Today’s Super Comic — Mockingbird #1 (2016)

Once you’ve read a whole bunch of comic books over the course of twenty-five years, you often know more or less what to expect. But I did not expect the first issue of Mockingbird to be a sequence of examinations in a SHIELD medical facility…or for such a thing to be this entertaining.

It’s nice to be surprised, and this was a nice surprise indeed, full of mystery, sarcasm, and amusing visual gags.

The issue explains very little at this point, but it keeps you wondering what’s going on and what will happen in future issues…which is exactly what it needed to do.

I’m not familiar with writer Chelsea Cain or artist Kate Niemczyk, but this issue makes a tremendous first impression. I definitely need to see where the series goes from here.

(And in case you didn’t know, Mockingbird is the codename of Bobbi Morse, Adrianne Palicki’s character on the Agents of SHIELD television series. Now you know! Or you know again.)

Writer: Chelsea Cain

Artist: Kate Niemczyk

Publisher: Marvel Comics

How to Read It: recent back issues; Marvel Unlimited; Comixology

Appropriate For: ages 12 and up