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Meet Marvel's Newest Comic Series About a Badass Superhero You Already Love

Feb 8 2016 - 7:05am

Get ready to start obsessing over Marvel's newest comic book series. The new series will follow Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Bobbi Morse as Mockingbird as she investigates something gone awry at S.H.I.E.L.D.

Even more notable? You can thank an all-female team for creating this series. The writer behind it is Chelsea Cain, a bestselling author who made sure Mockingbird stands out from the rest of the comic world. "I wanted to make sure to play up [Mockingbird's] sardonic wit," Cain said in an email. "I also wanted to make more of her science smarts. Mostly I wanted to give her a point of view."

Currently, Mockingbird has only appeared in other characters' stories and in one spinoff story as part of the S.H.I.E.L.D. 50th anniversary special. Not all of her ideas were all right by Marvel, though. Cain mentioned that she wanted to give Bobbi a bunch of tattoos, but she didn't get the go ahead to do so.

Then there's the artist behind Mockingbird, Kate Niemczyk, who worked closely with Cain to give Bobbi the perfect look: a mix of prowess and femininity. "For me, Bobbi is a normal person so she moves and looks like a normal woman," said Niemczyk in an email. "There's no need to draw her in silly painful poses or like her clothes are vacuum packages."

And that type of mentality is exactly what Marvel needs, considering the backlash the company endured after its explicit drawing of Spider-Woman [1] in 2014. Since those two years, though, Marvel has released the acclaimed Netflix series Jessica Jones, winning women over with her simple tank and jeans and her no-apologies attitude [2]. This isn't the only stride Marvel has made to include more female superhero comics. The sixth printing of the series Ms. Marvel [3] featured a female Pakistani-American teenager. And while severely late to the game, Captain Marvel, set to be released in 2019 [4], will be the first Marvel film with a female lead [5].

Fans felt similarly after the one-issue special of Mockingbird. "Suddenly, Marvel was getting all these emails saying 'We want more of that, please," said Cain. "More ladies kicking ass, thank you." For the most part, Cain doesn't think she's leading a change in the comic book world. "I'm just riding a wave," she said when speaking to seeing more of these types of comics and female teams. She does, however, hope that this series changes comics for little girls.

"I have an 11-year-old daughter. She is a huge comics nerd," said Cain. "There are a ton of girls her age who read comics. But the industry loses a lot of them in middle school. Maybe because they're generally mortified. Or maybe they catch on that there's not as much for them as they thought there was." Hopefully Mockingbird is just what they need to retain their love of comics.

Check out some exclusive artwork of the new series ahead, and be sure to pick up a copy of it when it arrives on stands March 2.

Mockingbird can take anyone down.

Her sarcasm never wavers.

She's a little paranoid, but that comes with the territory.

You really shouldn't mess with her.

Another look at the Mockingbird cover.


Source URL
https://www.popsugar.com/tech/Marvel-Mockingbird-Comic-Book-40078963