By: Jeff Parker (writer), Kev Walker (pencils), Jason Gorder & Walker (inks), Frank Martin & Fabio D’Auria (colors), Albert Deschesne (letters), Rachel Pinnelas (assistant editor) & Tom Brennan (editor)
The Story: While the Thunderbolts head out on a dangerous mission with their new magic user, Songbird tries to recruit a B-team of “Underbolts” from the inmates on the Raft.
What’s Good: A common problem with team superhero comics is that they get stale: “We’ve seen this team tackle that bad dude before! Yawn!” Jeff Parker isn’t taking any chance of that happening to Thunderbolts as last issue he introduced a new magic-based villain to the team (Satana) and in this issue he has Songbird trying to recruit a B-team of villains to serve as a minor leagues of sorts should any of the Major League Thunderbolts need to go on the disabled list (whether it is the 15 day DL or the more permanent kind). So, this issue has all the fun of “first mission with the new team member” and “getting the new team together”. Seriously, how does Parker jam so much into his comics? I think this is his 12th post-Siege issue of T-bolts and we have covered 4-5 stories. Pretty amazing when you consider there are a LOT of other superhero comics that can’t do more than 2 stories per year. Bravo!
The mission for the A-team is pretty cool. It’s basically just some kinda thing that Parker made up (I think) where there has been a mystical fortress that popped up in eastern Europe and the hero community has known about it for awhile, but was letting the problem wait until some team had (a) time and (b) an appropriate magic-based team member. It kinda gives the impression that in Steve Rogers office, there is a big “To Do” list on the wall and this problem has been festering because Dr. Strange is busy and Brother Voodoo is dead, so he keeps tasking the various Avengers teams to tackle some other problem.
Satana is a neat addition to the team. For one thing, the first scene we see her in, she is climbing around on Man-Thing (heh) and covering him with glowing, mystic tattoos. This causes Cage to yell, “Woman, what are you doing to that Man Thing?” (heh) It’s also cool to see how uncomfortable Satana makes Juggernaut, Ghost and Moonstone. They’re the “core” villains of the team and as readers, we’ve kinda gotten to like them, so having a new teammate who may be tempted to betray them will be fun.
Kev Walker and the rest of the art team really do a bang-up job. The style of the book is very unique, but I’ve really grown to enjoy it during his tenure on the book because he does such a good job emphasizing the differing natures of the characters on the team. When you thing about it, this book has to be a bitch to draw because of the character types: Juggernaut (hulking, but w/o muscles ripping through his clothes), Cage (hulking, but WITH muscles rippling through his clothes), Ghost (small, spectral & skinny), Moonstone (basically a lithe female nude with colored-on uniform), Mach V (a mech/tech type character) & Man-Thing (hulking shambling plant). Tell you what: There are a LOT of artists working in mainstream superhero comics who would struggle with this title because they can’t manage one of those character types, but Walker seems able to draw anything and his versatility allows Parker to put whatever characters on the team he wants to.
What’s Not So Good: Nothing really substantial. I guess if forced to point at some reason why a comic fan might not enjoy Thunderbolts, I guess this comic doesn’t technically “matter” to the global events of the Marvel Universe. But, that’s actually one of the things that I really like about this issue/series: The types of problems that the Tbolts tackle seem entirely appropriate for who they are. When you need the world or universe saved, you send the Avengers. But, when you’ve got a dangerous castle full of undead Nazi’s, you send in the Tbolts.
Conclusion: Parker keeps juggling the roster for the Thunderbolts and that keeps things fresh. Combine that with his ability to maintain a crisp pacing while telling two stories at the same time and Kev Walker’s generally awesome art and you have another winner!
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell
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