The Good
One of the things that Marvel’s done very well with Secret Wars is, for the most part, keeping the same creators on the books’ finales as they lead into the big title. It’s a move that ensures some continuity, and not in the traditional comics sense, but in the sense that tone is maintained throughout the issues and into the end. This is especially important with a book like this where not only has the creative team been the same, but it’s been by and large the same TWO. Nathan Edmonson opens the issue with an evacuation of Earth in light of the OTHER Earth about to come crashing down, but that’s not what this issue is about. It’s about Black Widow running an operation in Cuba to extract a family of dissidents alongside her already-embedded classmate. When she arrives, things seem to be as they should be, but a few subtle hints and clues begin to crop up to throw the proverbial spanner into the works. Edmonson’s writing of Black Widow and the various characters that surround her is practically second nature at this point, allowing him to set up an extraordinarily taut and tense tale in just a single issue. There’s very little explanation needed as the characters seem organic and little exposition is required of them, except for things that Nat wouldn’t already know, which is the best kind.
Phil Noto gets to stretch his creativity in this issue, showing us the grandeur and beauty, though rarely forgetting the poverty, of Cuba. This is especially pronounced considering the flashback begins in the gray, utilitarian Russian Red Room headquarters. He also does a fantastic job with the new characters, making them mostly distinct and giving them their own flavor in spite of the fact that it isn’t likely they’ll be seen much outside this conclusion.
The Bad
Like MS. MARVEL before it, this issue suffers from the fact that it feels like it was where the tile was going before Secret Wars came into the picture. And while the above point about integrating these stories into the event remains valid, as it is still the same creative team, it makes the framing device feel unnecessary and unimportant. The pages wind up feeling almost wasted.
The qualifier “mostly” was used to describe the distinction of the new characters, and while the women have looks all their own, the Cuban man winds up looking very similar to a lot of other middle-aged men from this comic’s run.
The Verdict
This isn’t the end, but it’s certainly the lead-in to it. Natasha appears that she’ll go out not with a bang but with a whimper as this is a very staid, subdued issue. And while its cliffhanger leaves an obvious route for some big action to find its way in later, it’s to the creative team’s credit that they’re STILL able to craft such an amazingly compelling single issue that has no action outside of the mental workings of espionage and moving various pieces across the chessboard. It’s also interesting to see a more brash, bold Black Widow make moves that the older, more experienced one would likely scoff at. This is a fantastic character study for one of the greats, and a worthy beginning of the end.