Hi. You should read Chelsea Cain’s run of Mockingbird. I Can Explain and My Feminist Agenda are FANTASTIC! Really! What can I say that will get you to read these two volumes?
Chelsea Cain is not a comic book writer. She was hired to write an eight issue run for Mockingbird, aka Barbara “Bobbi” Morse. It’s a remarkable run, and I am so very sad that it isn’t going to be a multi-year, eight volume run. As it stands, Cain’s eight issue run really should have been collected in one volume, not two volumes with filler material. I loved the first volume. If I were doing this over again, I would review the two volumes together.
Cain is not afraid to get weird. Bobbi has been given a ticket for a cruise through the Bermuda Triangle and the promise of information that will exonerate her ex husband. Her ex, Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, is about to go on trial for the murder of Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk. The cruise has both a nerd convention and a Corgi Appreciation Society meeting happening. There are exes, cosplay, corgis, mysteries, and murder. Since it’s the Bermuda Triangle, we also have no communication with the outside world, feminist ghost pirates and mercorgis. Because why not?
It’s clear that a huge amount of work goes into every panel on every page. In her goodbye letter to the readers, Cain makes a point of thanking all of the artists, letterers and colorists. She lets us know that they put more work into her issues than usual, but weren’t paid more for the extra work. The reader, at least, reaps the rewards.
As excited as I get about these volumes, they do have issues. The biggest issue is that this world is super white. The main characters, Bobbi, Lance Hunter and Clint Barton are all white, but so are a lot of the side characters. It would have been nice to have more diversity.
