White Widow # 3

 By Mark Rodriguez

Yelena Belova moved to the small town of Idylhaven to get away from her life as a spy. However the town is under attack by a company called Armament that seems to be buying out properties and also hiring people in the area. The problem is, the people that refuse to sell are forced to do so with intimidation and actually sending out assassins after the owners. After Black Mamba and Diamondback were sent after Yelena to retrieve a cybernetic eye she found during an earlier altercation, Yelena decided she's had enough. She reveals to her friends and neighbors that she is the White Widow and she will go after Armament directly.

Not long ago, the White Widow is dealing with She-Hulk, who is angry that she was sent to kill her. Yelena says she was sent to assassinate her, which sounds more impressive and only happens to important people. Jen's assistant Marguerite steps in to see her lifting up a bookcase with Yelena on top of it. Jen tells her that Yelena is trying to assassinate her and Marguerite says that sounds fancy. Yelena pulls a knife but She-Hulk folds the bookcase in half, crushing the White Widow in process and letting her drop to the floor. She-Hulk tells her to stay down and Yelena says not until she admits that assassination sounds cool. She-Hulk agrees but says she still won't let her kill her. 

Yelena says She-Hulk wasn't her target, she only picked a fight for fun. Her target is Proximo Best, the CFO of 'Best of the Best'. Marguerite says she's working on his case and she will allow him to escape accountability for wage theft. She-Hulk says Yelena does not want to get on Marguerite's bad side. 

She-Hulk explains that she's Marguerite's mentor, though her cases are her won. She is part of the civilian mentor program that the Avengers set up. Yelena says mentorship is all the heroes seem to be talking about lately, and some of She-Hulk's friends seem to think she'd be good at it. Marguerite says it's a better use of her time than trying to assassinate Proximo Best. Yelena says she still intends to do that as she slips from She-Hulk's grasp. 

Now in current day, Yelena is trying to sneak inside the Armament building. She ponders on the recent events, assassins targeting her neighbor's candy store, assassins targeting her condo, and getting evicted for fighting off those assassins. She says she loves learning new things, but sometimes she has to stick to what she knows, and sometimes... someone needs to die. 

As Yelena sneaks inside a neighbor is communicating with her from his home as he helps with the floor plan. He tells her to go to the tenth floor records room. If she can find the files, she can erase any record of them ever being evicted. Yelena says she's done, which surprises her neighbor as she did it so quickly. Yelena says she's efficient as we see that she set the room with the archives on fire. Now she wants to know where the CEO's office is. She says destroying records is never enough, she has to destroy the person that decided to keep those records to begin with.

The neighbor asks if Yelena tried out the special items he made for her yet. Yelena asks why he doesn't call them 'Robot Knives'. He says his mother wouldn't like knowing that he's making knives. These particular knives can tase you as you they stab you and can also release a deadly toxin. The tase is the bite, and the toxin is the sting. Yelena decides to call them Widow's Fangs. She asks if his mother will freak out over the word 'knife', how she will feel about 'deadly toxin'. He says he hopes they never find out.

The neighbor tells Yelena that Hamish's office is the top floor, and it's the whole floor. Yelena finds a man watching a bunch of screens as he recites that Armament Industries values their employees like family. As a Human Resources Officer Level IV, he'll act as the mom, dad and carceral enforcement of their corporate family.

Yelena sneaks up behind Hamish and stabs him in the back in the head, just as he's discussing the dental plan. Yelena sees that Hamish is just a robot. She figured it would be too easy. She needs to find out who really is running Armament.

Yelena walks through downtown on her way home where she runs into a neighbor named Rowan that is buying his meds, something his Armament Insurance just approved. He then asks if 'they' are with her, and Yelena turns to see three men dressed in Armament security outfits and several weapons. One of them asks if he is Rowan McAbney. Yelena senses something amiss and tells Rowan to get behind her. Rowan says it should be fine since they're his co-workers and they probably need to check his credentials.

Yelena gets Rowan out of the way as one of the guards lashes out a burning whip that causes a fiery explosion. Rowan is confused and thinks this is all a big misunderstanding. Yelena asks if his boss normally tries to have him killed. Rowan asks why they would kill him if Armament is family. Yelena says he'd be surprised what family can do to each other sometimes.

