Viuda Negra: Los Delicados Hilos De La Telaraña #1 (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
I subscribed to this title partly because it features a female protagonist, and partly because I felt like the Avengers movie was an inadequate introduction to Natalia Romanova.I love the stories. I love the art. I think I'd need to go digging into other TPB series to get a full education in the character's origin, but I really enjoy the present day setting and Black Widow's exploits when she's not with the Avengers. Black Widow, breakout character of the Marvel cinematic universe, gets her own book a few years too late. But, better late than never, right?Wrong. Dead wrong. Marvel didn't think this one through long enough to make this book count. Edmondson is a B lister who writes this book like every other he's ever touched and even the art can't save this book. Maybe instead of trying to mimic Fraction's "Hawkeye", he should have been more worried about how to make Widow work on its own. I will give him one big plus though- no major Marvel U guest stars to speak of. It's just Natasha. So why does the book fall flat on its face? Numerous reasons, but most glaring is that there is too much happening here for us to really grab onto any one thing. In the first book there are 2 random missions that don't have any meaning or weight on the grand scale, and it continues in that vein for all 6 issues. There is no gravitas, and each book is pretty self-contained so that there really is no need to read on if you're not feeling it. It just doesn't draw the reader in, because like Natasha, Edmondson seems intent on keeping is all out. His attempts at poignancy fail as he doesn't really grasp just what they're supposed to mean. And if the writer can't make those moments matter, he loses us in the pithy execution. The internal monologue should be the best part of the book, but instead reads like someone who is unaware of themselves, their own motivations, and their own situations, their own history. It feels like Edmondson has no situational awareness here, no understanding of the character or her motivations, and is hard pressed to make us feel as if any of those things matter. A serious disappointment on all fronts, and even in the art department, as a serious lack of complimentary colors here (seriously, she's a redhead, use some f$&&ing blue, already) make everything feel washed out. The sense of style, gorgeous as it may be (taking hints from Ashley Wood and Fiona Staples early work) can't work without an understanding of color. And that's really where it fails. Stylistically gorgeous, but mistakes abound. Writing: C-Art: B
What do You think about Viuda Negra: Los Delicados Hilos De La Telaraña #1 (2014)?
Beautiful art by Phil Noto and an engaging story by Nathan Edmondson. Natasha is back in the game.
—aline
Love the art, love Natasha as a character - but these stories are not the most interesting to me.
—Genesis
