The only thing we seemed to know was that Johansson had particular feelings about the not-an-origin-story. When the character died in Avengers: Endgame (spoiler? …c’mon) fans were more than ready for news on the solo venture.
Some hoped that the Black Widow movie would prove that the character wasn’t really dead. Alas alack, Johansson has dashed those hopes but simultaneously reassured fans that they’ll get closure, somehow.
In Wonder Woman #761, the Amazonian has to face off against both a new and an old threat – a new Instagram-like filter called OdyPix, and her old nemesis Maxwell Lord. At the end of the previous issue, Wonder Woman went on a rampage that destroyed nearly all of downtown. With Maxwell Lord in the story, there’s always the chance of there being some kind of brainwashing involved, and as Wonder Woman wakes up in the hospital, she finds out just how bad it is.
The issue starts with a man celebrating his 60th birthday with his wife and friends. After his wife takes a selfie of them, a strange look overcomes the husband and he thinks he is back in the war and must hurry back to his military base. The man rushes off and goes on a shooting spree with a glazed over look in his eyes as his wife and their friends look on in confusion.
Wonder Woman, meanwhile, wakes up in the hospital thinking that parademons attacked her in her apartment. The doctors tell her she blew out the back part of her apartment building and took out two squadrons of Marines. The doctors are concerned because there has been a recent increase in hallucinations around town, and they don’t know exactly what’s causing them or how long they last. Worried about her friend, Etta, Wonder Woman blinks, and when she opens her eyes she finds Cheetah standing in front of her. Diana knows she’s still hallucinating and that she can no longer trust what she sees.
The doctor asks Wonder Woman if she remembers taking her picture right before she saw the Parademons. The doctor explains there is a new app, OdyPix, that takes pictures and adds various filters to the images. But hidden in the code of the app is some kind of digital signal that was tracked back to Lord Enterprises, the company owned by Maxwell Lord, who is now standing in front of Diana.Obviously Scarlett Johansson will be in it as Black Widow and the official announcement of the movie didn’t hold any surprises. David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, Florence Pugh and O-T Fagbenle were already confirmed to all star in the movie, but we do now at least know who they’ll be playing.
Harbour will star as Alexei Shostakov, AKA The Red Guardian, and Pugh will be playing Yelena, while Fagbenle will be Mason and Weisz will star as Melina. Ray Winstone had been reported to be in talks to star in the movie, but he wasn’t confirmed at the panel.
The doctors assure Wonder Woman that Maxwell Lord is really standing there next to her and that he has important information about the strange signal. Lord tells her that the signal was traced back to a subsection of Lord Enterprises called Odysseus, which was closed down after Lord’s company was seized after his arrest. Odysseus was shut down, but, as Lord explains, „Someone has access to our servers.“
Not trusting Lord, the doctors try and convince Diana that he is not the enemy this time. Lord showed the doctors how the OdyPix app can be wiped off of people’s phones remotely. Lord may not be the direct cause of people’s recent string of hallucination-fueled rampages, but he was responsible for developing the technology that made this app deadly. Lord also tells Diana that he reformed his ways after being held a prisoner by Amanda Waller.
Wonder Woman has a tough choice to make, whether to work with the man who has tried numerous times to control the world, or put him back in jail and let countless people die at the hands of this app. Maxwell Lord knows where the servers are and with his help, he can help stop this. Diana rushes off after someone activates a nuclear weapon in Arizona, leaving readers to wonder if she can work with a man she once executed for his crimes.