Writers: Andy Diggle, Daniel Way, Rick Remender
Artists: Roberto De La Torre, Carlos Magno, Scott Hanna, Paco Medina, Bong Dazo, Miguel Sepulveda, Pop Mhan, and Carlos Rodriguez.
I will be reviewing 3 Thunderbolts trades for this post: Burning Down the House, Dark Reign: Deadpool/Thunderbolts, and Widowmaker.
The Thunderbolts is probably the most interesting Marvel series for a book with very little name recognition. This series started when all of the Avengers die saving the world from the evil Onslaught, and a new super hero team rises from the ashes to fill the void left in their absence. This was a group of unknowns, who are revealed at the end of the first issue to be the super villains The Masters of Evil in disguise.
The original team.
This team had a great dynamic, because it had villains who wanted to turn in to heroes, villains using this to their evil advantage, and villains who wanted nothing more than fame. The team was later transformed into a "Dirty Dozen" squad of villains, being blackmailed by the government to take down super criminals, and possibly convert them. This team had a few hold overs from the original team, but the big appeal now was the addition of the psychotic, more famous villains like Bullseye, Venom, and Green Goblin. The Green Goblin aspect was probably my favorite, because it was just his alter-ego (looking an awful lot like Tommy Lee Jones) Norman Osborn as their director of operations.
I think that is enough of a history lesson to catch you up. The books I am reviewing take place after Norman Osborn is declared a national hero for his work with the Thunderbolts, by stopping an alien invasion. He then takes his favorite members with him to head up a new Avengers team (The Dark Avengers), dressing bad guys like known heroes, and with old Normie himself front and center, as the Iron Patriot.
The Thunderbolts team is in upheaval, and Osborne has put a hit out on Songbird, the only founding member left who was against him, so he can start his new position with no loose ends. For something that is supposed to kind of relaunch the book with a new team, I think they spend too much time on phasing out the old team.
It takes about 3 issues to get the story rolling on the new team. We are introduced to the second Black Widow, Yelena Belova, while she is caught trying to steal from Osborn. He gives her an ultimatum, become the leader of his new team, or die. Scar-Jo looks a lot more like Yelena than she does the original Black Widow.
The President of the United States decides he needs to meet with Osborn on Air Force One to discuss the extreme measures that are being used with his new found power. Osborne uses this opportunity to have a "Green Goblin" attack the plane during the meeting and have the "New" Thunderbolts come to their rescue. In Osborne's mind, this will show his innocence in the rumors of his Goblin activities, and show that the use of excessive force is certainly needed. Win, win.
Headsman, Ghost, Paladin, Ant-Man, Black Widow, Mister X, and Scourge
Here is the team he is trying to promote:
Ghost was a programmer who's body was fused with "Ghost-Tech" during an explosion. Right off the bat, we can tell that Ghost really doesn't have to be part of this team, and is here because this is where he wants to be.
The Headsman is a dude who has a giant axe, and allegedly uses is to chop off people's heads. The Green Goblin is the one who gave him his special axe, after hearing about a killing spree that the Headsman went on before he arrived in New York. This happened way back in the Untold Tales of Spider-Man #8 in 1996.
Ant-Man 3, Eric O'Grady, is a scummy ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. analyst, who stole the latest Ant-Man suit from a lab so he could sneak into girls' houses and perv on them. He is my favorite Ant-Man, but he is barely used in this series. He ends up mostly hiding in vents, over hearing team mates conspiring against each other, but does spend a little time down the front of The Black Widow's bodysuit. The man has a rep to maintain.
Paladin is a gun for hire/private detective. He's in it for the money, plain and simple.
Mister X is a finely tuned killer, who uses his mild telepathy to read his opponents moves against him. He is a sociopath, and he's only on this team for the license to kill.
Scourge is a "mystery" member, brought in during the 3rd trade in this arc. Like most of this new roster, he's an enhanced killer. It's hard to talk about Scourge without spoiling the mystery of who he actually is, but I can tell you that the whole charade isn't really worth it. Most of these characters are barely known in the Marvel U, and Scourge is on a level only slightly higher than that. Norman promotes him to field leader almost immediately after putting him on the team.
After his new team's triumphant win against the "Green Goblin," which ends up just being Headsman in disguise, Norman gives the team a pretty straight forward new assignment, "Kill Deadpool."
For those of you not familiar with comic books, Deadpool isn't Ryan Reynolds with a bunch of random super powers and 15 inch swords hidden in his forearms. Yes, Deadpool is part of the same program that gave us Wolverine, but he was a human who was given an accelerated healing factor, making him immune to all diseases and able to restore destroyed tissue almost immediately. He was suffering from cancer at the time of the tests, and the acceleration of his immune system covered his entire body with scar tissue. This also caused some mental problems for Deadpool, because the effect of his new powers on his brain turned him insane.It is revealed to us that the mission Norman Osborne took stopping an alien invasion, making him a pillar of the community, was actually meant for Deadpool. Norman had hacked several secure S.H.I.E.L.D. servers to get classified information, and intercepted the message. Deadpool wants revenge.
This was a "crossover" event in comics, where two separate titles combine for 4-6 issues to tell one story. One of my least favorite parts about comic books, because you have to buy outside of your monthly titles to complete a story. Or as they call it at the Marvel Headquarters, Marketing 101.
The Thunderbolts meet Deadpool head on in Avengers Tower, and it's explosions and dismemberment for 4 issues. Not really the greatest story, but entertaining. I think the worst part is that in the first trade they have one story, then skip to an issue that takes place after the Deadpool crossover to recruit Mister X. So I wasn't really concerned that anyone was going to die or be removed from the team. No consequence for failure or success.
The third volume heats up a bit. We learn that there is a traitor among this new team, secretly reporting their findings back to Nick Fury, who is now in hiding because Osborne has dismantled S.H.I.E.L.D., and replaced it with HAMMER. Songbird comes out of hiding to expose Norman for the psychopath he actually is, so Norman scrambles his team, with Scourge leading them, to find and kill Songbird once and for all.
This was the most interesting book for me, with team members working out deals among each other, the sleeper agent blowing their cover in an attempt to help Songbird, and an all out war between these Thunderbolts!
I'm not sure if the sales weren't great, or if Andy Diggle was just tired of doing it, but he leaves the book at the end of all of this, and this entire team dynamic changes during the next volume. I was very interested in seeing where all of that was headed, but now we get a new creative team, a new direction, and of course, all new team members. This is the way comic books work, I know, I'm just sad that this Thunderbolts team didn't have a little more time to grow into it's full potential. Either way, I'm glad I read them. I always like seeing old characters re-purposed in comics, it's the only reason I ever picked up The Thunderbolts in the first place, and this story arc did just that.
I'd read it again!
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