Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread, Nathan Edmondson, Phil Noto

It shouldn’t really be surprising that this comic features a lot of Black Widow being kickass. There’s quite a casual tone to it, though, with some of the things she says, which made me feel a bit like it was trying to be Black Widow a la Hawkeye. A comment like “Pro tip (often learned too late): don’t argue with crazy”… I don’t know, it seems more like smartass Hawkeye than Widow. Not that she couldn’t imitate whoever she needs to, to fit in, but… that’s her mental commentary? Doesn’t feel right.

It’s fun watching Widow be kickass and all, but it did feel a little lacking in that the overarching plot is the same one as every other Black Widow comic I’ve read: Natasha wants to atone for her past sins. Natasha can’t let anyone close. Natasha is a predator. Etc. It wouldn’t be true to the character to drop that, but there are plenty of people who can put a fresh spin on an old story, or bring new motivations and conflicts to an old character. (Steve Rogers facing off against Bucky Barnes in Brubaker’s Winter Soldier is a good example, but Widow facing off against people from her past has been done, and done.)

The art looks gorgeous, though the constant muted red palette is again… something that feels typical. I enjoyed reading this, but it didn’t bring me anything new. It’s a good place to start to build something, and there does seem to be an ongoing plot as of the last couple of issues collected in this TPB, but… I don’t want to be able to predict Natasha Romanoff.

Rating: 3/5

Ms Marvel: No Normal, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona

I’m going to pretend I haven’t seen/read the comments and reviews that basically boil down to “a Muslim American can’t be a superhero, and because this story is about a Muslim American teen, it’s not really a superhero book”. Despite the fact that in many ways, this is Spider-man: family issues, school issues, identity issues, except it happens to be a female character who also happens to be a person of colour and a Muslim. There is nothing in the set of issues here that wouldn’t be right at home wearing a different mask in Spider-man. He spends just as much time building up to getting the costume, just as much time or more actually becoming a superhero.

I did find that this TPB stopped just where I wanted things to really begin for Kamala. It’s a little too short, not giving me enough to really hold onto. I like Kamala, I like her family, I like the quirks of the art and what we’ve seen so far — I just haven’t seen enough yet to know how much I’m going to like it. This TPB is really just an origin story, and we have yet to see Kamala meet the wider world.

It’s great as an origin story, but I’m not hooked yet.

And before you ask, Spidey took me a while too.

Rating: 4/5

Red She-Hulk: Hell Hath No Fury, Jeff Parker, Carlo Pagulayan, Wellington Alves

Hell Hath No Fury is a pretty fun story. I haven’t read anything that actually used Betty Ross before now, except I think she was in a Hulk comic I read for a few pages. This gives her a story of her own, one that doesn’t revolve around Bruce Banner, and though I’m not fond of the way this plot talks about Bruce/Hulk (as becoming nothing more than a monster), her issues and her mission are pretty interesting. I don’t think I’ve read anything using Aaron Stack/the android X-51 before, and he’s pretty interesting too: an android more advanced than Ultron and the Vision.

Despite the fact that this is issues #58-62 of Red She-Hulk, it’s easy enough to follow what’s happening. There’s a quick summary of who Betty is and how she Hulked out at the beginning, and the other mysteries explain themselves as you go along. Aaron is pretty self-explanatory, too. I think this works without reference to any other arcs and storylines, beyond the background knowledge about Betty Ross’ relationship to Bruce Banner.

The Avengers also have their moment here; it’s a little funny how Red She-Hulk can so easily defeat them; it’s like Marvel making Betty more powerful than all of them combined, which I’m not entirely sure she’s meant to be. Mind you, she’s got the body of a Hulk and the mind of Betty Ross, so she’s subtler than the original Hulk, more able to strategise. Anyway, the Avengers’ appearance and banter is fun, and I like seeing Cap making the tough decisions with the data he has — it’s the wrong decision, but he can’t know that. He just does the best he can.

Rating: 3/5