The Coming of the Dark Avengers
This is the first issue in the new direction for The-Book-That-Was-And-To-Me-Remains-Thunderbolts. But sadly, this issue is just entirely set-up.
John Walker, Ai Apaec, Ragnarok and Trickshot spend the entire issue unconscious. Moonstone and Skaar spent most of it... standing around... Toxic Doxie spends most of it listening to exposition by Hank Pym. Honestly, there's nothing really happening here. The entire issue is spent mostly setting up an alternate universe we will never see again and was already set-up as sufficiently evil enough from the 2 pages we saw of it last issue. Iron Man killing a woman begging for his help. Yeah, okay, that's all the set-up we need. We don't need a whole issue of Pym torturing the Wasp, Strange brainwashing people or armies of Iron Men ... standing around... Skaar and Moonstone. We get it's evil.
I mean, other than that there's honestly not a lot to say. Skaar reverts to dumb brute too much and the evil Iron Man armor is god damn ugly which is in line with all the other new Iron Man armors so far. Toxic Doxie has a fun line and is continuing to be the only one of that stupid gang who has any potential. Which is appropriately reflected in that the issue had Trickshot, Ragnarok and the dumb Spider-God spending the entire issue without any lines appearing prominently in one panel each. And with this issue, it's already clear where they're going and how John Walker is going to regain his limbs. It doesn't seem exciting and is pretty much just going to make him a boring character whining "Oh no i can walk again...but I'm just like the man who crippled me. Waaaaaa".
Some pros? Okay, you want some pros. This issue will probably hold the record for featuring the most amount of Tigra you'll ever see in any Marvel NOW title. She's in two or three panels with no dialogue. Enjoy it Tigra fans. Secondly, after the last 5 or so issues, artist Neil Edwards finally gets which limbs Walker lost correct which is probably only because I told him on Twitter. The dialogue "What the hell is this?" "I have no idea" with regards to Ai Apaec is perfect because it's exactly how I feel about that thing. If that's the only attitude towards that character from now on I'll be happy.
This isn't a great issue. But you know what? It's still better than every other Marvel NOW title from Daniel Way's abysmal mess of a Thunderbolts title or Hickman's pretentious Iron Man wank-fest called Avengers or that trash Bendis is writing where Emma Frost talks like a commoner. So, yeah, if you buy any Marvel book, buy this one. Or just do yourself a favor and buy none of them. Not even the trades. They just release the same Wolverine stories by Chris Claremont again and again in different formats anyway.
