Tagged: Mockingbird

Martha Thomases Meets Archie Sheridan

A while back, everyone I knew was raving about how fantastic Mockingbird was ever since Chelsea Cain started to write it. Then she got chased off Twitter (some say because of this), and I felt I needed to check it out.

Women writers (and all women) (and all people of good conscience) need to support each other in the face of harassment and threats. Buying a book is literally the least I could do at the time.

Apparently so did everybody else, because I couldn’t find the first Mockingbird collection anywhere. It was back-ordered on Amazon, so, to be supportive, I downloaded a prose novel of hers for my Kindle.

Since I didn’t know anything about her or her novels, I chose the first one in her Archie Sheridan series. Sheridan is a cop in Portland, Oregon, who led a serial killer task force for ten years. Then he was kidnapped by the one killer who had escaped him, tortured for weeks and then set free, only to take a two-year leave of absence to recover. The series starts when he goes back on the job.

The killer who kidnapped Sheridan is a woman, Gretchen Lowell. Before she kidnapped him, she posed as a psychologist consulting for the task force… and they had an affair. He remains obsessed with her, even as he remains physically ill from the aftermath of the torture. His time with her not only destroyed his body but his marriage and his relationships with his children as well.

Erotic thrillers are not really my genre. They tend to rely a lot on power dynamics for their sexual tension, and that’s not usually my thing. I also found it difficult to believe that Gretchen was as stunningly beautiful as the text described. Not that I don’t believe anyone can be that beautiful — I’ve been in the same room as professional models and actresses — but I don’t believe we all get lighting that good every moment of every day.

Still, I couldn’t put the book down. As soon as I finished one, I began the next.

Most of the credit for my interest can be given to the character of Susan Ward, a young, hip, punkette reporter who trails after Archie in search of a story. Unlike Gretchen, Susan sometimes gets muck on her clothes, can’t walk in heels, and says the wrong things that get her fired. It is her perspective on Archie and Gretchen that makes the books so entertaining.

Throughout the series we watch Archie as he blunders into situations that leave him vulnerable to Gretchen’s attacks, only to solve the crime at (often) the last minute and save Oregonian lives. Sometimes it seems as if we are building towards a Susan/Archie romance. Sometimes we think he’ll get back with his wife.

I don’t find these books as interesting as Ridley Pearson’s series about Lou Boldt and Daphne Matthews. In some ways, it’s not a fair comparison because Pearson’s books are procedurals and not thrillers (although there is, inevitably, a lot of overlap). There’s way less emphasis on sex, and a lot more about how police departments work.

I’m not saying Cain didn’t do her homework. Clearly, she did. However, it’s not what is emphasized in her stories.

That would be the erotic obsessiveness.

For me, the obsessions are more interesting than the eroticism. A hard-boiled cop, one who has walked these mean streets, seen all kinds of horror, who just wants his old life back, is interesting to watch when he throws it all away. Over the six books in the series, he has chance after chance, and he throws away multiple opportunities for multiple futures.

Will you like these books? I don’t know your life. However, if you have a rainy Saturday, or a long flight ahead of you, you could do worse than try. Like potato chips, I bet you can’t read just one.

 

Ed Catto: On the Fringe

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In the old days of comics, and for me that was the 70s, the general nerd mindset was that you’d have to identify yourself as either a Marvel or a DC fan. And then read as many comics as possible from that publisher. You’d jump right in, find your favorite series and start reading the new issues while at the same time, working to complete your collection of the old back issues. In this way, the thinking went, you’d immerse yourself in the shared universe of each publisher.

robert-bell-001I was reminded of this as I recently came across a 1976 price guide from Robert Bell. He was one of the big back issue dealers back then – you’ve probably seen his ads in old comics. This pamphlet gave the prices for all the current (what we’d today call Silver Age and Bronze Age) Marvel comics. The unstated, overarching goal was to collect them all – and to keep your mother from throwing them out.