Yelena starts fighting with the men, dodging their weapons. She tosses the Hamish robot head towards one of the men. Another has a staff that fires missiles and bounce everywhere. Yelena manages to make the missile hit him in the face, strong enough to send him crashing through a store window (or at least I think so).

Another one of the security guards leaps into the air with some sort of augmented fist gauntlet. Yelena jumps out of the way just as the man sends a huge shockwave from his fist, and even she admits it's cool. The larger man says the fight is taking longer than expected and they should call HR. 

Two of the men get their weapons tangled together and are worried about paying for them if they break them. Yelena tells one of them it's the least of the problems as she stabs him in the arm with the Widow's Fang taser. Yelena says that one was the sting, and she asks which one of them wants to feel the bite. One of the guys says he's clocking out and tells 'Baxta' good luck as he leaves. Yelena stops and calls out to Baxta and the woman removes her mask. 

Yelena hugs her and says the last time they saw each other, Wolverine and herself blew her up. Baxta explains this is her new job. Baxta explains that after the incident Armament offered to give her a new leg. Rowan says the leg is cool and all, but asks why they were sent to kill him. Baxta says he was randomly selected as part of a training run for her and the other two men. Baxta asks if her co-worker will be alright, and Yelena says she's not sure since this is the first time she used the bite.          

As the other security guard starts regaining consciousness, Yelena says they can't use Idylhaven as a training ground since people live there. Baxta says Hamish owns the city now so nobody can stop him. The other guard, still kinda out of it, mumbles that Hamish isn't the real owner. Yelena grabs her and demands a name. Baxta says they're not allowed to. 

Baxta's cybernetic leg starts sparking up and it calls out for an 'NDA violation'. Baxta says she didn't even say Renata's name. The leg says it will self destruct. Baxta tries to detach the leg but the release mechanism isn't working. Yelena tells Rowan to get down as Baxta's leg explodes taking her and her co-worker with it.

Rowan starts freaking out, blaming himself and saying maybe he should have let them take him out. Yelena says they have to leave since it's not safe. She blames Reneta, the real leader of Armament, and she wonders where she heard that name before. Rowan points to a billboard showing Reneta Best, who was Maxissimo Best's daughter. Yelena says she should have killed her when she had the chance. Now she has a face to go with the job. Rowan asks what job she is referring to.

Yelena says Reneta attacked her neighbors, as well as Sharpsweets and she destroyed Beans N Jeans. She also killed two promising assassins for no good reason. She says the job is revenge.

My Thoughts-

Things are heating up as we get set for the final showdown. Sadly this seems to be a four-issue mini-series which will conclude with the next issue. I would have actually have liked to this to continue as an on-going series since I enjoyed the premise and Yelena's supporting cast. Yelena is currently a member of the Blood Hunters, so her adventures continue there, and I do intend to review those issues as well.

I like how the flashbacks to previous missions affect the current story. Last issue seems random, but the same assassin that tried to kill Wolverine in the last flashback was Baxta, who we saw in this issue. Also this issue's flashback shows that Yelena isn't quite done with the Best family. 

One thing I like to say is I'm glad I'm reading this comic now as an adult then back in the day when I was kid. Since I have a long-running job, I understand all the discussions about health insurance coverage and dental plans and whatnot. If I was reading this comic back when I was a kid in the early 90's, I wouldn't have known what all these Armament employees are talking about. These comics really do grow up alongside you.

The only nitpick I have for this issue is the fight scene where things weren't clear. I mean one panel shows this missile-like projectile about to clock Yelena in the face. The next panel shows the object (or some sort of blurred object) flying right back into the guard's face. The object is blurred so we can't tell if it's the missile or not, and if it was, I would have liked an in-between panel showing exactly how Yelena deflected it with such force as send the guy crashing through a window.

We finally get some insight on what's going on. Reneta is using Idylhaven as a training ground for her assassins, which is why she is either buying up everything or trying to run people out of town. We might find some more insight as to why. I also wonder why she targets her own employees instead of civilians, but maybe the selections are so random it could be literally anyone in the town, even fellow co-workers.

We'll find out how this all goes down next issue with the epic conclusion. I just hope we can follow the fight scenes this time.