Black Widow is Back With a Daring New Creative Team

Phillip Morgan ‘18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Black Widow constantly gets the short stick in Marvel films and toy department due to her terminal condition of “being a woman,” but for nearly two years her solo comic series has been absolutely top-notch. In just 20 issues, Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto have transformed Black Widow’s story of redemption into the bloody espionage thriller she and her fans deserve, which made it even more disappointing when a new Black Widow series was noticeably absent in the initial post-Secret Wars lineup. But then on October 2nd, Marvel swooped in to relieve the the Widow fans’ fears, and let the world that Natasha Romanoff is finally getting the A-List treatment.

Taking the reigns for the upcoming relaunch are writer Mark Waid and artist Chris Samnee, the pair that just wrapped up the single greatest Daredevil run ever (Yeah, we see you shaking your heads, Miller and Bendis fanboys. Sorry not sorry.) Given Waid’s reputation for crafting emotionally charged and socially conscious superhero fare (see: that time Daredevil beat the crap out of corrupt cops working for a white supremacist cult), it’s reasonable to guess that Waid and Samnee’s Black Widow will opt for a slightly lighter tone for the character, though not in a jarring or overbearing sense. If Edmondson and Noto were going for Jason Bourne kind of vibe, Waid and Samnee will likely steer hard into Bond territory, and no, we don’t mean that Bond. We mean this Bond.

As for the nuts and bolts of the new series, Waid and Samnee gave only the sparest of details in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. Waid opened with saying, “It’s similar to the way we approached Daredevil, in that we’re not picking up specifically from the end of the previous issue or specifically from any one moment. But we’re acknowledging that, and making use of the fact that what happened in the previous series happened, and using some of that stuff as a springboard.” They did tease new elements they planned on introducing, such as “a new Big Bad for Widow,” but for now it seems they’re playing pretty close to the chest. Regardless, get ready for an incredible Black Widow comic in early 2016 from the minds of two of Marvel’s top creators. Now if they could just get a woman on the creative team next time…