9 Reasons You Should Be Reading Marvel’s MOCKINGBIRD

Promotional Image via Marvel Comics

It’s Sexy

In her list of promises to the reader at the back of the first issue, Chelsea Cain writes, “I promise Lance Hunter and Clinton Barton. Shirtless.” And she delivers. In a twist on the usual trope of men saving women who are wearing torn, barely-there clothing, Mockingbird is the one saving the guys in these issues, and happily they are the ones showing the skin.

In issue two, Bobbi must save her S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague and romantic interest Lance Hunter when she discovers him tied up in an English dungeon club, stripped down to his skivvies while he’s trying to reveal a plot to assassinate the queen. (Like you do.) “That was emasculating,” Lance tells Bobbi as she releases him from his bonds. “Says the guy wearing the collar,” she quips.

In issue four, she comes to the rescue of her ex, Clinton Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, when he’s strapped to a table in his underwear, captured by international science-terrorists about to experiment on him. Hawkeye and Mockingbird obviously still have serious sparks flying between them. After the terrorists drop to the floor thanks to the odorless neurotoxic gas Bobbi has released, Clint asks, “Why isn’t it affecting us?” Bobbi, her face mere inches from his, says, “Chemistry.”