A former Soviet agent known as the Black Rose, a hulking
scarred giant who works in a cemetery, is summoned to a meeting in a city alley
by the Black Widow. After an introductory skirmish, she shows him a black rose
with a black ribbon that was passed to her. Since it matches his code name, she
asks if he knows anything about it; he doesn’t. She walks the street, talking
to James “Bucky” Barnes on the phone; she encounters an old lady with a sword
in her cane who attacks her. She overpowers the lady and questions her but it
is cut short by a tranquilizer dark hitting her in the neck. As Natasha lies
there, an unseen man directs the old lady in cutting open Natasha’s stomach and
removing an object. When the man has it, he slices off the old lady’s head and
departs….
Nat is rushed to surgery. James arrives, in shock; Tony Stark
and Wolverine have to restrain him. They piece together what they know
and arrive at nothing. Nat is fully aware of what is being done to her, due to
a mix of the tranquilizer drug and the anesthesia. She tries to endure it….
The previous evening, she was at a posh restaurant with Bucky.
She excused herself and followed a big-shot lawyer into the men’s restroom
where she revealed that she knew the man’s wife and was aware that he beat her.
Nat told him to divorce her and give her a generous settlement or Nat would
come after him again. Leaving the restroom, she discovered the black rose left
for her then rejoined Bucky, who was aware of what she was doing….
Wolverine visits the scene of the attack on Nat where he
finds the black rose she dropped. He tracks the bad guy to a park where he is
waiting for Logan. The baddie warns Logan that killing him will do nothing to
stop what is going to happen, then asks him to return the rose and the ribbon
to Natasha….
“Black Widow Saga”
Writer: John Rhett Thomas. Art: Various.
Letters: Typeset.
Synopsis: Text article on the history of the Black Widow.