I’ve wanted to see the death of Mockingbird properly addressed ever since West Coast Avengers #100. I think this Annual is as near as I’m going to get.
Before I start, I should say that I’ve deliberately avoided any commentaries on this issue so as not to read spoilers, so I apologise if I’m making points here that others have made first or better.
So what did I think? On the whole, it seemed a reasonable but not excellent issue. The story came across as awfully rushed. What appeared on the pages was for the main part fine, but we didn’t have time to see the characters reacting to much of what happened, their motivations weren’t well explored, and hell itself seemed a bit clichéd and... tame.
Let’s look at the major points of the story: Hawkeye storms hell itself to rescue his dead wife - but we get no real feel for the bond between him and Bobbi, no raw emotion about her murder. A few years back Hawk was ranting at Iron Man simply for not being there when Bobbi died. Now Clint’s facing down the entity that killed her and he’s treating it like any other combat. At the end of the story Clint fails to even see Mockingbird, but he shrugs it off with a fatalistic three word comment.
Moonstone confronts her feelings about Hawkeye running off to hell for his wife - but her change of heart in deciding to follow him is not well explained, and her sudden admission of love seems all the stranger because it comes from left field.
The T-Bolts decide to follow Hawkeye into hell, apparently because they like and owe him - but this weighty decision is handled in just a few panels with no real explanation of what makes each of the team choose to go on an apparent suicide mission. We can surmise that Charlie was sceptical about where he was going, that Erik went out of loyalty, that Melissa had some debt of gratitude to Clint and so one, but we don’t know it from the text.
Mephisto and Hellstorm clash through the manipulation of mortals - but we never get a sense of what they’re really up to. I can appreciate a sense of mystery, even ambiguity when it comes to these sinister cosmic types, but I would have appreciated a sense of conflict and resolution. Was Mephisto plotting to use Patsy against Daimon? Was this all precipitated by a demon escaping the Arena with Mockinbird’s battle-stave? What could have been a screamingly hot plot driver is ionstead an almost-ignored damp squib.
Having said all of that, there was a lot that was right about the issue too. It was great to see Amora again, it was utterly like Hawkeye to haul off against Mephisto but to try and stack the deck first, it was interesting to learn more of Moonstone’s origin, and it was nice to see Karla and Wanda’s covert meeting. Even when it’s not at it’s best, this series is still good.
A few other random thoughts:
On Daimon Hellstrom: A better portrayal of this complex character here than I’ve seen for a long time. His motivations still remain somewhat ambiguous. I’ll reserve judgement until after the Avengers 2000 Annual.
On Hawkeye going to Hell: Clink talking to Wanda was right on the button, and I liked the chaos-magic arrows trick. Perhaps they should be part of the bowman’s regular arsenal? I would also have expected Hawkeye to play on his one-time Defender membership to have words with Dr Strange as well. That said, there was never any doubt that Hawkeye would be willing to take on arguably the most powerful villain in the Marvel Universe one-on-one for Bobbi’s sake.
On the doorway to Hell: Marvel comics’ address and references to a billionaire’s greed crimes. Hmmm.
On the denizens of the Arena of Tainted Souls: Glad to see that wasn’t the real Jacques Duquesne playing Swordsman there. After all, he definitely repented at his end. The "souls" depicted in the Arena are an interesting bunch as well - Foolkiller, Marvel Man, Thunderbird, and (presumably) the 50’s Cap if I’m not mistaken.
On the Thunderbolts going to Hell: As I said, the decision to follow Hawkeye into the jaws of Hell seemed a little rushed. Moonstone’s behaviour in particular seemed somewhat erratic, with her attitude apparently changing between panels from cynical disinterest to avowals of love for Clint. I felt that the motivations here were not particularly well explored.
On Goliath visiting the Enchantress: Long overdue reunion. The Enchantress would make a magnificent addition to the T-Bolts rogues gallery. I await the day she’ll want Erik to pay back that favour. One minor quibble is that, unless I’ve missed something (which is possible), Amora was last seen amnesiac in Asgard, wasn’t she?
On the Thunderbolts in the Arena of Tainted Souls: The scenarios the T-Bolts face are appropriate if predictable. Even after a couple of readings I’m not sure whether Mephisto was being fiendishly cunning or just if the scenarios were a bit rushed and lacklustre. Moonstone learns something of her Moonstone’s past and the mysterious figure haunting her dreams - that’s good. She snaps out of it by appearing to accept herself. Charcoal faces Jolt, and triumphs by overcoming his remorse and guilt and proclaiming a survival of the fittest philosophy of hate? Atlas’ trials all centre around his current self-absorbed guilt feelings, ignoring the years of evil he did as Power Man and the Smuggler. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. MACH 2 faces Goulding as the Beetle, but proclaims how he thinks about what he did every day and tries to be a hero because of it. Songbird’s trial is the strangest of all. Did Mephisto really pick the wrong approach to use on Melissa? Is he slipping?
On the whole this aspect of the annual was one of the ones that made the whole thing seem rushed. Hell seemed easy. Unless Mephisto is later revealed to have been playing a more complicated game - as with his appearance at Rick Jones’ wedding over in the Hulk’s book - then I feel short-changed.
On the return of Hellcat: Not one I was clamouring for, although I suppose it’s nice to have Marvel’s oldest heroine back in use. A few things remain unclear to me. Before she died Patsy was insane, having seen the true face of evil. Here she seems to be back at her Defenders ditziest. And since when does dragging a soul out of hell clothe them in flesh? Even Hawkeye was expecting the bandaged spirit to transmigrate heavenwards or something.
On the other hand, I have no problem whatsoever with Daimon manipulating Hawkeye and the T-Bolts in the way he did to rescue Patsy. Very much in character.
On what Daimon said to Clint: Either Daimon was lying about Maockingbird’s message or it’s just weak writing. "You’ve got to reach Hawkeye for me... tell him he’s got to... help Daimon... Patsy Walker is going to be used by mephisto as a pawn to kill him!" Please! There seems NO evidence that Mephisto has plans to use Patsy against Hellstrom, and it makes little sense that Mockingbird would be that concerned about Daimon whom she’d only met a couple of times anyway. And why the major appeal to Hawkeye? Why not tell Dr Strange or Thor or somebody better equipped to deal with dimensional threats? There’s hopefully more to this than meets the eye.
On Mockingbird in Hell: it now seems pretty clear that Bobbi’s soul is somewhere in Mephisto’s realm. We have the sudden appearance of her battle-stave to help Hawkeye out at a critical moment, and that unnoticed silhouette as the t-Bolts are departing. And now Clint is giving up? Seems unlikely. Perhaps we’re meant to assume that Hawkeye now believes Bobbi is at rest. If so, the text wasn’t clear enough about it to convince me.
I’m pinning a lot of hopes on the Avengers annual to salvage this one.
All in all, I feel as though I did get my money’s worth out of this annual, but I would have liked it to be longer. Perhaps the annual format didn’t serve this story as well as, say, a three part regular tale would have done? I’m glad to see the story has finally been done, although I feel some of the details may have been fumbled. More than usual my judgement of this slice of episodic superhero life will be coloured by subsequent stories, not just the Avengers annual sequel but what happens after this in the regular T-Bolts book.
I’ll leave this issue in purgatory for now and reserve decision on its eternal resting place for a while.
IW
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.