Book Of The Month: Black Widow: Forever Red
Good day, fine folk of the interwebs and welcome to the first official Book of the Month post! The place where we trawl through hordes of books in order to find you the best of the best to read each month.
We want you to get involved by sharing your thoughts, opinions, likes and dislikes with other members of The Arcade Community in the comments section below. So go grab yourself a copy from your library, friendly neighbourhood bookshop, or BookDepository, pour yourself a nice steaming mug of hot chocolate and get your read on!
Black Widow: Forever Red
“When children all over Eastern Europe begin to go missing, and rumours of smuggled Red Room tech light up the dark net, Natasha suspects her old teacher has returned—and that Ava Orlova might be the only one who can stop him. To defeat the madman who threatens their future, Natasha and Ava must unravel their pasts. Only then will they discover the truth about the dark-eyed boy with an hourglass tattoo who haunts Ava’s dreams…”
This Young Adult (YA) novel, written by best selling author of the Beautiful Creatures series Margaret Stohl was released in October 2015 by Marvel Press, a new division of the Marvel brand that has been tasked with the creation of YA novels based on some of our beloved Marvel Characters. The 2016 novels currently scheduled include Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Rocket Racoon & Groot, and Squirrel Girl as well as a Black Widow Sequel novel entitled Red Vengeance.
Forever Red is a novel that could very easily tie into the MCU, and if it did, it would probably take place in the time before Civil War as sections of the story take place within the S.H.I.E.L.D Triskellion of New York. The story follows the point of view of three characters, alternating between them in each new chapter. Despite being a Black Widow novel, however, most of the story revolves around the two other point of view characters, Ava Orlova and Alex Manor.
Ava Orlova, a Brooklyn teenager, has shown up in the comics in the recent release of Mockinbird #1 ’50 years of Shield’ comic as the Red Widow. Ava was the daughter of a Russian quantum physicist, who had worked for the series’ villain, Ivan Somodorov (Ivan the Strange). It is through this connection that in her early years Ava was subjected to a series of ruthless military experiments until Black Widow arrived and rescued Ava, placing her under the protection of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Alex Manor, our second protagonist, is a young New Jersey boy with a love of fencing. However, he begins to learn that he has a strange unexplained connection to both Ava and Natasha. At times, Alex is the character who seems to hold sticky situations together. And Tony Stark thinks he’s great. So you probably should too.
The final protagonist, and title star of the story, is Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow. She is regarded by many as the world’s most lethal assassin, and was trained in Moscow’s operatives academy, the Red Room, by the series’ villain Ivan Somodorov. While there, she was forced by Somodorov to study the art of deception, espionage and killing. Somodorov is also the same man that bestowed upon her the title of Black Widow.
Although the story revolves around Natasha, it’s through the other characters that we begin to learn more about her. Her motives, her drive and, in part, her backstory. Somodorov’s hold over the characters drives the story as they begin to realise how big of a threat he actually is, and the stakes are high as the race to find answers to their mounting questions escalates.
Action, suspense and mild romance add solid foundation to a growing story, that will continue in Red Vengeance. Black Widow: Forever Red is a fantastic opening to Marvel’s YA novel collection.
Once you’ve read Forever Red, we want to hear your feedback. Don’t be shy about commenting. We want to hear your unfiltered thoughts, whether they’re good or bad.
Bonus Challenge – Anyone that can find the subtle nods to The Hunger Games and Harry Potter gets a virtual hi5!
Until next month, I’m Adam and you’ve been awesome!
