this was generally a better mini than the last one, and I don't have any characterization issues!!

I think the real weak point was trying to fit the missing memories plotline in with the replacement natasha plotline— that's really a lot to balance with five issues and all the guest stars and I feel like it maybe would have worked better as like, two arcs of an ongoing

vs one mini

but I wonder how much of the memories thing was shoehorned in by editorial necessity.

there wasn't much origin retconning going on and I cheered in issue #4 when the villain was revealed to be anya/recluse

no one reuses black widow villains!! finally!!

I'd also thought there were too many guest stars but they followed through there with the ending.

which, I shall post here, in this spoiler plurk.

so anya does her villain monologue and explains how she used some kind of memory poison to induce editorially mandated flashbacks

and then revels in how she's also been dressing up as natasha and doing terrible things to both start a new red room and also make all the superheroes hate natasha

but then…

and we see flashbacks to all the previous issues with extra scenes added like this one:

this felt like the a natural follow-up to the samnee/waid run for all that it leaned heavily on some of the tales of suspense plot points (and I could really do without going back to the clone well ever again… it's fine to undo a stupid death but idk that I need it as a major part of her mythology)

anyway the art was pretty mixed for me… bucky is drawn like very pouting modelface icon and it makes me laugh, but I think some of the confusing "two separate natashas" things could have been easier to follow with a more accomplished storyteller

but "this would have been a much better story with samnee on art" is true of basically every comic

I remain mystified by Matt's appearance… it's nice to see someone remembers Matt and Natasha are a thing but, I still don't know what's up with him erasing his secret ID from her mind and you'd think that might come up here??

otoh it's established pretty well in issue #2 that natasha definitely remembers her relationship with bucky now, so that's nice.

is he like… hiding in a closet in that one panel? i'm not sure.

it's also weird that I've rp'd natasha (and bucky lol) extensively with the author of this comic!!

ha ha what???

jody houser, truly the most successful C&C alum

anyway the last page promises… probably a new ongoing for april/may, i'd think.

most people don't like the clone saga, marvel!! stop trying to make the clone saga happen!!

though for real if you liked tales of suspense (and I did despite clones), hawkeye: freefall #1 is out today and is basically that book again

except with sam content this time

wait wait wait jody houser was a C&C player?! how is this the first time I'm hearing about this I am so far out of the loop

royaltimes told me!!

she was lb

also i like this ending, i should really read the mini

but out of context it's a good ending for a natasha mini

yeah, mostly positives from me

in other comics, this happened:

and also this, which, ugh:

extreme dnw

remember when peter david went on a big antiziganist rant at a con, b/c I do

i also remember when he got mad at lgbt fans for not playing his orson scott card video game

did he write this land shit

yep

it's a symbiote spider-man flashback (au?) story that also for some reason guest stars natasha and doctor strange

i'm not really sure

firmly on the "to be ignored" list

anyway the war widow stuff in context is fine, i don't like it as an actual character direction but it makes sense as a one off in a "we're going to space" story

it's weird that it's called war machine armor though when it's like… sort of its own thing. tony making natasha a suit for avengers missions in space is like, not that weird, but it is weird that it's called war machine armor… maybe just b/c they liked "war widow" better than "iron widow" or

idk

unimportant

marvel needs its alliteration

also "Oh, Anya. They already know." is BALLER

yeah it's honestly not that different from the way these arcs typically resolve but the execution here was pretty great