 Hi everyone, welcome back to the channel and today we're going to be talking about Edmundson's run on Black Widow. Let's do this. My name is Giovanna Menendez, welcome to A Week in Geekdom. Today we're going to be talking about Nathan Edmundson's Marvel Now run of Black Widow. This was 20 issues, right? Yeah, 20 issues across three skinny Marvel trades and this was a ton of fun. I don't know if told you guys on this channel, but if I had to pick a favorite Avenger, it would have to be a tie between Hawkeye and Black Widow. There's something about them being the underdogs compared to characters like Hulk, Thor, Captain America, all that stuff. There's something about how low level street hero they go about their way that appeals to me, you know? I like that. Especially Black Widow, she has a very complicated past. Not only is she an Avenger, she worked for SHIELD, ex KGB assassin. She's had a very complex, interesting life in the Marvel Universe and Edmundson does a really cool job of bringing you into her mindset, but in a fresh reader friendly kind of way. You can pick this up at any point in time, read it and enjoy it. You don't need to know anything about previous runs, you don't have to go back and read material from the 70s and 80s, none of that stuff. You can go in cold and still enjoy a quality story about a fantastic multi-layered character that is very much suffering from her past and is in this book trying to seek atonement for those sins, taking deadly missions, going after criminals and scumbags of the earth and all that stuff. But she needs money for that. And one of the gags that I really enjoyed was her attorney basically telling her, you know, we still need money. I know you want to give that cash away, but we still need money to fund the operation. So I thought that was pretty cool. It sort of gave you an insider's perspective on the stuff that normally doesn't get written in a superhero comic. So when we get stuff like this, I really enjoyed it. This is one of my favorite aspects of these characters that they're not, you know, it's not like a grander than life adventure. It's more grounded on earth. And Black Widow represents that. She is sort of an enigma because like I mentioned, she has a very multi-layered past. You don't really know her. She's always putting on an act towards others. She's a loner by nature and she's gone through so much, which, you know, has shaped the way she's gone about business from being an assassin to be a world-class hero with the Avengers, all that stuff. So I find that if you can dissect what makes her tick, what her insecurities are, and her thoughts on, you know, how she did all those things and is trying in her own way to tone for all of that, I think you're gonna strike a home run. And what better way than to get the fabulous, fantastic Phil Nauto, one of my favorite comic book artists of all time. I love his artwork so much. And I'm sorry, to me, like, where is that? Here, I could show this without spoiling anything. Here in the back cover, one of my favorite pictures, drawings of Natasha Romanov. What I appreciate about this run with Phil is that he is able to express so much through different scenarios in the story, whether it's an action-packed scene that is very, you know, a lot of pastel colors or very watercolory and it's very, it almost seems like you're lucid dreaming of sorts. And then when you go into flashback scenes, the artist much more refined and defined on her character expressions and all that stuff. So depending on where the story takes place, it looks gorgeous, even if it's on the Tantra, on Cuba, New York, wherever it may be, there's always that special color palette, that special treatment to that area, which makes the scenery, which makes the moment and issue a lot more compelling and that is because of the art team. So when the story first begins, like I said earlier, she's seeking atonement and eventually these bad guys start showing up called, at first, they're mentioning like the hammer of God and eventually you learn of in our organization, a secret organization called Chaos and they're behind sort of like your world government conspiracies and influencing major players behind the scenes. And as the name implies, you're sort of creating this chaotic nature that is sort of like this unseen force. And how do you do that? How do you go against this conspiracy that by all means does not exist? Shield doesn't have a record on it. They don't know what's going on. The governments just see Black Widow doing all these crazy things and they're even questioning like, is she like the Avenger that we know or is she a bad character? Those exploits get explored in this book. The one thing I really liked about having a villain like this, that it's more like a conspiracy theory or a political thriller, if you will, is that it gives a character like Natasha, who is a spy by nature to do her best and, you know, infiltrate and do covert missions, a lot of cameos from different superheroes that get involved in the Black Widow's journey to defeat chaos or find the people behind it. She's going to cross paths with characters like the Winter Soldier, X-23, Punisher, etc. etc. And the book itself really innate in its nature, it feels very self-contained but at the same time, it sort of retains that slice of life aspect. Even though it's a dangerous political thriller, it starts from a small case but each time you're going through a different case, a different scenario, there's just this lingering villain or mastermind behind it. But it always has that flavor of peeking into this character's life. One of the aspects that I liked about chaos is that the villains per se is that they're not really there, you know, it's a conspiracy. You have to read on to find out why, I'm saying that, but the idea of a mysterious force influencing things has a lot to do with the character of Natasha herself from growing up with the whole red room thing and being controlled to do things and being persuaded to act a certain way. Later on with a mask that she puts on to appease her coworkers, whether it be Avengers or Shield members or whatever, because she is experiencing this loneliness and this solitary lifestyle of being a spy and working on dangerous missions, you always have to keep your poker face on. So the character, even though she appreciates and values her friends and all of these new connections that she has, she still feels the sort of emptiness inside. And I thought Edmundson really did a good job of exploring these themes in a nice, fresh and reader friendly way that anybody who is interested in the character of Black Widow can pick up and enjoy. Certainly the book is stutter looking. I just love and adore the way he draws Natasha. She's very stern, serious, deadly, but at the same time sad, compassionate, and beautiful. It's just a work of art this book in my honest opinion. I really enjoyed it, plus the shifting of the art, whether it be in a sunny day, a night scene, or in the fall, or in the past. Every scene has a distinct look, even though it's by Nodo. I liked it very much. I think you'll have a fun time. It's only 20 issues, three trades. It shouldn't take you long to read all of it and enjoy a fantastic look at one of Marvel's coolest underrated characters. Like I know, she's famous. I get it. She's been in movies. She's been in video games. A lot of people love the character I do too, but you gotta admit, compared to other superheroes, Black Widow's not at the top of the list for some people. It is for me. I love that character so much. And I am very happy that Edmundson wrote these 20 issues and explored a different aspect of the character, sort of this melancholic view of somebody asking for forgiveness by doing the very things that led her down that path, you know, repeating those same actions, but for a different outcome. Because at the end of the day, it's still violent and it's still covert assassination stuff, but in a very different perspective and had a state of being compared to her origin story where she was trained as an assassin. So I thought that was really cool. I'd love this run so much. I hope it one day it gets an oversized hardcover. I would love to get that in oversized format. Guys, what do you think of Edmundson's Marvel Now Black Widow run? Let me know in the comments section below. Let me know what's your favorite Black Widow storyline. I kind of do want to get the Wade and Sabney run because I haven't read that. And I really want to. As always, guys, thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing to A Week in Geekdom. You are the absolute best. I thank you so much. As always, you can follow me on your favorite social media platform, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. I've got to go. I will catch all of you on our next video.