Driftwood
It's hammer time at the raft. Meanwhile, the T-Bolts are neck deep in zombies and the staff at the raft are neck deep something far more unpleasant.
The Good
Jeff Walker's back to doing all the art and thank God for it. Parker and Walker are a match made in heaven, and no other artist that's filled in can recreate Walker's chemistry with Parker's scripts. Parker does a great job this issue and is give lots and lots of action to draw. I really, really love his design for Worthy Juggs.
This issue is packed with wall to wall action and I love every bit of it. All the T-Bolts get to strut there stuff and cut loose. Every member (aside from Boomerang) show's there worth and proves that they're more than qualified to be out in the field.
The one thing I love about Parker's writing is his ability to balance the gravitas and violence of the book with humor. The bits with Gunna/Boomerang and Centurious/Shocker. I love the dynamic the new members bring to the title and hope this is the first of many team ups to come.
Juggy's transformation causes all hell to break lose on the raft and the T-Bolts have to high tail it back to the raft to restore what little order they can. I've grown really fond of Songbird and was glad that she stepped up to take charge in Cage's absence. If nothing else this issue proves to me that Cage is totally unnecessary in this series and the T-Bolts can more than get along without him.
I'm not following Fear Itself, but I'm glad to know that tying into wasn't to the detriment of the title. I also like that crap hit the fan while the T-Bolts were in action. Most of the time when a title gets sucked into an event the characters aren't doing much of anything. This approach really made it feel real to me.
The Bad
Some may be checking out T-Bolts because it's a tie in to Fear Itself and will find themselves a bit lost due to not having regularly followed this series.
Before the hammer dropped Juggy starts to hear voices. I found this bit very, very confusing. Was that really Satana? If so how was she communicating with him? Is Cyttorak just screwing with him? After effects of Gothenwalds spider monster? Is it the Hammer speaking to him? The frak's going on here?!
The Verdict
BUY THIS COMIC!!!
The past two issues of T-Bolts had me wondering if the title was entering a down turn. Well this week Parker and Walker did a great job of reminding me exactly why I came to love this title in the first place. This issue's an action packed thrill ride from beginning to end and manages to walk the fine line between being a compelling tie in issue and not deviating from it's on internal narrative.