By Andy Diggle (Writer), Bong Dazo (Pencils), Joe Pimentel (Inks), and Frank Martin & Giovanni Kosoki (Colors)
Some Thoughts Before The Review: For as much fun as I’ve had with the “Magnum Opus” crossover, I’m disappointed by how heavily the story has leaned in favor of Deadpool. While there’s nothing wrong with that in particular, it’s done no favors for a new Thunderbolts team that has yet to escape the (massive) shadow of the Warren Ellis team. Let’s face it; Ghost, Paladin, Ant-Man, Headsman, and Black Widow II have looked rather incompetent for about 2 1/2 chapters out of 3. I wonder if they can turn things around in the final chapter of “Magnum Opus.”
The Story: The conclusion of the Deadpool and Thunderbolts crossover largely brings more of the same to the table. With Deadpool finally captured by the Thunderbolts last issue, Thunderbolts #131 is mostly about how Wade deals with the situation. As it turns out, dealing with it involves lots of action, violence, and various types of humor.
What’s Good: The latest issue of Thunderbolts succeeds almost entirely because of the energy that drives it forward. The pace is frantic, the action is pretty wild, and as a cool bonus, you get two Deadpools for the price of one. In addition, the humor hits more often than not and Bong Dazo’s kinetic visuals prove to be a great compliment to the style of story being told.
What’s Not So Good: As a conclusion to what’s come before, I don’t have a whole lot of complaints about the fourth chapter of “Magnum Opus.” That’s mostly because I had an idea as to what to expect out of it. Some of the visuals look either confusing or far too cluttered and a few attempts at humor are just lame, but that’s pretty much been par for the course no matter what creative team was in charge of things.
However, I do have complaints about the crossover as a whole. In short, it is just one big lost opportunity. It should have played up the distinct difference between the wacky, yet capable Deadpool and the cold, efficient team that the Thunderbolts is supposed to be. The darker aspects of all the characters involved weren’t highlighted enough and far too often the whole crossover felt like little more than a violent cartoon. Entertaining, yes, but not all that it could be.
Conclusion: A capable conclusion to a fairly disappointing (but still entertaining) crossover, Thunderbolts #131 works about as well as I expected it to. No more, no less. I’m looking forward to seeing Thunderbolts get back to its regular business.
Grade: C
-Kyle Posluszny
Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Andy Diggle, Ant Man, Black Widow II, Bong Dazo, comic reviews, Dark Reign, Deadpool, Frank Martin, ghost, Giovanni Kosoki, Headsman, Joe Pimentel, Kyle Posluszny, Magnum Opus, Marvel Comics Reviews, Merc With a Mouth, Norman Osborn, Paladin, Thunderbolts #131 Review, Wade Wilson, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review, weeklycomicbookreview.com, Yelena Belova
Not a bad thing really, just not the way it should be.
Deadpool as a character works with a darker edge as well, so it baffles me as to why they had to make the Tbolts/Deadpool crossover so silly.
Overally I’d give the crossover a C as a whole because it is quite entertaining…I just can’t go any higher because the idea has loads of untapped potential.
totally agreed. Even if you just go back and read, say, Thunderbolts 128-129, it’s a totally different series. It’s as if the comic turned into “Andy Diggle writes Deadpool.”
I’m all about good fun, especially when it involves a character like Deadpool. However, I’m fairly certain that the crossover did the Thunderbolts no favors. For readers checking Tbolts out because of Deadpool, they are really going to be confused when it goes back to being a gritty, mean, and fairly serious series. For hardcore Tbolts fans who were turned off of the book during the crossover, it’s questionable if they will ever truly embrace the new team after how goofy the characters were left looking.
The whole thing only really worked as a Deadpool story and probably should have stayed within the Deadpool series. When you have a cast of almost total unknowns you can afford to make them look foolish…but you shouldn’t make them look foolish if they eventually have to go back to “regularly scheduled programming” and then proceed to be forced to salvage an already weak (or nonexistent) reputation.
I’m a few issues behind on Thunderbolts and not a regular reader of Deadpool, outside of this crossover. I just finished reading Thunderbolts #130 (Magnum Opus part 2), and thus far, I can definite see what you’re talking about with regards to the Thunderbolts looking like a bunch of keystone cops.
I almost feel like this crossover has, so far in my reading and apparently, for you, most of the crossover, made this Thunderbolts team look clumsy and silly, which isn’t good for a team already composed of relative unknowns.
If what you say about the last couple of issues is true, I worry that this crossover is a failure, in that it should’ve been used to promote Way’s Deadpool comic, but also to legitimate Diggle’s Thunderbolts. It seems to have only accomplished the former, and it did so at the expense of the latter. The whole crossover just seems to have temporarily turned Thunderbolts into a Deadpool comic, with the Thunderbolts as supporting characters only there to provide Deadpool with obstacles and ultimately trip over themselves.
It is good fun though.
I’ll finish up reading part four of Magnum Opus now. Couldn’t help commenting, as I just finished reading Thunderbolts 130 and really, really agreed with your outlook regarding the tone of this crossover as a whole.