Gone Too Soon

Lately, Marvel Comics seems to be canceling its new ongoing series without any notice.  Kinda like showing up at work one day and being given a pink slip (does anybody really have these "pink slips" anymore?).  Case in point:  Young Allies.  Canceled abruptly after six issues.  Hawkeye & Mockingbird.  Canceled abruptly after six issues.  And now Black Widow.  Canceled abruptly after eight issues.  You can breathe normally, though, X-Men fans.  Your sixteen different series about the same X-Men team members in sixteen different simultaneously occurring situations still survive...and I'm sure there are more to come.  

There is the new four-issue limited series called Widowmaker that stars Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Black Widow, but so far (having only read issue #1) it's as lame as the Hawkeye & Mockingbird series was.  I guess Marvel was trying to combine readers from the two series to see if they had a market and could increase their sales numbers? 

The Black Widow series was started back in the spring, around the same time that Iron Man 2 was released in the theaters.  I guess Marvel wanted to capitalize on her appearance in the film and was hoping that would translate to book sales.  Apparently, it did not.  And that's a shame.  Black Widow was one of the best character-driven series to come along in quite some time.  The stories weren't really superhero-ish; they were more James Bond-ish or Alias-ish.  The issues focused on the stories and characters, not any special powers.  The first five issues featured a storyline about someone trying to frame Black Widow for their crimes.  It also dug up parts of Black Widow's secret past (SPOILER: dead baby) that she'd rather keep hidden.  The last three issues' storyline felt like an international/political thriller.  All eight issues were great.  The finale tries to segue the reader into the new Widowmaker limited series.  

Naturally, I bought Widowmaker because I love all three main characters.  I loved Hawkeye and Mockingbird back in their West Coast Avengers days (unfortunately, their new canceled ongoing series didn't capture the magic they used to have) and I've always been a fan of Black Widow, despite her seemingly lack of good stories.  So it only seemed like a given that I'd like a series with all three.  Wrong.  Widowmaker has all the flair that Hawkeye & Mockingbird did, that is to say: not much.  Black Widow does better on her own without the superhero influence. 

RIP, Black Widow.  I hardly knew ye.  At least there's still Scarlet.