Her New Reality | Kelly Thompson 'Black Widow (2020) Vol. 1 - The Ties That Bind' Review
- Davyn Horton
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Kelly Thompson is the author of a fascinating comic series centered around the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, where all is not as it seems, especially when Natasha herself seems happier than she ever has.
The five-issue first volume, "The Ties That Bind," offers the action packed storytelling that has come to be expected with Black Widow stories, but there's also a layer of emotional weight weaved into it that makes this series one of the best all-around Marvel Comics series that fans can go out and read.
Kelly Thompson does something very unique with "Black Widow (2020) Vol. 1 - The Ties That Bind" that other series centered around Natasha Romanoff haven't done, which is giving Natasha the one thing that she sometimes craves but can never have for herself:
Happiness.
In the end, it was manufactured happiness that her enemies put her in to in an effort to eventually kill and humiliate her, but it was happiness nonetheless, and for a while, Natasha was perfectly content with it and was completely under its spell. It made Bucky Barnes and Clint Barton question if she was even in trouble to begin with. Eventually, however, their original suspicions were proven to be accurate.
Even though this was always going to be the ultimate outcome, the way Thompson presents the happiness for Natasha and eventually it crashing down all around her was exceptionally-crafted. The entire scenario throughout the five-issue first volume was emotional complexity at the highest scale possible intertwined with powerful and relatable individual character moments that makes this series one of the best "Black Widow" comic series the world has ever had.
"Black Widow (2020) Vol. 1 - The Ties That Bind" reinvents the character of Natasha Romanoff and gives her more complexity and relatability than ever before. Thompson takes what fans know and love about Natasha and flips it upside down to create something both familiar and brand-new at the same time, while also being something uniquely special.
Though this is an amazing and tight-knit five-issue story that can stand on its own two feet, there are ten more issues spread amongst the second and third volumes of this series that continue this story, as Natasha is still reeling from all of the sacrifices that she had to make that she has not had the proper time to grieve, especially since the sacrifices made may ultimately be for nothing, though whether or not that happens for sure remains to be seen.
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