White Widow: Welcome To Idylhaven

by Sarah Gailey, Alessandro Miracolo (artist), David Marquez (cover_art)

Collects White Widow #1-4.

Yelena Belova returns! Superspy. Rogue agent. Shadow of the Black Widow. Yelena Belova has been many things, but striking out as a hero in her own right is new. Now that she's finally free to choose her own path, who will she become? Just as Yelena begins to settle into life in suburbia as a consultant for honest, hardworking assassins, change comes in the form of Armament - a company that seems to infiltrate every aspect of the tiny town of Idylhaven. But what, exactly, does that have to do with Yelena's rogue mentees? As she and her neighbors are threatened with eviction, Yelena takes matters into her own hands. After all, there's rarely a problem a little murder can't solve! But Armament is not quite what it seems, and a single mistake could cost Yelena everything!

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

111 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 17, 2024

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Impossible not to read in Florence Pugh's voice but apart from that a fairly joyless slog through a bevvy of forgettable supporting characters and heavyweight Marvel cameos.

[Alex Jiménez · Rating 5 out of 5]

YELENA BELOVA: THE WOMAN YOU ARE!!

[Chantal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75 stars*

[morgan ☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"you need something to live for. a fight you can put your heart into."

[Alex Sarll]

It's hardly unknown for a character's stock to rise because of who's cast to play them, probably rarer for most of that to be down to how they say another character's name. Which is to say, I'm not sure a moderately well-known writer from outside comics such as American Hippo author Sarah Gailey would be on this book were it not for the way Florence Pugh says 'Ket Beeshop'. Still, Yelena, even tweaked a little less slick to mirror her screen version, turns out to be a good vector for familiar Gailey concerns such as capital's capture of political power, found families of resistance, and self-definition. This last is made particularly manifest in Yelena, here determined to settle down and be a good neighbour, delighting in the fact that now she's not a brainwashed assassin anymore, she can have opinions on things, and wanting to have more. It's occasionally overplayed a little, and never really acknowledges the ways in which a boom in opinion-having has not been a boon for the world at large, but mostly it's fun. And she's right – beets do taste like basement. The comedy, of which there's plenty, oscillates between that, or mangled English colloquialisms ("You have to keep your horse's pants on. It is meaning be patient"), and pitch-black satire on sneaky T&Cs, sinister corporate friendliness, the whole gamut of sneaky until it stops pretending, seemingly unavoidable awfulness that is modern life: "Armament Industries is committed to the values of free speech and open debate. Although some may object to getting murdered, we believe..." On art, Alessandro Miracolo doesn't wholly live up to that excellent name, sometimes being a little unclear in action sequences, but the overall look is appropriately cute yet deadly, and Yelena's dog Bint Clarton doesn't feature nearly enough, but is very good whenever he does.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was interesting. Other than Deadpool I don’t tend to find myself reading stories where the main character is a deadly assassin who genuinely loves fighting killing. I like the team she finds herself with and I really hope we see more of Yelena going forward.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Potential was there and I especially love Yelena because of Florence Pugh but this was not giving. Art was ugly as hell and story was just super mid.

[Allysa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yelena is a character that has a lot of potential. This doesn’t capitalize all the way on that potential but does a lot to set her up on her own for a bit of action.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. Most of the plot was either super obvious or kinda stupidly confusing. Yelena's personality was... not too badly done. Obviously I know her mainly from the MCU, and there are shades of her here. It was fun reading her dialogue in a russian accent, the wording was done well. And I enjoyed her search for herself. It was occasionally funny, kinda snappy. The page turning dialogue was the best part. The big picture plot and any "twists" it tried to have were the absolute worst. And the art was a bit of a mixed bag, with generally really good layouts and action scenes, cool colors. But really, really weird faces most of the time. Especially on Yelena herself. That was a turnoff. So overall a solid OK.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately very silly but I had a lot of fun with it. I loved the Russian peppered throughout Yelena's dialogue, I loved the brief glimpse we got of Rachel Leighton, I loved the nonbinary teen genius sidekick and I hope they come back for future Yelena stories, I loved the Kate Bishop mention, I loved the idea of Yelena becoming a teacher, I loved the sequence with Natasha, I just loved a bunch of things about this comic and had a good time with it. I got the vibe from how it ended that this was maybe supposed to be an ongoing that didn't get continued, which is a shame, but it ended in a good place.

[Court · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did this feel like blatant pandering to fans? Yeah kinda but I was the target audience so I didn't hate it. Going from 90s Yelena to this, you really feel the MCU and Florence Pugh's influence on this character which I again didn't hate because I love her. I do really enjoy this characterization of Yelena, I love her doggo (why was it named after Barton though...) and I thought the cameos from other heroes was fun.

I do wish the big bad dug deeper into gentrification because I feel like they were on the precipice of a really interesting villain and it fell flat.

[Chris Aylott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun take on Yelena Belova that works well with both her comics and MCU incarnations. I enjoyed her work as a consultant and mentor to other assassins. Sadly, there does not seem to be a continuing series, even though they left the door open for one.

[Velhala · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this. It’s good.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yelena Belova, the woman that you are. Also Bint Clarton - the bestest girl

[Jacob Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75⭐'s

Didn't love the artist on this one. Sarah Gailey was just alright.

[Dean · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read the first issue and I don't think I'll continue which is a shame. I want to support more non-males in the conic industry but this doesn't feel like it's for me.