Fear Itself: Black Widow #1: Review

Jun 2011
Cullen Bunn, Peter Nguyen

Story Name:

(No title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Fear Itself: Black Widow #1 Review by (September 14, 2020)

Review: FEAR ITSELF tie-in tells a tangential tale of a gang of crooks taking advantage of the worldwide Fear to pull off a caper of their own, allowing Black Widow to walk into a James Bond type situation, which is what she is best at. The opening murder of Nat is a shocker, even though we know it can’t be happening and Peregrine gets a bit of face time in a comic book. Decent little side adventure benefits from not being dragged out to multiple issues. And we won’t ask why a government ops room is in a church basement like a potluck dinner.

Comments: Tie-in to FEAR ITSELF, taking place between issues #5 and 6 of the main series. Le Peregrine, introduced in CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS #1, has been around a long time but mainly on the fringes of the MU. Rapido first appeared in PUNISHER (1987 series) #65, and has mainly been an enemy of Frank Castle, later joining Batroc’s Brigade in CAPTAIN AMERICA AND IRON MAN #633-635.  






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Fear Itself: Black Widow #1 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Marseilles: Black Widow is held captive aboard a ship in port. The head of the terrorist organization she has long been a thorn in the side to arrives to gloat. She does not utter a word. At the boss’ command his flunky shoots her in the head….

Six hours earlier: Black Widow is flown to the top of a Marseilles church by Le Peregrine. She enters quietly, taking out some guards before she can see into the nave where terrorists are holding many refugees hostage. They are taking advantage of the chaos caused in Paris by Gray Gargoyle to seize control of the hidden Ministry of Defense ops room in the church’s basement. Natasha releases gas so she can battle the terrorists downstairs and Peregrine is upstairs rescuing the hostages. Downstairs, Rapido, a baddie with a chain gun for a right arm opens fire on Nat but she easily overpowers him. Questioning the prisoners, Nat learns they were after France’s nuclear launch codes and they were transmitted to a ship in the harbor. She invades the ship but is caught and taken captive….

Now: The terrorists plan to call down a nuclear strike on London just to show they mean business…and then the dead Black Widow speaks up. She reveals she is a Life Model Decoy appropriated from SHIELD. And now that Nat knows the terrorist leaders are all together, she says goodbye and then detonates the explosives, destroying the ship. But Nat feels it was a hollow victory….



Peter Nguyen
Peter Nguyen
Veronica Gandini
Michael Ryan (Cover Penciler)
? (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Clayton Cowles.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Black Widow
Black Widow

(Natasha Romanoff)

Plus: Le Peregrine, Rapido.

> Fear Itself: Black Widow: Book info and issue index

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