Mockingbird #3 Review

Writer: Chelsea Cain / Artists: Kate Niemczyk, Rachelle Rosenberg / Marvel Comics Friends and relations, I read a fair number of all-ages comics, and I can say Mockingbird is a comic book for adult women. Not that I mean it is full of violence or *gasp* nudity. It doesn’t have any more of those than most other Marvel comics. And not that I think adult men wouldn’t appreciate it — I think y’all would. What I mean is that the entire run thus far, this issue in particular, is aimed squarely at women for whom experiences of sexism and the resultant impostor syndrome are regular occurrences. Chelsea Cain started from an intriguing first issue and has opened up Bobbi Morse, giving her a sharp wit and insight. This combined with her scientific mind makes her a brutally effective SHIELD Agent. It also makes her a capable mouthpiece for a variety of women’s angst and understandings that are popular for Marvel to reference but is still rarely centered in a comic. Cain, through Bobbi, not only centers that experience, she knocks down your defenses so you have to see it.

Now, this is no Bitch Planet. It isn’t radical in its politics. The cast is still completely white and the body types represented are still in the normal superhero comic vein — can’t a female character wear a size 16 in this place? It doesn’t go as far as I might like it to, but it does move the bar and of that, I approve. As a comic for women by women, it succeeds. Issue #3 centers Bobbi and a 12-year-old girl: Bobbi…