Oh, there was the realization of the futility of that quest. Collecting certain titles would be hard to complete. After all, if you were collecting Spider-Man in 1976, you knew that acquiring the first issue was just a pipe dream. After all – who had $110 to spend on one comic book?

Regardless, comic fans could keep up with the current issues and collect the old stuff. And if you loved Marvel or DC, you were definitely buying the best-selling “important” titles.

For example, no true Marvel fan wanted to be out of touch with the important adventures unfolding in the current issues of The Avengers, The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man or Thor.

Curiously, Iron Man was kind of a B-lister then, and it was totally acceptable to take pass on buying his comic on a regular basis.

robert-bell-002Since the 70s, so many strong publishers with fantastic comics have elbowed their way to center stage so that today there’s no longer that binary choice for fans of Marvel or DC.

Realistically, the “Big Two” still dominate the market in many comic shops and in the cinema. But that’s rapidly changing on both the comics shelves and onscreen. One needs only to point to the incredible success of The Walking Dead to acknowledge that increasingly there are more options and opportunities for other comic publishers.

Which brings me to the curious realization that I’ve become a fringe reader of Marvel Comics. Part of the change is attributable to age, of course, but there’s something bigger going on.

Today I find myself eschewing the popular titles and the crossovers, and I like to stay on the edge of the Marvel Universe. I skip the IMPORTANT comics and instead enjoy comics like

  • Spider-Woman
  • Black Widow (with that fun Chris Samnee art)
  • Silver Surfer (I’ve touched on that here
  • That “other Cap, Sam Wilson: Captain America
  • Moon Knight – I’m so impressed with Greg Smallwood’s art.
  • The weird part is that Marvel seems to offer up more and more “fringe” titles, but doesn’t seem to support them. New books with trivia answer characters like Solo and The Prowler keep popping up.

spider-woman-5-2014And series like Mockingbird debut, get their chance, but if they fail to click the plug is unceremoniously pulled. The Beat detailed this sad fate with the Mockingbird’s cancellation last week. Of course, there’s more to that story and the cyber bullying that ensued is a serious problem that really demands further exploration.

And while I’m losing track of my old friends in the Avengers and the X-Men, I’m perfectly content with the fine storytelling in these so-called fringe books.

Spider-Woman is a particularly guilty pleasure. Back in the 70s, we all were excited when the series debuted and I dutifully collected it. Even my brother did! Marv Wolfman, and then Mark Gruenwald and Chris Claremont, wrote some off-kilter classics. Since that series concluded, there have been many Spider-Woman reboots and relaunches. One would speculate this was due to Marvel’s focus on keeping a tight hold on the character’s trademark.

When Spider-Woman restarted again in 2014, I gave I gave this delightful series a try.

I think the covers’ unconventional logo placement and the vibrant interior color pallete by Javier Rodriquez caught my eye, but the fun stories by Dennis Hopeless and the intricate Eisnerish panel layouts keep me coming back for more. (There’s usually one or two very clever pages each month. I’m sure this drives the Guided View developers at ComiXology crazy.)

The latest issue focuses on the heroine trying to enjoy a day at the beach, while encouraging her protégé to deal with the day’s work issues. And for a Marvel superhero, work issues means capturing an escaped super-villain. It was such a great read.

My inner 8-year-old keeps asking, “What are the important characters of the Marvel universe up to?” Shouldn’t I be keeping track of Dr. Doom and Kang? I guess so – but my comic book stack is filled with outstanding indy titles (like The Black Monday Murders, Lazarus or Black) and thoroughly enjoying my time hanging around the fringe of the Marvel Universe.

I never thought it would happen to me, but it feels pretty ok.

Oh, and I’m not your mother, but I’ll still remind you to go vote tomorrow.

