Like A Good Neighbor: Reviewing ‘White Widow’ #2

One would think a suburb move might bring a former assassin some peace and quiet. Not in the Marvel Universe. No matter where those attached to the more fantastical parts of the universe go, trouble is bound to follow.

Just ask Yelena Belova, as White Widow #2 throws the assassin-turned-consultant-and-teacher into more trouble. It is an emotionally fun romp courtesy of Sarah Gailey, Alessandro Miracolo, Matt Milla, and Travis Lanham.

Many things bump a comic to a whole other level, making it flow and stick with a reader. One of those things is finding the right creative team who can weave in the perfect visual language to pair with the written material. Sometimes, no matter how skilled individuals are at their crafts, conflicting styles can mean the right tone isn’t fully achieved.

White Widow is not one of those cases.

There is a freeness within this series right alongside an emotional core, seriousness, and vulnerability. We’re witness to Yelena’s attempts to build her own life, to find her place in a world outside of the Red Room and Black Widow’s shadow. Visually, Miracolo, Milla, and Lanham are hitting that proverbial nail oh so right on the head.

Right off the bat, the choices for panels and framing help set things apart. Panels of certain shapes and sizes and smart uses of negative space allow characters to exist without being contained on the page. It all helps the already kinetic art flow even better through the pages. A sharp roughness mixed with a bit of whimsical exaggeration brings a lot of that serious and fun mashup. It has depth, detail, and weight yet isn’t held down by a need to create full realism.

Where there is action in this issue, it’s frantic and energetic. Characters move at angles as the panels shift and zoom in and out. I love this sort of thing because it allows a fight to feel more like an actual fight, where often things move in odd ways, and blows come in rapid fire. Not all fights are very contained and organized things. A bunch of assassins coming at one another, yeah that’s got some chaos written all over it, and Miracolo brings the chaos.

What brings some of the grounding is the color palette choices Milla makes. A toned-down quality to many of the colors, to help spread the target tone vibes but also makes the spaces feel firmer. It’s a heavier hand with colors in some spaces, which is just right for the story feeling. Don’t worry, there are also plenty of lighter and even far more vibrant colors that pop up because of the daytime scenes and the more superhero-adjacent space this story resides within.

Comics, where the characters emote a ton, have lots of developing moments and the action might be slimmer but still tight and fluid. I eat those up and ask for seconds, even thirds. Believe you me, I love a good superhero throw down, but give me something deep and relevant like human vulnerabilities to chew on and I’m a happier camper. If I were to compile a list of comics and rank them, guaranteed a giant chunk of the top would be made up of comics just like this one, including this one.

Very quickly Gailey has become a writer that I implicitly trust, and I seek their stuff out immediately. Yelena Belova is a character I didn’t give much thought to outside of a few stories, but right now I’d follow this character anywhere. Accomplishing that with just two issues (and honestly, it was just with the first issue) says more than I can accurately convey here.

Some of the slick action and a healthy amount of banter are given right off the bat to the appearance of a very familiar guest star.

Look, I’ll be the first to say that Marvel’s dependence on a certain clawed Canadian mutant character makes me groan at times. Man’s making cameos anywhere and everywhere that he can fit, and that’s a lot of places. In the right context and from the right creators though, I’ll eat any of my negative words about the nature of Wolverameos (I’m making that a word now).

In case you need a refresher, I did state above that I wholeheartedly trust Gailey.  This is a truly fun and smart usage of the character. Just a solid bouncing back-and-forth flashback, seeing the normally unflappable character caught off guard was hilarious. A fun Logan, still with a serious edge, that has some veteran experience to bestow is my favorite kind of Logan.

Lettering is a space where creators can have some artistic freedom and fun as well, and Lanham takes advantage of that here. Making sure that the overall lettering flows correctly through the pages, making each word hit as it should. Emotion and personality are inherently clear, with little changes here or there to let the volume or tone of the words change as necessary. Then there are the things like the love/hate boxes and other areas where things take a more fun turn.

I still love the way that Russian is incorporated into the dialogue. It gives just such a great flavor over the standard things in brackets with an editorial-type note box. Also, anytime a character states their name and it’s depicted as their logo, I cheer in my head. What can I say, that’s the kind of comic book stuff that would make me do cartwheels of joy if I could do cartwheels.

White Widow #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.