I wasn't really looking forward to this new storyline, as the first, which introduced Arana to the Marvel Universe, failed to come together coherently for me. I feared the same would hold true for the introduction of the new Scorpion, but the new creative team here offers up a more grounded, a darker, more compelling heroine and some fun cloak-and-dagger elements. Those edgier aspects of the book are balanced by the softer, down-to-earth style of penciller Leonard Kirk. Though there's little about this new property that comes across as really fresh or exciting, it's a well-balanced story that's entertaining and sets a new standard for this series.
It's been three years since Camilla Black ste foot in her hometown. Back then, she was 16, queen of the Homecoming Dance and the person who was inadvertently responsible for the death of her boyfriend. She ran away from her life, but she's been drawn back by two new deaths. Camilla didn't kill these people, but she cared for them. Back among familiar faces, Camilla soon finds herself in the line of fire, sought by a gang of armored mercenaries and a team of gun-toting spies. The latter group explains to her who she really is, why death has followed her and why she's being hunted.
Kirk's most important contribution to this story is how he captures the main character's youth. At 19, Camilla is no child, but she's in that awkward in-between place, not an adolescent, not an adult. Kirk conveys that quite well. I like that the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents look like law-enforcement officers, not spandex-clad super-soldiers. The backgrounds are detailed and convincing. The colors subtly reinforce the weird and poisonous nature of Camilla's powers. There aren't any visuals that really grab the reader and stand out as particularly inventive, but there's some solid storytelling to be found here.
Van Lente takes this super-hero concept and steers it into spy-genre territory, and he does so to great effect. It's surprisingly easy to accept the bizarre turn Camilla's life takes here. The writer has given the heroine a solid motivation to get involved in larger-than-life concerns. I'm also impressed that Van Lente has opted to avoid the decompressed style of plotting we've seen in so many other Marvel comics, including the opening Arana arc of this series.
The strongest aspects of this script are those that don't dwell on the fantastic. Camilla's discomfort at returning to her hometown after her scandalous "coming out" party and her surprise upon discovering that a friend didn't turn out the way everyone expected both rang incredibly true. Camilla's conflicting emotions about her parents -- sorrow tempered with anger -- also made her seem far more real. 7/10
