The Name of The Rose

If you don’t keep up with Marvel comics, let me fill you in. Within the last few years there was a mutant registration act causing a Civil War amongst Superheroes and Villains, Captain America died, the planet was taken over during an alien Skrull Invasion and the only person who could save It was Norman Osbourne, the Green Goblin. Osbourne somehow became the leader of the Avengers and by connection, the world. Eventually his Dark Reign was over when, through a series of strange stories, Steve Rogers (Captain America) comes back to kick some ass. Even though Rogers is back, he refuses to wear the Captain America uniform, letting his replacement James Buchanan Barnes, AKA “Bucky” don the costume and shield. Which brings light in to our current era, the Heroic Age, in which things are restoring themselves slowly, the Avengers are steadily starting to band back together and life is looking good. Caught up? Good.

With the new era, 8 new series and 6 new miniseries have been released ushering in the Heroic Age. One of which is Black Widow, written by New York Times Bestselling Author Marjorie Liu and drawn by Daniel Acuña, fairly new to the comic book industry. Centering around Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) the series begins to call her character in to question, while also questioning how much her fellow Avengers would believe her if she was accused of doing…….well what she always does, spying.

The series starts off with Natasha being sedated in the middle of a sidewalk while a surgeon cuts her abdomen open and removes a chip. This chip has been implanted for years and it’s been used to gather information on nearly every superhuman in existence. The government is the first to find this out and they call the Avengers in to help, even though they claim to be on her side, doubt grows abundant amongst the group. Her current lover, the new Captain America, James Barnes and Logan (Wolverine) are amongst her most outspoken supporters yet it doesn’t take long for the CIA, police and the Avengers themselves to join the hunt to find her.

The series is well written, trying not to spend too much time on any one item, jumping around as she hops throughout the country trying to find who exposed her deepest secret, while also providing a lot of back story you most likely have missed because……really who follows Black Widow Origin stories? The art is sexy, sleek and surprisingly minimalist, having very few inked lines, relying on painted figures. All in all, it’s worth checking out, there are plenty of twists and turns. Whether you like Black Widow or not, It’s a good story that might define the character in a completely new light.