Joe Corallo: Last Week In Intolerance

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Some of you may have heard of the Mockingbird controversy and harassment of Chelsea Cain. Less of you probably heard about Tokyo Comic Con banning men from cosplaying as female characters. While the two events are unrelated, they both involve intolerance in the comics industry… and they both have a happy ending. Well, happier than it could have been, I guess.

Back in March, the character of Mockingbird was given her first solo series at Marvel Comics. The character of Bobbi Morse, Mockingbird’s alter ego, debuted at Marvel back in 1971 with her becoming Mockingbird in 1980. Though she was created by Len Wein and Neal Adams, her first published story was written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith. Mockingbird has appeared on and off in Marvel Comics as part of S.H.I.E.L.D. and different Avengers teams ever since with varying success. Once Mockingbird appeared on network TV’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on October 21st, 2014 it made sense that Marvel Comics would want to try a solo series for the character.

Enter Chelsea Cain, successful novelist, columnist and outside-of-the-realm-of-comics recruit. Comics taking in people from the outside is hardly new and has been seen as having at least some potential to tap into a different audience. Despite solid reviews the series has been cancelled at only eight issues in. After brutal backlash on Twitter towards Chelsea Cain’s pro-feminist take on the character, she quit the social media outlet. Heidi MacDonald’s piece at The Beat goes into more of the details, which I linked to back up at the top.

i-vampireWhile her future in the realm of comics is currently up in the air (as far as we know) there are some important takeaways here that may not be quite as obvious – the biggest of which for me is how well the first volume is selling. It’s reached number one on Amazon’s graphic novels list. Some of this may be due to the controversy, but that’s still an incredible feat for a comic cancelled for lack of sales… although that is hardly new.

I remember I, Vampire getting cancelled for lack of monthly floppy sales even after its first volume made it to #4 on the New York Times bestseller list. That was over four years ago. More recently we had Tom King’s Omega Men cancelled by DC Comics, briefly uncancelled, then ended for good with trade paperback sales also hitting #4 on the New York Times bestseller list. Mockingbird may end up enjoying that same fate.

Since then, the big two have seemingly made no real attempts to try and adapt to the changing markets. Sure, they’ve upped the output of straight to graphic novel stories such as DC Comics’ Earth One, but they can’t seem to solve this particular problem.

Though Axel Alonso tweeted out his support of Chelsea Cain, for which I applaud him –it’s something he didn’t have to do – the real support may need to be the comics industry putting more faith in their talent and their product similar to how Vertigo used to years ago. If Neil Gaiman’s Sandman came out today with the sales it had at first, we’d likely never have gotten past a dozen issues. I don’t have the answers to that. Maybe moving print comics to digital-only if they’re selling that well as trade paperbacks, I’m not sure. Either way we need the big two doing more for creators and to cultivate worthwhile stories so that maybe Mockingbird getting cancelled can have a happier ending.

tokyo-comic-conWe already got a happy ending with Tokyo Comic Con, a large convention featuring guests like Jeremy Renner and Stan Lee. Well, sort of. After a large public outcry through social media, the organizers decided to end the ban on men cosplaying as female characters. It was very bizarre, and seeing how quickly they were able to change their minds on this decision it lends itself to the idea that it was entirely unnecessary.

What’s still a bit troubling is that Tokyo Comic Con is issuing gender specific registration cards that will be checked to make sure that only people of the corresponding gender will have access to changing areas and restrooms. I haven’t found anything specific on their policies regarding transgender and non-binary attendees, so these gender specific registrations do raise some red flags for me.

While I do hope there won’t be any issues because of this, we’ll have to wait and see. I’m thrilled that they reversed their needless cosplaying restrictions, but it does seem to me that if they were trying to keep men out of women’s changing areas by implementing such a ban that their attitudes towards transgender and non-binary attendees may be troubling.

That wraps up last week’s examples of intolerance in comics. I’m sure there were more, but I only have so much time to research. Come back next week to see if people have become more tolerant by then.

The answer may surprise you.

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