White Widow # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

I was browsing through the comic book websites while catching up on the Ninja Turtles comics and decided to see if Marvel or DC had any jumping on points. I saw that White Widow # 1 was out that particular Wednesday so I decided to head over to Third Eye Comics and pick it up. It seems to follow the adventures of Yelena, so let's check it out.

There were lots of variant covers, it was hard to pick one. I chose this one because it was the one I saw online and first caught my eye.

Not long ago, Yelena has a man named Mr. Best tied to a chair, as she prepares to kill him. He begs for his life and offers to pay her off but it doesn't deter the White Widow. Captain America shows up to stop her. Yelena says she doesn't interrupt him in the middle of his work and Cap swings his shield at him and her assistant Marthe. Yelena flips out of the way and Marthe accidentally cracks her hand against a window. Cap tells Yelena that Maxissimo is an intelligence asset for the Avengers and calls her a murderer.

Yelena says she's the greatest assassin in the world and leaps off of Cap's shield to escape out the window. Cap tosses a rope at her, and she says he already won and the guy got to live, so he should let her go. Cap says he's seen what she's capable of and should use her skills for good. Yelena says she's not interested in joining his team. Cap says she doesn't have to be a superhero, but she can become some force for good. Yelena cuts herself free and says the guy's daughter is returning and he should finish up saving the day. 

At current day, Yelena is disappointed another assassin killed Mr. Best anyways, but without her level of finesse. Yelena says the Cap should have known that she wouldn't quit her job and that she wouldn't fit in the heroes. She says she could get sentimental about how her childhood, her mind and even her family were taken from her. She says her existence has always been defined by other people and now she wants to finally discover who she is. She's living in a new apartment and wants to be a good neighbor towards the other tenants.

She lives her life and goes over her likes and dislikes while she acts as a mentor for other assassins. She is currently on the phone with another protégé named Jessica as she's killing someone. Jessica is currently missing an arm, and it seems to be have been because of this man she killed. As she tosses the guy into the incinerator, Yelena asks about her options. Jessica says she was contacted by a recruiter from an American company. She doesn't the name, but they provided her with a metal arm she can attach without even waiting for her limb to heal.

Jessica uses her new arm to slice and dice through the building's security. She now remembers the name of the company and tells Yelena that it's called Armament. 

Yelena goes on to narrate how boring her life is in the town of Idlyhaven, but she appreciates the stability. She notices that her coffee shop 'Beans N Jeans' was replaced by Armament Coffee Shop. She goes to tell her neighbor Zelda about it. Zelda tells her that Armament has been slowly buying out small businesses downtown and her place is the only holdout. She is about to tell Yelena how she bought the place due to money from a class action lawsuit when suddenly a masked assassin smashes through the window, trying to attack Zelda.

Yelena leaps into action. The masked assassin asks for Zelda and tells her that no one else needs to die. Yelena studies her stance and determines she's a common assassin, but wonders why she's after her neighbor. The assassin whips Yelena, who tells her she should learn how to use her weapon better. Zelda swings a bat that has a sock wrapped around it and the assassin catches it in her hand. The sock slips off, giving Zelda a chance to pull back and swing her bat again a second time, smashing her hip. However the assassin has a metal hip, so no damage was done. As the talks, Yelena recognizes her voice but doesn't know why.

As Yelena fights the assassin, she is able to use her agility to her advantage. She then recognizes the person and smashes her mask off. It was her protégé Mathe that vanished after their run in with Captain America. At this point she even has a cybernetic eye. Mathe says she broke her hip in two places when Cap threw her into a wall, and Yelena never visited her. Yelena apologizes, but Mathe says someone else took care of her. She angrily says 'see you never' and leaves, having accomplished her mission.

Zelda tells Yelena that they're still alive and she really didn't damage anything that insurance won't cover. She find some cybernetics that fell off of Mathe's robo-eye. Yelena picks it up to check it out. 

Later on, Yelena and Zelda walk back home after filing the insurance claim. Yelena is confused what Mathe, or rather her employer wanted, since she didn't steal anything and didn't even kill Zelda. She goes to her apartment to grab a drink so she can join her neighbor. She feeds her dog and checks her computer as she reads an email from Jessica enjoying her job at Armament. Yelena wonders what this company is up to. 

Yelena asks Zelda about Armament. Zelda tells her how they bought out small businesses, including Dita's Drugs. They told Dita she'd run the business and it was just a change in ownership, they eventually ran her out with money and lawyers. Yelena says it sounds like they really wants Zelda's business, Sharpsweets, when Zelda realizes that they're trying to scare her off.

Yelena tells Zelda that she moved to Idylhaven to get away from New York and the Avengers but still be close enough to keep an eye on things. She grew bored, but now that there's a giant corporation sending assassins with robot parts after them, she loves this town. As they sit out on their front porch, several drones fly around, keeping an eye on both of them. A mysterious person is watching them in a room full of cameras and says that Idlyhaven is ready for phase two.

My Thoughts-

I'm not completely up to date on Yelena's story in the comics, but this story seems to be about her living life on her own terms, and trying to adjust to a semi-normal life. While she's not exactly on the straight and narrow since she does mentor other assassins, she's no longer on the field and adjusting to a more regular life in Idylehaven. Also... heh... to the name of the small town. Idle Haven. 

Again, I'm not 100% up on Yelena, nor am I with the status of the Black Widow, since I know she died during Secret Empire and is currently a clone. We see a few glimpses of Yelena being experimented on as a baby, her Red Room training and her holding her fallen sister in her arms. We also see several chalkboards as she lists the things she likes, hates and feels neutral towards, and there is a funny caption of how much she hates the Infinity Gauntlet, which reminds me of the MCU and how Natasha died as a result of the Soul Stone. Different continuities, I know, but I found it funny.

As for the story itself, as previously mentioned, Yelena now mentors and leads assassins rather than getting her hands dirty. There is an evil organization named Armament that is not only buying out businesses all over town, but also arming assassins with metal parts. They sent Mathe after Yelena, it's only a matter of time before they send Jessica after them too. Jessica seems on friendlier terms with Yelena, but money talks, and Armament might give her a fat check to send her after her mentor.

At this point I can't even begin to imagine what the evil plan is, so I am curious as to where the story will go.

The art is passable, though I wish some of the action scenes were a bit better. I had to re-read the page where Zelda swung a sock-covered bat at Mathe, then used the sock to slip from her grasp to get in a second swing. 

Possibly the worst offender is this panel, which took me forever to figure out what the hell is going on. It's clear Mathe broke through the window... but it's not clear how. There doesn't seem to an object like a brick or something thrown towards it, and it looks more like Mathe is jumping OUT of the window than jumping through it and into the store. The most I can guess based on her pose is maybe she did a spinning kick towards the window??? Maybe she did a Hip Attack through the window???

On a similar case, it was also hard to tell what happened to Mathe during the earlier fight with Captain America. There's a close up of her hand, so it looks like it cracked against the window of the building, but then she comes back and says she broke her hip while being thrown against the wall??? It makes no sense. Also I was confused at first between Mathe and Jessica, since they were drawn very similar in the first half of the comic. Jessica was missing an arm, and it didn't help that we didn't see enough of Mathe in the first few pages to clearly see both of her arms.

Anyways, the comic is off to an interesting start. I'm curious about the master plan, and if we will see Jessica go against Yelena. We already saw a glimpse of how deadly Jessica is, so that's bound to be a good fight. Hopefully it'll be easy to tell what's going on whenever those two clash.