BLACK WIDOW#1-5 (2010)

For most of her existence, Black Widow has struggled to find a worthy writer. There are moments where we get a solid miniseries or story, but those are separated by long periods of poor-to-average appearances. This miniseries marks Marjorie Liu’s period with Natasha, and Liu will do a good job (not a great one) and a short one–the series is cancelled after issue #8. These five issues, the initial arc, take the standard tack with Widow: Her past comes back to haunt her. An assassin is hired to kill Pepper Potts, and Natasha takes her down. Only it turns out, the assassin is a robot affiliated with other characters from Black Widow’s past, including Imus Champion. Some of the extended Daredevil family (Elektra and Lady Bullseye) play minor roles, when Widow is suspected of spying on heroes and selling her intel to the highest bidder. (She didn’t do it.) Imus is the big bad, and the above page pretty much sums up the story: He’s dying and wants to transfer his mind to a robot body but can’t find the strength to off himself. It ends with Widow finding a new peace with her past. Yeah, it’s far-fetched, but again this is a good enough story–especially compared to many of the Black Widow ...