Mockingbird #1
Marvel Comics
Writer: Chelsea Cain
Artist: Kate Niemczyk
Colours: Rachelle Rosenberg
Marvel’s latest debut from their All New - All Different line is a strange one to say the least, as stated in the back page, it’s a ‘puzzle box’, that will be concluded in the 5th issue, the ones in between will be linear in the timeline that this issue frames and everything will apparently become clearer with a re-read, as they say, ‘This is going to be heavy.’
Barbara ‘Bobbi’ Morse had recently been injected with two experimental and highly volatile drugs: the Super Soldier Serum and the Infinity Formula and now she has to attend regular check ups within the SHIELD medical facility to monitor her biological and mental states which this issue collects between her missions in the upcoming issues. The writing by Chelsea Cain is a lot of things and it shows with lots of smart and sarcastic lines with the interactions with the characters and the internal dialogue.
The main take however is with the art by Kate Niemczyk and Rachelle Rosenberg, the amount of detail put into each frame is pretty amazing with each visit to the doctors bringing in something different be it the attending nurse or the costumes or the other patients or just the retro wallpapers, it also has so many visual cues and gags which will keep you looking deeper within each frame to see if there is a clue somewhere that will help explain everything.
As Chelsea states this book is a huge risk by being different to the traditional books most readers are used to, and hopefully the pay off with the 5th issue will prove her right, it is an interesting concept which has piqued my interest however with the framing of the story it’s hard to say how each person will take the premise with the monthly wait between issues but either way it’s going to be a curious ride.
Verdict: Borrow
