Steven Grant is now joined by artists Jimmy Janes & Bruce Patterson on lines and Ben Sean returns to colors. I’m continually surprised, going through this stuff, how many characters barely related to Spider-Man originated in Spider-Man. Characters like Monica Rambeau, Cloak & Dagger, Arcade, Karma, Speedball, and now, Mockingbird, future Avenger and future wife to Hawkeye. Let’s see how that happens. Peter is getting off the plane home from Los Angeles, walking behind a blonde woman who must be Mockingbird and in front of some suspicious characters. A lot of info right on the first page.
I humbly submit that the fireproof costume maybe doesn’t need a boob window.
Pretty formidable showing for Mockingbird. Spider-Man webs up onto the flying car, tearing off the roof and chucking one guy to the ground while knocking out the other. Mockingbird dispatches another agent with her battle-staves, ricocheting them around like Daredevil, then pole vaults up onto the car herself. She casually lets Spidey know her enemies were SHIELD agents, and he starts freaking out, worried he’ll become a criminal, so she just jumps out of the car, leaving him to fend for himself. He tries to get out as it flies out of control, but the wind at that height throws him off and he smashes into the ground. Not too smooth, Spidey.
Really made a mess of things this time.
So, while this is the debut of Mockingbird, it’s not at all the debut of Bobbi Morse (Now Barbara Morse, I guess no one remembered this page called her “Roberta”). She awas introduced as a SHIELD agent when Ka-Zar was starring in Astonishing Tales, and later appeared as The Huntress, on a mission to root out corruption in SHIELD, in the black & white magazine Marvel Super Action. Then she didn’t appear in anything for several years, and now she’s Mockingbird, and has finally found a gimmick that’s gonna stick. Spidey is told the Fury LMD is to make her think he’s here, and then she comes walking right into the base, and after some lite combat with agents, she encounters the LMD.
SHIELD can’t go 24 hours without being infiltrated by villains, it seems. That guy has a fancy battlesuit and The Satan Claw, a powerful weapon from Jim Steranko’s classic 60s SHIELD comics, so he begins really putting a beating on Spidey and Mockingbird. Only for a page, tho.
What on Earth is Nick doing playing peek-a-boo?
The end. That was abrupt! Don’t worry. Bobbi will be fine. A note from Marvel legend Mark Gruenwald on the letter page explains Mockingbird’s deal:
How about that? not too long after Black Cat debuted in Spidey after being created for Spider-Woman, Mockingbird does the same. Comics are a winding road sometimes. Dan Slott having Spider-Man work with her and I guess romance her decades later seems slightly less random now I’ve seen this, I suppose. They got a history.