MOCKINGBIRD: Page 3 of 9

Publication Date: 9th Apr 2020
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

Biography - Page 3

The West Coast Avengers flew out to Albuquerque for a second attempt at making Firebird a member of the team, but accidentally ran afoul of the schemes of Dominus and his Minions. The alien conqueror tricked them onto a version of Doctor Doom's time machine, broken so they could only go backwards in time. The Avengers found themselves in 1876, an era Hawkeye had previously visited and knew the local gunslinger, Two-Gun Kid, and his allies Rawhide Kid and Phantom Rider. Mockingbird rode with Phantom Rider as the Avengers helped defeat some of the Kid's local outlaws. Afterwards, they decided the best way to fix their time travel situation was to journey back to the era of Rama-Tut's Egypt, hoping the time-traveling pharaoh could get them home. As the time machine powered up, however, the Phantom Rider betrayed his allies, cold-cocked Mockingbird, and rode off with her, leaving Hawkeye and the other Avengers to helplessly continue their time-jump without her.

The Phantom Rider proved to be deranged, an inheritor of his brother's mantle as the true Son of the Spirits, and unworthy of the title. He developed a lustful obsession with Mockingbird the moment they met, and decided he could not let her leave him. Using a series of potions, the Rider drugged Bobbi into forgetting her past and her husband, and loving him as both Phantom Rider and as Lincoln Slade. Phantom Rider took advantage of Mockingbird in the worst possible way for several days before Two-Gun Kid and Rawhide Kid managed to snap her out of her haze and restore her mind.

Furious, Mockingbird tracked Phantom Rider to Spirit Peak and confronted him. The Rider was no true phantom, but used a series of tricks and sleight-of-hand to give the appearance of being a ghost. Slade had shared these secrets with Bobbi, so she wasn't impressed with his spook show, and finally fought him hand-to-hand. During their struggle, Phantom Rider fell backwards over the edge of the cliff. He caught himself, but was barely holding on with his fingertips. The Phantom Rider alternately tried to plead with Mockingbird to pull him back up or bully her into obeying him. Instead of helping him, she chose to let him die. Lincoln Slade eventually lost his grip and fell to his death, screaming Mockingbird's name as he fell.

Hawkeye and the other Avengers finally managed to get back to the Old West, and Bobbi and Clint were reunited. Mockingbird decided to give Clint a sanitized version of her ordeal. She claimed Phantom Rider had not raped her during their time together and that, in his madness, he ultimately killed himself. Avengers had a strict code against killing, one that Hawkeye took very seriously. Mockingbird didn't think she could count on Clint recognizing the difference between killing Phantom Rider and letting him die, so she concealed the truth from her husband. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #17-24]

[Note: In 2016, Mockingbird #8 presented a re-characterized view of Mockingbird and Phantom Rider's relationship. Bobbi referred to Slade as a stalker ex she cheated on Hawkeye with, and Clint only told himself she was drugged in order to salve his feelings. This was a sincere effort by writer Chelsea Cain to restore Bobbi's agency and reduce the number of rapes in comic books by one. Without the effort to address and alter other aspects of the original story, however, this intended change does not make sense in context, and has unintended negative consequences for Bobbi's character.

If she was no longer drugged and raped, what is her justification for Phantom Rider's death (which she still acknowledges in the new version)? Did Phantom Rider still knock her unconscious and drag her from the time machine? If that didn't happen, why would she willingly abandon her husband and her team for a fling that would trap her in the past over 100 years before she was born? After reading through the 2016 issue, it gives the impression that Bobbi was gaslighting herself into justifying the Rider's actions, retroactively deciding that "she wanted it," which is possibly the only way to make a rape story even worse.

Therefore, with all respect to Chelsea Cain's efforts, we have chosen to present Lost in Space-Time in its original context as a drug-induced rape story, as well as the consequences that followed from it.]

