Marvel Pick Of The Week – September 14, 2016

Pick Of The Week goes to a spy book that dresses up like a Civil War II story, then turns into a locked-room mystery, then a horror.

Pick Of The Week: Mockingbird #7, by Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk

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It’s not enough that Chelsea Cain can write the smartest feminist book in Marvel’s lineup. I mean, that would be enough for me. But Mockingbird is more than just a tough, smart woman being tough and smart and a woman. Cain can play with genre like no one else out there, maybe because of her background in those books without pictures. Her first arc on this book collected one-shot dives into action, espionage, and horror, all threaded with the smartest written and visual jokes Marvel can produce. This week, she and her amazing partner, Kate Niemczyk, push their game harder and make an issue that’s a smart and sassy dance through a spy book, a locked-room mystery, and finally a horror story with such painful relevance to Mockingbird’s backstory that I felt punched in the gut.

Last month, Bobbi Morse joined a cosplay cruise ship to the Bermuda Triangle because a man in a rubber horse mask promised her evidence that could clear her ex-husband of the Hulk’s murder. She and her sexy it’s-complicated, Hunter Lance, investigated, but they hit a snag when they found their contact cold in a pool of his own blood. This week, Bobbi indulges her lifelong wish to play Sherlock in a locked-room scenario, interviewing a delightful cast of suspects and reviewing Niemczyk’s intricate diagrams.

But when her foe finally springs his trap, long-time Marvel readers will shudder. I think we’d mostly forgotten than she ever had an arch-enemy. Today, that feels like we just repressed it. And as scared as I am for Bobbi, this is a woman who closes the issue with, “You are going to take your hands off me. Or I will make what Barton did to Banner look like flirting.” So I think she’ll be okay. And I’m convinced that we’re in for a treat.

With Ant-Man, Patsy Walker, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Rocket Raccoon And Groot, and Mockingbird, Marvel has embraced clever comedy. I mean, Deadpool will still make fart jokes and cartoony amputations, if you like that. We’re human. But I bet future comic historians will mark 2015-2016 as a bright spot for smart readers who can laugh and cringe and hope and cheer.

Honorable Mentions:

Uncanny Avengers #14

Wow, Cap. Was that firing Deadpool or a firing squad? Cold.

A-Force #9

Do you even need context to enjoy Elsa’s potty-mouthed tantrum?

Spider-Man #8

Luke and Jessica are maybe my favorite Marvel couple. Stay together forever.

Spider-Man 2099 #15

These were the three coolest characters in X-Men 2099 (kids, ask your parents).

Rocket Raccoon And Groot #9

Do you even see how many jokes are on this page? And do you see how many of them are actually really, really funny? The whole book is like that. Seriously, if Mockingbird hadn’t pushed all my feminist buttons, this would be my Pick this Week.

All-New X-Men #13

Which is cuter – teen Iceman being terrible at flirting with guys, or Idie being the best wingman a boy could want? Don’t make me choose! I can’t! I won’t!

Catch up on previous Marvel Picks of the Week here!