She's also in video games now, which I'm sure would befuddle her.

Of course I'll usually grab any complete mini-series out of the quarter bins, but every once in a while a big enough chunk of a series will have to do. (There's always the possibility I have the rest somewhere!) So I ended up with most of the series, but we'll take a gander at "The Devil's Bride!" From 2008, the Twelve #8, written by J.Michael Straczynski, art by Chris Weston.

This was a twelve-issue mini--with a #0 and a #1/2 thrown in to boot--featuring, guh, twelve mystery-men from before Marvel was even Marvel, back when it was Timely. They were part of the Allies' big push on Berlin at the end of the war, but were accidentally trapped in suspended animation until reviving in the present. I suppose it would undermine the narrative if they had too much support, but I don't think Captain America or the android Torch stop by to comfort them any...I also guess, technically it was ten mystery-men, plus a clanker and a skirt: the robot Electro, and the one woman, the original Black Widow. This issue, series narrator the Phantom Reporter confronts her about her "fabled death touch." He does this by breaking into her bedroom at night, and holding a gun on her while she was naked, which is prudent if problematic.

The Widow, Claire Voyant, obligingly tells the Reporter her origin: she had come to Hollywood in what might have been the 20's, not in search of fame, but looking to protect her sister. Who of course falls in with a bad crowd, and gets murdered by her mobster boyfriend. The boyfriend was connected and skates, leaving Claire to make a furious wish at her sister's grave to avenge her. A wish that is answered, by a dark voice seemingly from hell; that offers her a choice and a job: to touch the so-called untouchables, and send their souls to the torment they deserve now rather than later. It feels slightly more thought out than Ghost Rider's incessant "Vengeance!" but I don't know if it's ever been dug into further than that, and I'm not sure it should be; she needs the mystery. Claire offed the boyfriend, and had been killing bad guys ever since. She tells this to the Reporter, just to let him know she wasn't who he was looking for; but also because she'd never told anyone.

The crux of the series is that all these mystery-men, who had little to no characterization prior, are largely just as conflicted and messed-up as everybody else, in the mighty Marvel Timely manner. Also this issue: the cops question Fiery Mask, poking some holes in both his alibi and his origin story. In Hollywood, the Blue Blade hopes to use Electro as a foothold to launch himself into stardom, but accidentally activates the robot's memory and learns a secret about one of his compatriots. Master Mind Excello has left, but left letters behind for his friends, suggesting the future might be unfolding for him and they all had a part; and that he had bailed the Laughing Mask out of jail: he had been charged for a murder from back in the 40's. Rockman comes out of the basement, claiming his subterranean people would be coming for him soon; which may or may not be brain damage and trauma. And Blue Blade has a visit with Dynamic Man, about the secret he discovered: Dynamic Man had probably adapted to the present better than the rest, since he was very much a cop, in the worst sense of the word, kind of an authoritarian jerk who was often uncomfortable or short around anybody who wasn't a straight white man. So I kind of felt Straczynski showed his hand a little with this meeting, but Dynamic Man's secrets go deeper than that.

Claire's a playable character in the Marvel Contest of Champions game: I don't have a super-great one of her, nor am I sure if she's rare, or any good. The series almost seems to be going in a different direction with her early on: a goth girl looks up to her, as like the original goth girl. Her end in this one isn't bad, just a little traditional maybe.