Black Widow (2016 series) #2

One week earlier (than the chase from issue #1), at the rainy funeral of a female SHIELD Agent, Director Maria Hill speaks to Agent Elder, the late Agent’s mentor, offering her condolences. But Elder says that his protégé should have been leading the recent mission and not Black Widow, Hill’s preferred agent who always goes rogue in the field. And while Elder is denouncing Natasha we see that she is on a nearby height, aiming a sniper rifle at Hill and Elder. Natasha also spies several interlopers at this private cemetery established by Nick Fury to keep dead agents safe from the enemy. While Hill and Elder continue to talk about Natasha, she quietly creeps around the cemetery, taking down assassins aiming rifles at the SHIELD leaders. Hill promises Elder that if the Black Widow wanders “off the reservation,” Elder can deal with her as he sees fit. Meanwhile, Natasha continues to take down killers until she forces the last one to the ground, demanding to know how they found the secret cemetery; the hood replies that there are no secrets from Platch Liev, the Weeping Lion—and that he is not the last of the crew. The clergyman presiding over the funeral is carrying enough explosives to destroy the entire cemetery. Natasha then asks why he doesn’t detonate it and kill Maria Hill? The answer: Because Hill isn’t the target, Natasha is. And more enemy agents move in and take her prisoner….

Natasha, bound to a chair in an unknown place, is told she is in the Lion’s Den of Platch Liev, the Weeping Lion. The interrogator asks how foolish she feels, walking into such an obvious trap? Her response is to bash him in the head, then slip her handcuffs to thrash the other hoods, leaving five enemies in a bloody mess. Platch Liev enters and admires her skill while feeding a caged lioness. The baddie shows her a set of paper files. Nat looks through them and is surprised: these records of her activities should not exist, she made sure. He tells her he has a job for her: steal a certain key from SHIELD HQ and he will keep those files secret. If she betrays or double-crosses him in any way, he will reveal her darkest secret. She agrees to his deal….