Bobbi Morse, better known as Mockingbird today, made her comic book debut in the 1970s. It took 40 years before she became a lead character in the live action series Agents Of SHIELD. Adrienne Palicki brought her to life starting in season two of the series. The character was slated to star in a spinoff, but the pilot never made it to series.
Though Palicki’s version of the character has a lot in common with her comic book counterpart, she isn’t a carbon copy. Instead, Agents Of SHIELD made a few changes to the character to fit Bobbi into their television world.
SAME: Her Staves
Mockingbird is a trained SHIELD agent who can wield a lot of weapons in the comics. She does, however, have her favorite.
The Bobbi Morse of the page and the screen loves her staves. Two sticks that she keeps clipped to her belt, the staves are what she uses most often in hand-to-hand combat. In the television series, she even has a version of them that uses electric shock, not unlike the Black Widow widow’s bites.
CHANGED: Her Super Soldier Serum
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there aren’t a ton of super-soldiers running around. Captain America makes his mark as the first successful test subject, and plenty of other heroes have resulted in attempts at replicating that success. The Hulk, Winter Soldier, and even Scarlet Witch have their abilities as the result of experimentation. Bobbi Morse does not.
On the page, however, a version of the super-soldier serum is used to save her life. Nick Fury himself gives the okay to use it on her. The serum makes her so strong she can bend solid steel, it slows her aging process, and makes her even more agile. It also, in a more recent miniseries, makes her sick.
SAME: She Is Multilingual
In the television series, Bobbi teases her teammates when she realizes no one speaks as much Russian as she does. She makes the point that spies should know more than one language, and Bobbi definitely delivers on that.
For the comics, Bobbi demonstrates proficiency in Russian, Spanish, and French in addition to her native English. She speaks even more languages in the TV series. In addition to those from the comics, Bobbi also speaks Japanese, Portuguese, and Mandarin.
CHANGED: Her Avenger Status
Though Agents Of SHIELD began spinning out of The Avengers movie, the series as a whole has little to do with the movie side of the MCU. With time travel in play in later seasons, it has even less to do with the movies, which is why it’s not surprising that the Avengers have not been involved in the events of the show.
Of course, in the comics, that would be a bit more strange. Mockingbird has been an active member of the Avengers, led the West Coast Avengers, and even acted as a reserve member. She’s also been part of SHIELD’s Secret Avengers. Bobbi has no Avenger status in the series.
SAME: She’s A Pilot
Thanks to her extensive SHIELD training, Bobbi has an impressive skill set. She isn’t just good with weapons and languages. She’s also an experienced pilot.
In both the television series and the comics, Bobbi can fly her way out of trouble by piloting her own quinjet. Most of the time that Melinda May isn’t available to fly out on missions during Bobbi’s time on the show, it’s Bobbi who flies the team.
CHANGED: She Runs Her Own Agency
Bobbi never makes it to become the director of SHIELD in the television series. She does, however, spend some time running her own agency in the comics.
Bobbi, despite her SHIELD training, spends a lot of time as a free agent. After her experience as a kidnap victim of the Skrulls, she doesn’t go back to being a model SHIELD agent. Instead, she forms her own organization with other agents who were also kidnapped. Called the World Counterterrorism Agency, it includes a character named Dominic Fortune, who was also slated to appear in the canceled television series Marvel’s Most Wanted. If the show had moved forward, Bobbi might have formed the same group.
SAME: Her Experience As A Biologist
Though Bobbi Morse spends most of her time in the field beating up bad guys and infiltrating questionable groups, she got her start in biology. Bobbi is a biologist in both the comics and the television series.
In the comics, that means she does her own research when she discovers she has a likely fatal condition. For the television series, that means she takes over in the lab when Jemma Simmons disappears thanks to the monolith.
CHANGED: Her Relationship With Lance Hunter
While Lance Hunter is a comic book character, he and Bobbi Morse didn’t have a relationship in the comics until their relationship is introduced in the television series.
The bickering exes from the show actually inspired their relationship in a recent Mockingbird solo comic book series. Prior to that, Mockingbird’s most significant romantic relationships aren’t with anyone that appears in the television series. She didn’t even know Lance Hunter during most of her comic book days.
SAME: Her Clearance Level
When an agent works for SHIELD, they aren’t privy to all of the information at the organization’s disposal. Instead, the agency is divided into different clearance levels. Level one is made of brand new agents. The more experienced, the higher the level.
Bobbi Morse AKA Agent 19 is ranked at level six in both the comics and the TV show. For comparison, Grant Ward is also at level six when the series begins, with Phil Coulson promoting him to level seven. Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons are at level five.
CHANGED: Her Relationship With Hawkeye
In her comic book history, Bobbi Morse has one very prominent relationship. She elopes with Clint Barton after their paths cross during work.
Clint and Bobbi have an on-again-off-again relationship for decades in the comics. They disagree on how to be superheroes sometimes, but they frequently find their way back to one another when it counts. The duo even serves on the Avengers together. With Hawkeye firmly in the movies, there’s never any indication in the television series that he and Bobbi ever cross paths at SHIELD.
