Comicbook Comment: Black Widow - Deadly Origin #3

Art and Colors by: Tom Raney, Scott Hanna, Matt Milla, John Paul Leon

Letterer: VC's Cory Petit

Cover by: Adi Granov

Editor: Bill Rosemann

Assistant Editor: Rachel Pinnelas

The set up: Natalia Romanova a.k.a. The Black Widow has discovered the body of her long time partner and colleague, Ivan. He's missing his head. Before he was killed, Ivan warned Natalia of "The Icepick Protocol".

Natalia investigates his murder and discovers that years earlier, she was injected with nanites. Unknown to her, over time she has spread these nanites to people close to her. These nanites can be activated at any time to cause their host to succumb to uncontrollable rage.

This issue: Natalia races in to save Cllint Barton - a former lover - from his current wife, Bobbi, who has been infected by the nanites. Bobbi's overcome with rage and tries to kill Clint.

Natalia stops her (in a very sexy way) and, knowing how to terminate the nanites, cures Bobbi of her rage. Black Widow explains the Clint what's happening, and then it's on to the next person from her past she must save from the nanites. This chase from one person to the next fills the out the installment until a discovery at the end of the issue.

The comments: It raises a brow to see just how many people the Black Widow has slept with. In this issue alone, I'm counting four, and that's because I'm not sure about Nick Fury or Tony Stark. The Widow certainly gets around.

The nanites - why are they only pestering her ex-lovers? What about teammates from the past? Or villains she's faced? Or the cashier at 7-11 Natalia just happen to brush hands with when grabbing her change? The situation seems less chaotic than it's premise demands.

There is also something the Black Widow discovers at the end that I hope is further explained in the next issue. If said object was that large, surely earth's scientists (not to mention Reed Richards) would have seen it by now. There is also a twist after that and I'm not sure it works with the character it involves, but I'm willing to see where it goes.

The art is very eye-catching. John Paul Leon takes over art and colors for the short flashback scenes throughout the book, and it works particularly well.

The story, however, feels like a hit and run tour of Natalia's past, and I've long-sinced tired of nanites. Natalia's had such a long history, it sort of bugs me that she never knew about any of this injection business. But I'm interested to see how the ending is resolved- and what it means for a character with a long Marvel history. Now, would that be Natalia or someone else?