AVENGERS #386

"SHADOW HUNT"
Plot: Bob Harras & Terry Kavanagh | Script: Bob Harras
Guest Penciler: Angel Medina | Guest Inker: Scott Koblish
Colorist: John Kalisz | Letterers: Bill Oakley & NJQ
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Mark Gruenwald

The Plot: In a complex deep beneath the ground in Canada, the Red Skull escapes from the Avengers, leaving the Black Widow's beaten mentor, Ivan, behind. As the heroes tend to Ivan, Hercules climbs back out of the complex to get a medical kit from their Quinjet. Meanwhile, on the island of Boca Caliente in the Caribbean, a mystery man inflitrates another hidden complex. Back in Canada, Hercules emerges from the ground to find an injured Captain America waiting. But Cap stuns Hercules and reveals himself as the Red Skull in disguise.

Down in the complex, the Skull appears and knocks out Crystal, leavng Quicksilver and Black Widow the only Avengers standing. The Skull is about to kill Quicksilver when Black Widow rescues him. Back in the complex on on Boca Caliente, the mystery figure attempts a power drain on the computer, but instead the structure self-destructs. In Canada, Black Widow fights the Red Skull one-on-one. He gains the upper hand, but she uses her Widow's Bite to overlaod his powered suit -- however, the Skull still stands. But before he can finish the Widow off, he receives a transmission from Boca Caliente and aburptly teleports away.

The Avengers return with Ivan to their mansion, where they are greeted by Captain America, wearing a suit of battle armor.

Continuity Notes: Not much continuity this issue. No footnotes to speak of. But there are a couple items worth mentioning:

First, Black Widow comments on the fact that the Red Skull currently lives in a cloned body of Steve Rogers, Captain America -- something which had been the case for around five years or more at this point, circa CAPTAIN AMERICA #350. I believe he would remain in the clone body until it was "killed" during Ed Brubaker's run on CAPTAIN AMERICA after the turn of the century.

Second, though there is no footnote, we get mention of Hercules' strength and stamina weakening, and Quicksilver mentions the death of Taylor Madision and Zeus stripping Herc of his demigod status.

Finally, per an ongoing storyline in his own title around this time, Captain America is wearing battle armor. I'll have more to say about this next week, so stand by.

Assemble: As usual, no -- though given the epiphany I had last week and the fact that Captain America is back, I'm hopeful for at least one utterance during the "Taking A.I.M." crossover. ("Avengers Assemble!" count: 11 in 53 issues to date.)

My Thoughts: So the thing with Black Widow is that she's been the Avengers' chairperson since issue 348, when Captain America departed in the aftermath of "Operation: Galactic Storm" -- and in the past near-forty issues, she's done next to nothing of any import. Generally, she just tells the Avengers what their mission is and sends them off to do it -- sometimes not even coming with them! In Cap's absence, she let Black Knight function as the group's field commander, and when Cap returned, he took over that role. You never saw the Widow herself giving orders during battle, which in itself is fine; not every team chair is going to have a mind for combat tactics -- but the problem is that she never really did anything in battle.

So finally, perhaps too little, too late, the Widow gets a moment to shine -- and even then, it's kinda iffy. With all the Avengers down, it falls to Black Widow to fight the Red Skull alone. The KGB-and-SHIELD-trained secret agent against a Nazi war criminal with the strength and stamina of Captain America. On paper, this sounds like an epic battle; the centerpiece of an issue. In execution (which, coincidentally, is also on paper), it's a letdown. The Widow barely holds her own against the Skull, who himself even agrees with her assessment that while he has Cap's strength, he doesn't have his combat training! Dialogue suggests that the factor tipping the odds in the Skull's favor is his battle suit, but then after the Widow takes it out of the equation, he's still standing and about to step on her head, with only a sudden call from Boca Caliente stopping him from finishing her off.

I think Harras was going for a big, cool moment for the Widow here, but it just doesn't come across. Or rather, it comes across as a failed attempt. Whether he's a super-soldier or not, the Widow should be able to clean the Skull's clock under normal circumstances. A battlesuit may tip the odds in his favor, but with her skill and training, she should still be able to decisively beat him. And I don't think the story would've suffered if, instead of the Skull having the Widow on the ropes and sparing her to leave, the Widow had instead beaten the Skull, forcing him to teleport away!

I don't know how the rest of the Black Widow's tenure as Avengers leader goes -- she holds the position all the way up to "Onslaught", when the majority of Earth's Mightiest apparently sacrifice their lives to save the world -- but I know that in the post-"Onslaught" era, she had a plotline in THUNDERBOLTS where she blamed herself for the deaths of her teammates, since she was in charge when they went out in their blaze of glory. And if Black Widow's time in the chair can best be summed up as "lurked in the background, didn't beat the Red Skull, and presided over the deaths of most of the team," then that's a really unfortunate résumé for a really cool character!