Editor's Note: New Avengers: Reunion #1 arrives in stores tomorrow, March 4.

Keith Dallas:
Paul Brian McCoy:
Dave Wallace:

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Keith Dallas: In a tale that's part-James Bond thriller and part-soap opera melodrama, New Avengers: Reunion #1 reinserts Bobbi Morse (Mockingbird) into the Marvel Universe. Prior to last year, Marvel's readers (and its characters!) assumed Mockingbird had died saving her husband, Clint Barton (then Hawkeye, now Ronin) in 1993's Avengers West Coast #100. Secret Invasion revealed, however, that Mockingbird was abducted by the Skrulls at some point before her death (duh!) and replaced by a Skrull agent who doesn't even reveal herself as a Skrull even after she dies and appears in the afterlife. (Now THAT'S a disguise, folks!)

Now Mockingbird is on a mission to save the world from some sinister A.I.M. machinations, leaving her ex-husband to wonder why she won't let her Avenger teammates help her. *I* am left wondering why Marvel didn't title this series Old Avengers: Reunion.

After reading this issue a few times, I'm ambivalent about it.

On one hand, I really enjoyed the narration and dialogue that writer Jim McCann provided. Mockingbird's opening internal monologue crystallized her dilemma very clearly, and I enjoyed reading most of the banter between her and Clint. A lot of their back and forth exchanges (as well as the one-liners) had me smiling.

Dave Wallace: I agree. The Hawkeye/Mockingbird relationship is one that I wasn’t familiar with before Secret Invasion, and it hasn’t been explored in much depth since, so it was important for this issue to give us a strong sense of who these characters are and how they relate to each other. It achieves that pretty well.

As you say, the banter between the two characters is fun, and the relationship feels natural. McCann makes the pair’s situation -- that they were close in the past, but have been separated for some time -- feel believable and unforced, and also uses his slightly distant characterisation of Bobbi to inform the direction that the book’s story takes towards the end of the issue. Whilst I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get a strong portrait of Mockingbird as a character early on, by the end of the issue I realised that that was due (at least, in part) to the larger plot that McCann is setting up here.

Paul Brian McCoy: I think I may have an issue or two of comics featuring the Hawkeye/Mockingbird pair from years back, but I missed pretty much all of the West Coast Avengers years of Marvel. So, essentially, this is all new to me, too.

And I’ll be honest, I went into this expecting to, if not hate it, to be utterly disinterested with it. That advance release of the cover art didn’t catch my interest beyond thinking, “Mockingbird needs to put some pants on.” But I agree that the dialogue is actually very strong here. McCann does a good job of establishing the awkwardness of their relationship while being true to Clint’s traditional character and Bobbi’s psychological situation.

Keith Dallas: The only dialogue that seemed affected and contrived to me occurred between Clint and Bucky. It was like McCann felt obligated to create an argument between these two heroes, but he ham handed it rather than let it emerge organically from the characters within the situation.

Dave Wallace: I can see where you’re coming from, but I actually think that that was a pretty strong scene. Maybe the conversation is a little forced, but the two characters aren’t overly antagonistic towards each other, and it’s suggested that Hawkeye’s frustrations stem from his own complicated feelings about Mockingbird’s return and his self-flagellation over how he could have handled their relationship differently in the past, rather than any ill-feeling towards Bucky. For me, it’s one of the more important scenes for Hawkeye, as he opens up and shows how he has been personally affected by Mockingbird’s absence and her return in a way that we haven’t seen in either Secret Invasion or New Avengers.

Paul Brian McCoy: I’m going to come down right in the middle on this one. I found the scene to be rather forced, but it did serve its function. I’ve yet to read anyone else write Bucky/Cap as well as Brubaker, so I’m not going to let that get too much in my way here.

But, that said, Cap could have been just about any generic character fulfilling the role he does here. Clint’s reactions are in-character and understandable, but it still felt like conflict for the sake of conflict. Even though it’s really no conflict at all.

But that’s Clint.

I am, however, getting a little tired of every interaction between the two of them ending with Clint walking off after making an approving comparison with Steve Rogers. Is that how every conversation has to end with these characters from here on out? I understand, from the writer’s perspective, why it feels needed, but I don’t know that it really is.

Dave Wallace: I guess that it could be a case of the right hand of Marvel’s editorial staff not knowing what the left is doing, leading to several writers coming up with similar interactions for the characters and all of them being given the go-ahead. It’s quite an obvious idea, and a fitting one given the characters’ history, but I agree that these little heartfelt moments of acceptance might have been done to death by now.

Having said that, it’s not all serious, as McCann has some fun with a bit of light banter between Clint and Bucky (including a nice dig from Hawkeye on the subject of Captain America's legacy: "You know they offered it to me first, right?"). Ultimately, though, as the end of the issue reveals, there a sufficient level of trust between the two characters that Hawkeye feels conflicted about whether he can put his feelings for Mockingbird over his loyalties to Cap and the Avengers. The choice he makes is an interesting one.

Keith Dallas: That's very true. Hey, before we address how the issue ends, I'd like to comment about how the issue opens with Doc Samson's psychiatric evaluation of Mockingbird. Did either of you guys chuckle at Samson's clearance of Mockingbird for active duty after diagnosing her as suffering from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? "Well, she's experiencing hallucinations, but what the heck! Send her out into the field! I'm sure everything will be just fine!"

Dave Wallace: Ha! I missed that.

Paul Brian McCoy: Yeah, that was something that really contributed to my not expecting, or wanting, to like this book as much as I did. I appreciate the idea of it and understand that it’s necessary to establish Bobbi’s mindset, but it was kind of a dumb way of doing it.

