Daredevil Message Board

[Darkdevil]

Yesterday saw the release of Black Widow #1 by the team of Waid and Samnee (along with former DD teammates Matt Wilson and Joe Caramagna).

I like that Samnee is now listed as co-writer along with Waid. As they explain in the letters page at the issue's end, this will be beneficial to Samnee as he has more input towards the arrangement of action and scenes which they can utilize towards his strengths as an artist.

For a first issue, this was a great tone setter. The plot is simple: Natasha steals *something* from SHIELD. Maria Hill wants that item back at all costs so she declares Natasha a fugitive. The whole issue is one long escape chase as Natasha attempts to flee from pursuing SHIELD agents. In fact, she only has two words of dialogue in the whole issue but those two words succinctly sum up her hopes in this venture.

Samnee though, delivers throughout on these chase scenes. Motorcycle chases, flying cars, jet packs, explosions, hand-to-hand fighting, his layouts for these action scenes are great. As are his depictions for the toll all of this takes on her (the scene where she gets up from the muck of a highway explosion is one of my favorites).

So we don't know what she stole nor why but after all this excitement just to escape with it, I'm highly curious to see what it is and whether it was worth it too.

While some may not favor this creative duo, I checked this title out solely because of them. They're off to a very good start.

[Dimetre]

I picked this up and read it yesterday. It's a great first issue!

[Mike Murdock]

I won't check it out now, but I'll read it on Marvel Unlimited.

FWIW, Samnee had co-writer credit towards the end of Daredevil (he probably deserved it earlier too).
_________________
Matt Murdock's cooler twin brother

Not sure what to read next? Check out the Book Club for some ideas!

I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Thomas More - A Man for All Seasons

[Dayle88]

It seems in this case that Samnee is the plotter and Waid is just doing dialogue. If that's the case then all the better but the first issue was pretty great regardless.

[admiralpetty]

I read it yesterday and I thought it was excellent, one of the best introductory issues to a story arc that I've seen in a while. Based on the past work of this creative team I'm willing to bet that the story will be excellent as well.

[Darkdevil]

With #2, we begin to learn the reasons behind Natasha's actions in stealing *something* from SHIELD.

Again, we can see more of Samnee's influence in the writing here with a wonderful hide-and-seek scene with Natasha and enemy agents who were supposedly sent to assassinate Maria Hill at a funeral for a SHIELD agent at a classified cemetery. We also learn of some underlying anger that some SHIELD agents hold against Natasha, how her high-ranking status allows her the freedom to go off the range more often and how the spy organization is willing to overlook the consequences (sometimes deadly) of those escapades.

In the end, we see how Natasha is blackmailed into stealing *something* from SHIELD. It's an interesting set-up, Waid provides some good insight into Natasha's role and action and Samnee delivers some very strong action scenes.

Another solid fun issue. 4 stars.

[Dimetre]

In my opinion, Black Widow and Red Wolf are the two best books Marvel is putting out right now.

[ManWithoutBeer]

So far, so good on this book for me. I was always torn over some of the more ham-fisted plot turns under Waid, because I have always liked Samnee's art a lot. This Black Widow title, so far, has everything I liked about this team's work on DD, without any of the big negatives that run had.

As a sidebar- not to turn this thread into another referendum on Waid that has been had elsewhere- I'll go on record (knowing what many opinions have been re: Waid's DD run) saying that I did like some of Waid, but there were also a LOT of head-scratchers and palm to forehead issues. I didn't out and out hate the run, but it's far from great and the critical love it gets is pretty puzzling to me.