Writer: Jody Houser
Penciler: Stephen Mooney
Colors: Triona Farrell
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 4, 2019

Black Widow is back again in another mini series. She has been going through some issues since dying and coming back to life as a clone under the control of Russia. Since Spider-Man was busy she had to take care of that part of her reincarnation herself. She destroyed Russia’s cloning and memory implanting capabilities obtaining her old memories in the process. She then hopped over to Madripoor to bust up a No Restraints Play human trafficking ring just to relax. 

Now she is back…again to begin sorting out her past. Maybe this will lead to a better future for Natasha.

We open in New York at some sort of charity gala. Good looking people are everywhere. The panel focuses on one particular brunet with curves in all the right places. At this point we are not sure who this is. She approaches two men, one is Tony stark and the other Walter Sobol. 

Natasha sashays up to Tony and asks him to dance. Tony recognizes her right away, but goes along with the ruse because he understands if she is here something is wrong. 

They dance and all she really tells him is his friend Walter Sobol may not be such a stand up guy and to stay out of her way. 

The next sequence of panels is really well done. We get a before and after shot of when Nat drugged the guard to the security control room in the past at this gala. Side by side with her going to the control room in the present with the guard knocked out on the floor.

Once in we are treated to more of the direction this series will be taking. Natasha has a flash back of when she was a teenager still under the control of the Red Room. She is being hired by Walter Sobol’s grandfather to kill a rival. She is highjacking this gala’s projector to elicit a rise out of Walter. She does this by flashing seemingly random pictures up on the screen.

Security comes to get her and she busts out with a pretty well choreographed fight scene. On the roof Tony confronts her where she explains that Walter’s Grandfather was a horrible person and this was just a test to see if Walter was the same.

Final Thoughts:

I am a little torn on this issue. It read well, dialogue had no issues. It was pretty basic though. One could almost say you could probably skip this issue and you wouldn’t miss much. Tony is worried about Nat. Walter is a good dude, his grandfather wasn’t. And Nate wants to balance somethings she did in the past. The cliffhanger has me scratching my head. Was this Natasha? The art wasn’t anything to get excited about. There was a couple panels that looked great, and Mooney can draw a beautiful female. But I couldn’t help to feel like this could have been tightened up a little. On all levels: cover, interior art, inks and colors.

6.5/10