2. Black Widow #2 by Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto (Marvel)
I know, technically this came out last week but as sometimes happens to those of us who live in the U of K, we lose a week with printing problems and so on, so I'm reading this one a week late. Natasha Romanov aka Black Widow is atoning for her dark past in her spare time when she's not doing Avengers work. In this issue she's in Shanghai working for a criminal organisation to take on a more evil criminal syndicate! If you like James Bond and those kinds of stories, you'll love Black Widow's solo series (and probably Brubaker/Epting's Velvet over at Image too). There's a lot of great non-superhero action like a gunfight in a market, night-time ops involving scuba-murder, and a battle between guns and swords. It's a very appropriate approach to Widow, who doesn't have superpowers and plays to the character's strengths. Initially I dismissed the new character of Widow's agent, who sets up these missions for her, in the first issue, thinking he'd be a Foggy Nelson-esque character minus the bumbling, sat behind a desk doing paperwork but Edmondson surprised me with what he did with him here, giving him more of an edge than you'd expect. Plus Liho the cat continues to be a nice addition. By far the most impressive thing about this comic is Phil Noto's art. This comic is just amazing to look at from the action sequences to Widow's facial expression, the settings and the espionage scenes. Noto does everything here, pencils, ink and colours and his vision of this series is so uniquely his own and perfect. There's a panel where Widow's staring down the barrel of a gun while flashing back to a memory in her past that's so simple but so effective. It's a wide-shot close up of her eyes where the use of black ink to define her eyes/eyebrows is astounding - not a single line is wasted - while the other side of her face is fading into the colour of her memory and crosshairs are appearing over her pupil. The panel's not telegraphed as a big moment like a splash page but it really stood out as something special - Noto's simply on top form here and the comic is just stunning as a result. I'm really enjoying this series - female espionage agents are really in right now aren't they? - and can't wait to see more from this creative team. Meanwhile, if you haven't picked up this series yet, definitely give it a shot.