When we last left the Thunderbolts, they were in the midst of facing the hammer-powered Juggernaut’s wrath. With the huge explosion that ended the last issue, are some Thunderbolts going to end up as pancakes?
The Good
I really liked this issue because it highlighted the whole moral ambiguity behind the Thunderbolts team. From the team members themselves to the people working behind it, there’s a “do whatever it takes to get it done” attitude that’s prevalent. I’m a fan of this, because it doesn’t mean that people are jackasses (well, except for a few).
There’s a tendency for books with this flaw to make it an all or nothing affair, but thankfully there’s a little bit of temperance. In the early stages of this book, there was that feeling that any one of the members could turn on each other at any moment, but I’m thankful that people have started to settle into their roles and actually behave as human beings. Satana, while relatively “fresh,” manages to pull her own in this issue.
Man-Thing has always been a bit of a wild card in this series, and I’m excited at the fact that hey may in fact harbor a little affection for the team. I really didn’t want him to be a deus ex machina, showing up whenever it was convenient.
Having The Fixer use his “inside connections” kind of intrigued me; I’m excited to see where this is going to go.
The Bad
Thunderbolts is usually a book that works around the Avengers’ schedule, but in Fear Itself their fates seem to be intertwined with the Uncanny X-Men. Seeing Juggernaut out of the book really makes me wonder where they’re going to go from here; on one hand, they still have to keep an eye on Juggs, as he’s a member of the team, but on the other, there’s still everyone else.
If there’s one problem this book has, it’s that there’s a bunch of different storylines that are a bit hard to keep track of: Fear Itself, Juggernaut’s internal struggle, Fixer/USAgent’s securing of the raft, Troll, the “A” team’s actions, the “B” team’s machinations and how it all ties together. It can be a bit overwhelming.
The Verdict
This issue was solid as always, if not a little plodding. It’s a cooldown issue between the madness of Juggernaut and the conclusion of Fear Itself, where the T-Bolts will hopefully have a place. It would be a shame to see them lost in the shuffle with such strong writing, and with the team finally starting to work together, it would be a crime to not explore that.
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