They took away her identity and gave her a new one. It was pleasant. It was completely unlike the one she had been living as super-spy. Now they’ve taken that sense of peace away from her, and she’s very, very upset. She’s got brilliant instincts as a warrior. She’s also going to have to balance that against responsibilities as wife and mother in Black Widow #4. Writer Kelly Thompson launches Natasha into compelling action with a fantastic art team. Elena Casagrande gives Natasha’s life in the present an organic earthiness that’s granted depth by colorist Jordie Bellaire. Memories come rushing in flashbacks brought to the page by Carlos Gómez with color by Federico Blee.

She’s out. Completely unconscious in her husband’s arms. He has no idea what’s going on. When she wakes up, she remembers everything. She remembers jumping out a window and being captured by Hydra. She remembers the memories that they implanted in her. She remembers a child that they bred between them with accelerated infancy. And now that Madame Hydra and her accomplices know what’s going on, they know their lives are in danger. They need to get to her before she can get to them. 

Thompson seems to be jumping over a whole lot of explanation. How is it that Madame Hydra instantly knows that Natasha knows everything? How is it that she’s capable of remembering EVERYTHING that happened to her, from the implanted memories to the toddler born of advanced genetic tech? Thompson doesn’t focus too much on the details, sweeping them away in a fun action tension dynamic that finds Natasha dealing with a life that she almost had and a husband who doesn’t want to leave it. The specifics may feel weak, but the drama has enough gravity to hold together the story. 

The art split between the present and the flashbacks is smart. The weighty emotional tension in the present is brought to the page with Casagrande’s shadowy shading. Bellaire’s color follows the shading, carving depth into the darkness with similarly dark hues. Gómez’s art tilts the action into over-the-top super-heroics with dramatic angles, and a more traditional Marvel action feel that is given a sharper sense of heroic color by Blee. It’s a very sharp contrast that serves to amplify the clash between Natasha’s two lives quite well.  

The editorial team on Black Widow has done an excellent job of bringing together two different art teams on a single issue. The flow of moods across different artists seems remarkably well-orchestrated. DC had tried something similar in the pages of Catwoman not too long ago to lesser effect. There’s a powerful direction to the narrative that exists quite well in drama and action. It’s a sharply-rendered issue. Natasha is given a challenge that is uniquely hers. So often, earthbound superhero stories can feel pretty interchangeable. Thompson has constructed a story that is so uniquely Natasha. Plot and character feel perfectly integrated with this issue. 

Grade: A-