Mockingbird, Issue #3 introduces a new character, a 12-year-old girl with super powers who is holding people hostage. Her name is Rachel Oakley, and she got her powers that morning. Meanwhile, Mockingbird is embedded with the New York Police Department for the day, and she's tapped to negotiate with the kid. Rachel is wearing a "Girl Power" tee shirt, and that is the theme for this issue. We go to Mockingbird's past, where we see that she always wanted to be a superhero. Her mother was more interested in mundane issues like equal pay for equal work, taking the young Bobbi Morse to a women's rights protest.
I defended Issue #2 because I thought it was right to have a semi-ordinary action issue after the fantastic and unique Issue #1. Mockingbird (I keep accidentally typing "Mockingjay." Damn you, Suzanne Collins!) needed to be seen as a "C-list super hero," as she is called. Issue #3 puts the emphasis on Mockingbird being a unique character, a woman in a man's world, and a very flawed person back in the forefront.
On a personal note, I've been reading fewer and fewer single-issue comics. My interest in comics has always waxed and waned with my interest in novels, and I've come across a few fabulous books, including a memoir, Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie. After I finished that, I started reading The Vegetarian by Han Kang, who won the inaugural Booker International Prize, and Prague Cemetery by the late Umberto Eco.
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