Although she felt her actions were justified, the guilt over lying to her husband weighed on Mockingbird for several weeks. Clint approached Bobbi privately after the mission, as a husband to a wife, and asked her what had happened with Phantom Rider pointblank. Bobbi doubled down on her denials, however, assuring Clint that nothing had happened between them, even though it twisted her up inside to do so. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #25]

Mockingbird saw how much Hawkeye valued the Avengers principles of "no killing" during a fight with the Zodiac. Hawkeye's arm was bumped during a shot, causing him to accidentally shoot his counterpart archer Sagittarius in the chest. Even the death of this Life Model Decoy left Clint severely shook. Mock reached out to Nick Fury for advice, spy-to-spy, about her marriage and the value of lies. Gruff ol' Fury encouraged Bobbi to be honest with her husband, and she finally decided to do so. After a tearful confession to Hawkeye, however, Mockingbird was hurt and surprised when he brushed it off as no big deal. The metal CLANG she heard when she punched him clued Mockingbird in that this was an imposter, a new Sagittarius LMD that had infiltrated the West Coast Avengers that night in Hawkeye's place. The team rallied to defeat Zodiac for good and rescue Hawkeye. When Clint and Bobbi were reunited, though, she faltered and couldn't bring herself to make her confession again, leaving the air unclear between them. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #26-28]

Mockingbird's situation became even more difficult when the Phantom Rider returned. The Son of the Spirits did have a link to life after death, and used the host body of one of his descendants in the modern era. The Rider lured Bobbi away from her teammates to the cliffside of the Avengers' Palos Verdes compound, an eerily similar scene to their last encounter.  As they fought, the Phantom Rider was only playing with Barbara for now, proving to her that in this incarnation he possessed real supernatural powers. Mockingbird was clearly at a disadvantage against this empowered Phantom Rider, and he tossed her off the cliff to hang just as he did. Instead of making her drop, however, he promised to torture her in the days to come for his death and her "betrayal." [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #31]

As horrifying as this was, Phantom Rider's return was something Mockingbird could be proactive about. She contacted genealogical libraries, narrowing down Phantom Rider's most likely host body as his great-great-grandson Hamilton Slade, an archeologist. Barbara prepared to confront him in order to drive off the Phantom Rider haunting her. As a ruse, she convinced the West Coast Avengers to take a day-trip vacation to the Grand Canyon, near Hamilton Slade's archeology dig site. Then, from her knowledge of S.H.I.E.L.D. files, Bobbi unleashed the primitive colossus Yetrigar who had been buried there years ago after a fight with Red Ronin. With Yetrigar distracting the team, Mockingbird slipped away to Slade's camp site and assaulted him. Hamilton Slade was not consciously aware of Lincoln Slade's spirit inhabiting him, though, and was confused and defenseless in the face of Mockingbird's attack. The Avengers' newest probationary member, Moon Knight, followed Mockingbird and learned what she was doing and why. He kept her secret but drew her away from Slade due to the man's apparent innocence. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #32]

On the team's next mission, the West Coast Avengers traveled to Hungary in pursuit of a lead that Doctor Pym's first wife Maria might still be alive. Running afoul of the local government's super-agent program, several Avengers were captured and imprisoned, including Mockingbird. While Hawkeye and others fought to locate and free them, Bobbi finally broke down and confessed her actions in the presence of veteran Avengers like Pym, Wasp, Vision and Scarlet Witch. She received an amazing show of support from all the heroes, which infuriated the Phantom Rider who was watching in his undetectable ghostly form. Hoping to poison the well against Mockingbird, Phantom Rider approached the free Avengers Hawkeye, Wonder Man and Tigra in his role as their former ally from Firebird's Rangers. While he directed them to the Hungarian prison, he also told a twisted and edited version of his 1876 death, presenting Mockingbird as his murderer.

When the Avengers were freed from prison, they were shot down fleeing Hungarian air space and crashed in neighboring Latveria. Doctor Doom was interested in making allies of the Avengers against his own enemies, and gave Hawkeye and Mockingbird a lavishly-appointed prison cell to wait in and consider his offer. During this confinement, Clint and Bobbi had their first moment together to discuss Phantom Rider's allegations. Clint felt betrayed by Bobbi for lying and not confiding in him about what happened. Because of this, he accepted the Rider's version of events, chastising his wife for killing a man rather than listening to her side of the matter. Bobbi felt just as betrayed by Clint when he didn't take her side, despite her deception. His focus on Avengers by-laws instead of on his own wife was more insensitive than Bobbi had even come to expect from the macho Hawkeye. Mockingbird had often felt she only joined the Avengers to support Clint. And now, having been disavowed by Nick Fury and her own support system, she saw her husband caring more about his club and job as chairman than about her. The emotional accusations between these two proud spouses drove them even further apart. By the time they escaped Doctor Doom and resolved their business in Hungary, Hawkeye and Mockingbird had decided to split up. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #33-36]