Random Happenstance

I just can't picture the Black Widow saying 'caper.' Ever.

From Uncanny X-Men #268, "Madripoor Nights" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Jim Lee, inks by Scott Williams.

I really do like this issue, although it's not very good. Reread it, and it starts to fray at the edges. Give it some more thought, and it just gets dicey. And Jim Lee's art is great, but I think this was around the time he started kind of drawing whatever he wanted to, and Claremont had to script his way around it. I imagine it would be frustrating: the X-Men were his baby for years, and now this new kid wants to draw this or that and gets his way. Makes me wonder if his tendency to, well, overwrite, is a result of wanting to take it back. Or, it may have even started as a way to force seemingly unrelated action shots into a cohesive narrative, but I may be reaching there.

In the opening sequence, set in 1941, rookie Captain America leaps into battle against ninjas. Cap's portrayed as a noob this whole issue, even though this would have been after he traded his triangular shield for his more traditional round one.

The ninjas acknowledge and respect Cap's fighting skill, while kicking his ass inside of four panels. Cap helpfully yells "My back!" when cut: your tax dollars at work there. Logan arrives to help Cap out.

Back in the present, Black Widow is getting her ass beat by ninjas too. One is apparently a line judge for the NFL on the weekends, because he catches her with about twenty yards of chain. Ninja chain, I guess. You know, you don't see that kind of ninja buy-in anymore: it's all too easy to put on your ninja hoodie and tabi boots or whatever, strap on a sword and some throwing stars and call it good. But carrying a good twenty-plus pounds of chain with you all day? That's determinination. And where does he even keep that, wrapped around his torso? You can't just throw it in a gym bag and go, you know. Ninjas today are lazy posers, I swear.

Where was I? Oh, since he wasn't running at full steam at the time, Wolverine has Jubilee and newly-Asian Psylocke help him save the injured Widow.

1941 again, in a bar that would probably be a great tribute to Terry and the Pirates if a. Jim Lee had used any sort of reference or b. the target audience had any idea what that was. Logan harasses Baron Strucker and his Nazi goon, until the midget bar owner Seraph makes him quit it. Why a midget white-haired female bar owner? Uh...seriously, why? Was that in Claremont's script (I'm betting yes) or something Lee just threw on the paper and let Chris figure it out? (Less likely, but not impossible.)

Gah, I really wish Grant Morrison had blown up Madripoor instead of Genosha...no. With Genosha.

And, that's all I'm going to harsh on for this issue, partly because more pictures won't load, and partially because if I keep on it I'm going to break any enjoyment I have for this issue. This issue introduced the idea that the Black Widow was a child in WWII, which would have made her about 56, circa the present of 1990. Highly dubious, although Natasha is one of those characters that works best in a certain historical setting.

This would be a good place to discuss the sliding scale of Marvel time, and the weird holes it creates for characters more tied to real world events (like the Punisher and Vietnam, or the Widow and the Cold War), but that's a much bigger issue. Might have some more Black Widow stuff coming, though: I was kind of surprised at how many Black Widow appearances I stumbled across in short order, and I really liked her last two limited series.

I'm still trying to figure out how she ended up on the registration side, though. And Mighty Avengers. Anyone have an answer for that, throw it out there for me, eh?