Marvel Pick Of The Week – August 17, 2016

Pick Of The Week this time blends humor, action, murder, sex, and cosplay on the high seas! Check it out!

Pick Of The Week: Mockingbird 6, by Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk

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Chelsea Cain recently wrapped up one of the best debut arcs Marvel has ever seen. She obviously loves Mockingbird, a tough super spy with a science background and an “It’s Complicated” romantic status. Every page dripped with humor without ever coming across as trying too hard. There were casual sexy bodies of both genders on display without ever crossing into uncomfortable territory. Readers could have picked up any of the five issues and gotten a full story, but reading them together clicked a puzzle into place. I loved it, and the series has already made a few appearances in this Pick Of The Week column. But how was she going to follow it up? And worse, what was she going to do with a Civil War II crossover?

She was going to win it. She was going to win the Hell out of it.

This week, Mockingbird is invited to a mysterious “Nerd Cruise” filled with cosplayers. It’s a trap, of course, but her alternative is to stay home and watch footage of her ex-husband’s murder trial, so she’s knee deep in mai tais and rolling D20s with guys in rubber horse heads. It doesn’t hurt that her Boyfriend-Maybe-Don’t-Label-Everything Hunter is running around the deck in a Speedo.

These kinds of issues can sink fast, but Chelsea Cain knows how to gently poke fun at nerd culture without biting the hands that feed her. A poolside sign including “No glitter, No open wounds, No body paint – this means YOU, Hulks!” feels unbearably right to anyone who’s gone to a good comic convention, and a gambling deck full of tabletop games instead of poker pulls jokes that feel good whether or not you’ve ever been the Dungeon Master. And Bobbi Morse’s snarky humor hits a pinnacle with the following cutaway:

More importantly, the humor never oversteps the emotion. Bobbi is allowed to have several pages of trying to keep it together while crying about her ex-husband’s ongoing legal battle. She can’t see Hunter’s gorgeous face without a superimposed Hawkeye mask. Her flirtation with him is frequently represented in code where she’ll say, “Maybe tomorrow,” and the speech bubble is followed by the translation, “SEX.” Yes, it’s funny. It’s really funny. But it’s also tense and painful and all about the ways we get too scared to say what we really want. This is a sequence that really can’t be delivered in any other medium, and for a novelist to so naturally understand how to elevate a comic book is a wonderful surprise.

This Pick Of The Week is perfect. I could hand it to anyone and bask in their gratitude. May we all learn a little of Chelsea Cain’s humor. But may we also find comfort and validation in her pain. This needs to set the tone for Marvel’s comedy books.

Honorable Mentions:

Deadpool: Too Soon #4, because I don’t think anyone has been on a ship and not at least TRIED to do this since 1997.

Captain America: Sam Wilson #12, for this scene that should have been printed in the seventies and should be printed now and should be printed until this kind of thing doesn’t happen anymore.

Spider-Woman #10, for this amazing little one-page comedy sketch following Jessica’s investigation into pet-napping with some adorably helpful monster friends.

Civil War II: Choosing Sides #4, because big sister Julie is doing her best to set a good example but we all know that fruit as nature’s candy is a bald lie perpetrated by, like, fruit lobbyists. Yuck. Poison.

Catch up on previous Marvel Picks of the Week here!