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A review by mcacev
Black Widow Vol. 3: Last Days by Nathan Edmondson
3.0
And unfortunately the trend continues.
Last Days is the appropriately named last volume of Edmondson and Noto's run on Black Widow. I would love to tell you all that it ends as strongly as vol 2, but unfortunately, it very much doesn't and it's quite disappointing.
First off, it collects 8 issues instead of 6, and the last 2 issues are completely unnecessary. They are a self contained story set in the past, and tie up the loose end of Natasha's childhood friend Marina and it takes place in Cuba, during Castros' rise to power. It's a sad, but good story, that by itself would probably get 4 stars. It feels a little too real, but that's a good thing; during the cold war these things happened, and even now they continue to happen.
The rest of the volume ties up the lose threads left of the story with Chaos. The first 3 issues are really good, 5 star reads. We follow Natasha on the hunt, tracking down all of Chaos' accountants thanks to information from Tori and Isiah, while SHIELD tries to find her and help her off the books. There are several good moments, especially with Isiah who has become my favorite character in this series. My favorite one was hos conversation with Clint, though I feel like Edmondson doesn't really understand Clint's character. Why is Clint defending Maria Hill and SHILED? Clint hates SHIELD, he was loyal to Cap through and through, he lead the New Avengers during Norman Osborne's time as director, and he sure as hell would never play by the rules of politics. That really annoyed me a lot.
Another thing that annoyed me was Chaos. I won't spoil the reveal here, because I don't want to, but it's really, really underwhelming. I hoped it would be an agency that's maybe lead by someone from Natasha's past, maybe isn't centralized, anything other than what we got. And the way she beats Chaos is super lame as well. And, to top it all of, it doesn't even end! That thread is left to the wayside, to pick up, and from what I've read of Natasha's follow up series, it doesn't get picked up.
Was at least Natasha's character arc tied neatly? Maybe? I'm not really sure. On the one hand I liked where she ended up, but on the other, it felt very rushed. The avengers were never really a part of this series, and the relationships that Natasha built were mostly with Isaiah, Bucky and Tori, who don't factor in the ending (well Isaiah sort of does, but not enough).
There is another moment that really annoyed me, which is this vision of the possible future that Nat gets with Matt? Why? I'm not a shipper, I don't really have her in an OTP with anyone, but it contradicts what this very series set up! Both times Nat interacts with Mat here, they are hostile to each-other and Matt tells her to leave! The times Nat interacts with Bucky (which are numerous), he is supportive, loving and caring. He helps her twice blatantly and spends the majority of this volume searching for her. Their relationship has been established since the very run by Greg Ruck when Bucky took over Cap's costume, and every previous solo series for Nat since.
Honestly, I'm not asking for that much, just deliver on what you promised. I would give this an even lower rating, but the last story is good (even if it doesn't belong here) and the first 2 issues are especially still high in quality. But the combination of the unsatisfying conclusion of the Chaos plot and wildly out of character turns by Clint and Nat at the end, really make it impossible for me to say this volume is anything other than average at the very best.
Last Days is the appropriately named last volume of Edmondson and Noto's run on Black Widow. I would love to tell you all that it ends as strongly as vol 2, but unfortunately, it very much doesn't and it's quite disappointing.
First off, it collects 8 issues instead of 6, and the last 2 issues are completely unnecessary. They are a self contained story set in the past, and tie up the loose end of Natasha's childhood friend Marina and it takes place in Cuba, during Castros' rise to power. It's a sad, but good story, that by itself would probably get 4 stars. It feels a little too real, but that's a good thing; during the cold war these things happened, and even now they continue to happen.
The rest of the volume ties up the lose threads left of the story with Chaos. The first 3 issues are really good, 5 star reads. We follow Natasha on the hunt, tracking down all of Chaos' accountants thanks to information from Tori and Isiah, while SHIELD tries to find her and help her off the books. There are several good moments, especially with Isiah who has become my favorite character in this series. My favorite one was hos conversation with Clint, though I feel like Edmondson doesn't really understand Clint's character. Why is Clint defending Maria Hill and SHILED? Clint hates SHIELD, he was loyal to Cap through and through, he lead the New Avengers during Norman Osborne's time as director, and he sure as hell would never play by the rules of politics. That really annoyed me a lot.
Another thing that annoyed me was Chaos. I won't spoil the reveal here, because I don't want to, but it's really, really underwhelming. I hoped it would be an agency that's maybe lead by someone from Natasha's past, maybe isn't centralized, anything other than what we got. And the way she beats Chaos is super lame as well. And, to top it all of, it doesn't even end! That thread is left to the wayside, to pick up, and from what I've read of Natasha's follow up series, it doesn't get picked up.
Was at least Natasha's character arc tied neatly? Maybe? I'm not really sure. On the one hand I liked where she ended up, but on the other, it felt very rushed. The avengers were never really a part of this series, and the relationships that Natasha built were mostly with Isaiah, Bucky and Tori, who don't factor in the ending (well Isaiah sort of does, but not enough).
There is another moment that really annoyed me, which is this vision of the possible future that Nat gets with Matt? Why? I'm not a shipper, I don't really have her in an OTP with anyone, but it contradicts what this very series set up! Both times Nat interacts with Mat here, they are hostile to each-other and Matt tells her to leave! The times Nat interacts with Bucky (which are numerous), he is supportive, loving and caring. He helps her twice blatantly and spends the majority of this volume searching for her. Their relationship has been established since the very run by Greg Ruck when Bucky took over Cap's costume, and every previous solo series for Nat since.
Honestly, I'm not asking for that much, just deliver on what you promised. I would give this an even lower rating, but the last story is good (even if it doesn't belong here) and the first 2 issues are especially still high in quality. But the combination of the unsatisfying conclusion of the Chaos plot and wildly out of character turns by Clint and Nat at the end, really make it impossible for me to say this volume is anything other than average at the very best.