and Yelena are in. The action is all very smooth to showcase the fluid way Natasha fights as she uses her speed and agility to overcome all sorts of superpowered people.
Jordie Bellaire deserves just as much praise as the coloring of Black Widow #6 made the pencils by Latorre just pop even more. The way everything was lit in red to show how the penthouse was covered in smoke while Natasha effortlessly took out everyone in the room was a sight to see. The same goes for the coloring choice for the flashback scenes to have only Natasha, Yelena, and the thief be normally colored while the background people and setting was a light yellow.
The Bad: The one part of Black Widow #6 that did not work as intended was the references to video games that Natasha Romanoff was throwing out in her inner monologue. While I understand what Thompson was intending to get across with the talk of final boss levels this felt out of character for Natasha’s character. Video games isn’t something we’ve seen as part of what the character likes to do in her spare time, even in the recent arc when she was raising a kid.
Overall: As each issue is released Kelly Thompson has established Black Widow as one of the best titles published by Marvel. Black Widow #6 is further proof of that as it carries the momentum created by the first story arc of this series forward in a positive direction. Thompson does a fantastic job showing how Natasha Romanoff plans on being proactive in taking down the threat of Apogee that has come after her. The artwork by Rafael De Latorre and Jordie Bellaire further elevates the story that takes place in this issue.
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