MOCKINGBIRD: Page 5 of 9

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

Biography - Page 5

When the Avengers had their next membership roster shake-up, adopting a new charter under the United Nations, Mockingbird flew in to attend. The active members got to vote on who they wanted in the new roster, with the top seven becoming active and other names being placed in the reserve roster. Mockingbird only got one vote in the process, and she thanked Hawkeye afterwards for the token gesture. Clint didn't cast the vote, however, and thick-headedly remarked on how he didn't want his estranged wife hanging around while he was trying to re-establish himself with the team. Bobbi was furious at Clint and stormed off back to the GLA, once again ending their relationship. [Avengers West Coast #69]

Weeks later, Mockingbird reached out to Hawkeye after cooling down, hoping to start again on their reconciliation. Clint seemed ambivalent about the idea and, when Bobbi flew out on a Sky-Cycle to see him, she saw that Clint had developed an interest in the new Avenger recruit Spider-Woman in her absence. He had, in fact, lied to her about it, claiming he couldn't meet her for dinner because he was helping a male teammate on a case. (Spider-Woman, for her part, was utterly oblivious to Hawkeye's attentions up until that point.) [Avengers West Coast #76-79]

 

Bobbi remained around the Avengers Compound as the reserves were called in for the Kree/Shi'ar War, and was assigned to the home guard while other teams traveled to the two interstellar empires as envoys. U.S. Agent made a pass at her while they were guarding some prisoners at Project: PEGASUS, and revealed he was the one who voted for her back on roster day. His chauvinistic come-ons were not flattering, however, and Mockingbird clearly informed him she wasn't interested. [Operation: Galactic Storm crossover]

On her next trip to California, Mockingbird intended to remind Hawkeye their divorce would be finalized in a matter of days. Despite their attempts at reconciliation, Bobbi was prepared to put their marriage behind her. However, Tony Stark had just died after a long illness, leaving Avengers West without a chairman or one of their most powerful members in Iron Man. Clint was distracted with the events of Stark's funeral and the possibility of reclaiming the role of chairman himself when Bobbi arrived, making it difficult for her to get his attention for one last heart-to-heart about their marriage. [Avengers West Coast #87-88]

Mockingbird remained in California with Avengers West as Living Lightning also left the team shortly after Iron Man expired, leaving them shorthanded. Bobbi and Clint's talk continued to get delayed as Ultron escaped from custody and prepared to wipe out all organic life on Earth. On a whim, Ultron kidnapped Mockingbird from a battle at Avengers Compound. Just as years earlier he created his robotic bride Jocasta from the Wasp's brain wave patterns, Ultron now intended to repeat the process with Bobbi. When the Avengers first caught up with Ultron, it seemed as if he had "roboticized" Bobbi to create the aggressive and malevolent Alkhema, the War Toy. Soon, though, Clint found Mockingbird in the wreckage of Ultron's lab, alive and independent of Alkhema. Overcome with emotion over this near-death situation, Clint and Bobbi confessed they were still in love with each other, and swore to stop the divorce proceedings and renew their marriage. [Avengers West Coast #89-91]

Except that wasn't Bobbi.

The Skrull faction serving under Queen Veranke believed in a prophecy that the planet Earth would one day become their new homeland. As one of the earliest examples of infiltration, the Skrulls swapped out Barbara Morse for a Skrull, taking her place on the Avengers. Mockingbird's Skrull imposter spent the next several days as a happy wife to Hawkeye and active Avenger. She appeared fully committed to their rekindled marriage, presumably in order to ease her into a useful position as a spy among the Avengers. However, the Mockingbird Skrull was killed not long afterwards in an encounter with Mephisto, burned up from a blast of hellfire while saving Clint. This left Hawkeye to mourn his wife's death and never uncover the truth about Bobbi's abduction. [Avengers West Coast #91-100, New Avengers: The Return #2]

Meanwhile, Mockingbird was kidnapped deep into the Skrull Empire as part of the Skrull plot. They intended to extract as much information as possible from Bobbi during her captivity. Mockingbird initially woke up in a recreation of Avengers Compound with Skrulls posing as Hawkeye, Tigra and the other Avengers West. She sensed something was off and eventually overheard "Hawkeye" and "Tigra" revealing their true nature. Bobbi escaped the facility, but found herself alone on the Skrull world. Bobbi spent years alone in the wilderness of the Skrull colony. The Hawkeye-Skrull tried to break her, hunting Bobbi like prey, always one step behind her and always wearing Clint's face. She became a legend known as the Robed Witch, scavenging for food on the outskirts of the city and trying to gather intelligence on the Skrulls and their plans.

Mockingbird learned the Skrulls had mapped out the corruption and crisis points among Earth's factions, hoping to turn them against each other to make way for colonization. When the Annihilation Wave wiped out the Skrulls worlds, however, the infiltration had to push up its timetable and prepare for actual invasion. Mockingbird managed to download a copy of the Skrull intelligence on Earth before being caught by the Hawkeye-Skrull. She was forced to kill him in order to survive, murdering a man with Clint's face as he tried to kill her. Emotionally exhausted, Bobbi was caught and placed back with the other "originals" housed on the throne-ship as it made its way to Earth. [New Avengers: The Reunion #3]

The heroes ended the invasion when it came, killing the Skrull Queen Veranke and stopping the colonization. Mockingbird was among the dozens of prisoners of war who were released when the throne ship was brought down. Clint was among the first faces she saw upon her escape and, despite everything, theirs was a joyful reunion. [Secret Invasion #8] The world Bobbi returned to was a complicated one, though. The Avengers had split down the middle over the issue of registering super-heroes with the government, and Clint (as Ronin) worked with a team of fugitive unregistered Avengers in opposition to Iron Man's registered Avengers with the Initiative. Worse, the Skrull invasion showed the cracks in Stark's Initiative, allowing the insane "war hero" Norman Osborn to seize control of the Initiative for himself. Captain America was also killed in the aftermath of the registration conflict, but the current Cap, Bucky Barnes, offered Mockingbird, Ronin and their Avengers sanctuary at his Brooklyn safehouse. [New Avengers (1st series) #48-50]

Despite the initial joy of their reconciliation, Bobbi could not recommit to her relationship with Clint. She had still intended to divorce him years ago, and couldn't shake the images of the Hawkeye-Skrull pursuing her all that time on the Skrull colony, up until his death. Seeking a mission and a purpose outside of the Avengers, Mockingbird maintained contact with the other S.H.I.E.L.D. and intelligence agency returnees she had encountered on the Skrull throne ship. Bobbi still had the Skrull data download on Earth, highlighting the various threats and corruption identified on the world stage. Mockingbird brought together many of the ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives to form the World Counterintelligence Agency, or WCA. They salvaged a great deal of tech and resources from off-the-books sites as S.H.I.E.L.D. was being absorbed into Norman Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R., arming themselves to address the trouble spots identified by the Skrulls.

Clint recognized Bobbi was acting distant and involved himself in one of her WCA investigations. Mockingbird arranged for her ops support man Twitchy to include Ronin on the mission briefing, but hesitated to open up to him. During the mission against Advanced Idea Mechanics, Bobbi eventually came clean with Clint about when she was kidnapped, and how their relationship stood from her perspective last time she saw him. They traveled back to the ruins of the Avengers Compound to say good-bye to their old life. Although their marriage was in the past, Clint and Bobbi decided to try dating, since they technically had never done that before. Moving forward instead of looking backwards, Mockingbird and Ronin continued assisting the Avengers while also running WCA operations on the side. [New Avengers: The Reunion #1-4]