To Thrill A Mockingbird

West Coast Avengers #1
(limited series)

I've been a fan of Mockingbird since the days of the West Coast Avengers back in the 1980s, as that was one of my favorite series.  I also loved her as half of the Hawkeye/Mockingbird coupling.  

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #6

Cut to: 2010.  I was excited about the Hawkeye & Mockingbird series...only to be disappointed that they didn't reunite romantically and the series was canceled after only six issues.  

While I'm not crazy about the emphasis put on her involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past few years, I decided to pick up her latest comic, a one-shot, celebrating 50 Years of S.H.I.E.L.D.  As I started reading, I thought, "Who wrote this?" and "Why isn't this a regular series?"  It was unlike a lot of the action-packed and non-character-focused crap that I've read as of late.  Turns out, it's a new writer to comic books -- Chelsea Cain.  Ah, that explains it.  She hasn't been editorialized to death yet.  She's a published novelist and, because it was a one-shot issue, Marvel probably let her write whatever she wanted to.  And what she wrote was an excellent story of mystery, romance, and character development that left me wanting more.  It's a shame I can't slap down $4-$5 on a comic book and get the same quality time and time again. 

Mockingbird #1 (one-shot)

The back-up story introduced the Red Widow who has some connection to the Black Widow.  Meh.  After a lead-in like Cain's Mockingbird story, the Red Widow story by a YA novelist was doomed to fail.  I would have liked another story of Mockingbird. 

With Mockingbird becoming more and more known through ABC's Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series and Marvel wanting to increase the number of female-driven comics, I'd like to think it's only a matter of time before Mockingbird gets her own monthly series.  Let's just hope that Chelsea Cain writes it.

Marvel Sins Again

So, I just finally finished reading Marvel's latest "big crossover event," Original Sin.  When I first heard about the series, I was grateful that it didn't involve the word "secret," "infinity," or a play on the letters "A" and "X."  The concept fascinated me, too, as I was curious what secrets the Watcher held and how these would play out and affect the various regular series.   I again foolishly thought, "This one will be better!" 


While there were some interesting consequences that bled into Marvel's regular series (such as Charles Xavier's last will and testament and the Fantastic Four's inner drama), I honestly could have done without reading the entire Original Sin limited series.  As has been the case with most of Marvel's "big events" over the years, it was quite dull and lifeless (no pun intended) from the start.

By the time I reached the double-sized final issue, I was just grateful that this latest moneymaking disaster was over.  The outcome was just...meh.  The answer to all of the questions above was, "Frankly, who cares?"  I was just grateful that I didn't buy invest any more of my time and money with the various tie-in limited series. 

That being said, I look forward to wasting my money on Marvel's new AXIS limited series and next year's Secret Wars redux.