Keith Dallas: The least the Doc could have done was prescribe the woman some Prozac!

Dave Wallace: Aside from that, the opening recap page is handled pretty well, with a swift recap of the history of the characters up to this point, and some blacked-out sections that clue us in to the mysteries that the book is going to be exploring. I also loved the presumably intentional pun on Mockingbird and Ronin’s relationship having a history of “issues” (of West Coast Avengers, I’m guessing).

One thing that we haven’t really mentioned yet is the plot that’s set up in this issue, which involves Mockingbird embarking on a mission to take down some corrupt institutions in the Marvel Universe. Without going into spoilery details, it’s a far more logical continuation of the plot of Secret Invasion than “Dark Reign” is. In fact, I’d rather have seen the corruption angle that’s playing out here and in Secret Warriors be used as the driving story behind the Marvel Universe in the wake of that event, rather than the “Norman Osborn’s Thunderbolts mk.II” story that we’re getting.

Paul Brian McCoy: You are so freaking right. This narrative develops with no real leaps of logic or characters behaving stupidly in order to further the plot. McCann is organically crafting the story, rather than forcing things to happen without thinking, or following, them through.

And speaking as a lifelong fan of Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., I have to ask; why, outside of Captain America (and the now defunct Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.), did we have to wait for S.H.I.E.L.D. to be disbanded before Marvel was willing to give us some high-tech espionage comics?

This comic, along with Secret Warriors both stake out spy-action-adventure territory, but have to do it subversively, without the official agency backing. So far, one issue into each story, both comics are miles beyond anything Bendis has done with Fury (Yes, Secret War, I’m looking at you), and create a nice balance and contrast with Brubaker’s work on Captain America.

Dave Wallace: Yes, you’re right. More than once, Brubaker’s Captain America has been compared to 24, and it’s nice to see other writers realise that the Marvel Universe lends itself well to this kind of espionage/thriller story model. Despite the disappointing mess that was Secret Invasion, Bendis has left a fairly interesting political landscape to be explored in the Marvel Universe -- and since he doesn’t seem interested in doing that in his own books, it’s nice to see other writers take the initiative to use the remnants of his big event as a jumping-off point for superior stories that actually explore the logical ramifications of the Skrull invasion.

Paul Brian McCoy: McCann, with this book, does what Hickman is doing with Secret Warriors, and takes the miserable hand he’s been dealt and plays it wonderfully. There’s a classic feel to the adventure here, that when combined with the psychological maturity of the writing, makes the story much more satisfying than any Avengers story of the past few years, even if it is, so far, more of a peripheral Avengers story.

It’s got everything one might want in an intelligently written adventure comic. There are secrets and lies, trusts and betrayals, and more. If you want action, there’s plenty of action. If you want romance, there’s some of that, too. If you want psychological complexity, there are heaping handfuls of it. That’s what makes the romance actually work and makes the action all the more satisfying.

Keith Dallas: Well put, Paul.

If I may move from the positive to the negative. What really disappointed me in this issue was the artwork. And I mean many aspects of the artwork disappointed me. First of all, the protagonists look very plain and unattractive. I'm not saying that they should be super-model gorgeous, but Mockingbird is not a pretty woman here. And Clint Barton is the Han Solo of the Marvel Universe. He should have a roguish Josh Hollowell-like handsomeness. Here he looks like a punk from a wannabe boy band.

Paul Brian McCoy: True, true. But at least Bobbi’s wearing pants!

Keith Dallas: HA!

What's more, most of the body postures throughout the issue are stiff and unenergetic. Take a look at the first panel of page 5 with Clint holding Bobbi behind the door. Look at Bobbi's posture. Is she doing her best imitation of the leaning Tower of Pisa? She looks as inflexible as a mannequin in that panel!

Finally, Lopez doesn't always tell the story in a clear manner. For instance, at one point during the melee near the end of the issue, Mockingbird pole vaults over the A.I.M. attackers in order to land… behind a garbage bin where other A.I.M. agents have a clear shot at her? Seriously, I don't understand the purpose of her pole vault because Lopez didn't present it clearly.

Dave Wallace: I have to agree with you on the artwork. Whilst I found the storytelling to be mostly clear, the character designs felt generic. Could you have taken any of these characters out of the context of the book and recognized them as Hawkeye, Bucky or Mockingbird? I’m not sure that I could.

Paul Brian McCoy: No. You’re both right. The fight choreography isn’t quite up to snuff and our heroes are just kind of characterless, visually. Granted, it’s hard to really make them distinctive, since they’re pretty generic in their original designs (I have vivid memories of childhood Avengers reading where Clint and Steve Rogers were interchangeable without their masks), but surely something could have been done to distinguish them.

Dave Wallace: Also, I agree that the attraction of Mockingbird isn’t conveyed to the reader here. I don’t know if it’s the lines around her eyes or just Lopez’s character design in general, but there are several panels in which Bobbi looks almost middle-aged. It’s a contrast with how she’s been depicted in Secret Invasion and New Avengers lately.

I remember Lopez’s work as being better in the Batman Annual that kicked off the “Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul” storyline at DC a while back, so I don’t know what’s changed between there and here.

Keith Dallas: Me either.

For this issue: high marks for Jim McCann and low marks for Misters Lopez.

Dave Wallace: I agree. I was pleasantly surprised by this story, but I can’t help but feel that a stronger art team might have made this issue feel a little more polished.

Paul Brian McCoy: I think the book is written wonderfully. The art could be better, maybe more distinctive with more effective in-panel choreography, but is perfectly functional. It’s far better than I was expecting. And Mockingbird gets to wear pants! How awesome is that?

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