Review: Thunderbolts: Violent Rejection trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

It’s Thunderbolts time again, and for the moment, we’re going to skip ahead past the “Shadowland” crossover and go right to Violent Rejection. Because Luke Cage’s partner Iron Fist was a key player in that crossover, Cage and his Thunderbolts got dragged into it.

The main result is that Crossbones is gone from the team. In his place at first is Hyperion, one of Marvel’s Superman analogues. He’s part of the Squadron Supreme, an alternate-dimension Justice League of America which has gone through quite a few incarnations. Unfortunately, this Hyperion is not one of the more sane ones, despite what he claims. An absolutely massive battle unfolds in the second part of this story, which includes a great reference to the song “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” by Jim Croce. Naturally, Man-Thing is on hand to help out, and as Hyperion finds out, it’s a bad idea to be afraid around him. One of the funniest moments in this year’s comic books occurs in this issue. I’m not going to spoil it, but let’s just say it involves the Ghost, his cloud of flies and the ladies of the team.

After a Man-Thing solo adventure (more or less), the team recruits its newest member: Satana, daughter of Mephisto and sister of Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, because the team needs someone versed in the mystical arts. As a perky, mischievous character, Satana adds some friction to the team’s line-up. Again, Man-Thing is essential to recruiting her, and she turns out to really like the guy, going as far as tattooing a complex mystical spell on him. I’m sorry for emphasizing Man-Thing so much, but I’m only doing so because Jeff Parker, Jason Aaron or another writer with magic-related character experience needs to create a solo series for him. I have room on my schedule if they’re busy.

While all this is going on, Songbird and John Walker are coming up with an ingenious tactic which I can’t believe they hadn’t used before with the Thunderbolts: creating a Beta team to bring in when another member is dropped. A few teams have done this before, most notably Alpha Flight’s trainee teams, Beta and Gamma Flight, and the Avengers’ reserve members in the '90s, but with the Thunderbolts’ turnover rate, a Beta team is almost necessary.

The extensive search results in the crazy and super-strong Mr. Hyde; Gunna the Troll, a half-human feral girl who was captured during the events of Cage; Boomerang, who is more or less Marvel’s version of DC’s Captain Boomerang; Centurius, an arrogant super-scientist; and the Shocker, one of Spider-Man’s more famous rogues. As it turns out, Centurius is not the same person as Ghost Rider’s foe Centurious, which sort of confused me at first.

Kev Walker is back as the artist, and as I mentioned in the Invincible Iron Man reviews, I love consistent writer/artist teams. Declan Shalvey has two fill-in issues, including the Man-Thing solo issue, and like Siege: Thunderbolts, there are no jarring art shifts. Mr. Hyde, both in writing and art, has been turned into the version seen in Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Considering how much I enjoyed that version of Hyde, I have absolutely no problem with this. I do need to give a specific kudos to the cover artist for issue #156, John-Sébastien Rossbach, for invoking the famous Avengers “who will be the next member” covers.

Thunderbolts: Violent Tendencies continues Parker’s excellent Thunderbolts run, which will hopefully keep on going for a long time. This trade does end with a cliffhanger, but I think this is purposeful on the part of the collection department in order to publish a six-issue trade as soon as possible. Also, the next few issues tie in to the “Fear Itself” event, which warrants its own trade. This trade also includes Handbook profiles for Hyperion and Satana, so you can catch up on them without having to search elsewhere. If you enjoyed Cage, then you’ll certainly enjoy Violent Tendencies.

This trade comes courtesy of Twilite Zone Comics in Glen Burnie, MD.

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Review: Thunderbolts: Cage hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

When we last saw the Thunderbolts, they were a hit squad under the command of the man who should never have been given such power in the first place: Norman Osborn. But now, the tide has finally shifted back to actual heroics, as demonstrated in the opening pages of Thunderbolts: Cage, where Osborn is marched through the Raft Prison in his inmate jumpsuit. As a reader who kept struggling with the obvious question of both “Dark Reign” and “Siege” (How stupid are the people of the Marvel Universe?), it’s nice to finally have him gone.

In his place is a man who's known both time in prison and time with the Avengers. It’s the man whose appearance in the solicitation for #144 got me to pick the title up again in the first place. In perhaps the best move in comics in 2010, Luke Cage, perhaps the greatest story of redemption in the Marvel Universe, was put in charge of the Thunderbolts.

With the new leader comes a shift back to the old Thunderbolts redemptive model, albeit without new names and costumes. This isn’t a big loss, especially since the program is under the auspices of S.H.I.E.L.D. and other government authorities so there’s no point in hiding who they used to be. Most of the old Thunderbolts are back; Fixer and Mach-V (formerly Mach-I) are the tech team, Songbird is a guard/leader, and Moonstone is one of the prisoners brought in to be redeemed. I can’t overemphasize how happy I am to see Mach-V and Songbird in a book on a consistent basis; they were two of the breakout starts of the old series as the first Thunderbolts to really embrace redemption. I’d like to see Atlas appear in the series at some point, although he was involved with the Defenders around the time of this trade’s publication.

The new recruits, chosen carefully from the rather large ranks of the Raft’s inmates, are also good additions to the team. First, the Ghost returns; he was one of the best characters in the team’s previous incarnation, and writer Jeff Parker ramps up his creepiness (a feat I thought impossible). Next up is the Juggernaut, who's been switching sides for years now and is another personal favorite, if only for visual design reasons. The last new member is Crossbones, and thankfully, his questionable recruitment is also challenged by Cage for the obvious reason: he shot Captain America. (Of course, by this point, Cap was alive once more, a fact that the inmates don’t mind teasing him about.) And then … there’s Man-Thing. He’s technically the team’s transportation thanks to his connection to the Nexus of All Realities, but his role grows and grows throughout their adventures. I’ve always wanted to see this swamp monster get some good exposure, and Thunderbolts is doing just that.

One of the main themes of this title is making sure that the villains on furlough don’t escape. Unlike Warren Ellis’ run, in which the Thunderbolts became the Suicide Squad, there is actual leadership to make sure the members don’t go completely out of control. Of course, things go wrong on the missions, but Cage and Songbird (and often Mach-V, who eventually becomes a field agent) are there to keep them in line. One story sees them mopping up after “Siege”; another sees them take on some creepy creatures which will later have an effect on one team member’s life. The end of that second story is a crossover with Avengers Academy called “Scared Straight,” and while the other title’s issues aren’t present, there’s enough context to see why they’re visiting the Cage. In that title, a faculty of Avengers is trying to dissuade potential supervillains from turning to crime, and neither I nor the staff of the Raft are entirely sure that this was the best way to scare them straight.

Like all good Thunderbolts teams, this one is functionally dysfunctional: they can get the job done, but they’ll argue the entire way. Moonstone, the most arrogant member of the old team, gets knocked down a peg as a prisoner; you can tell that Songbird is having just a bit of fun with the situation. The Juggernaut is deceptively simple, and his struggle to find a direction is reminiscent of what Mach-I went through in the old series. Crossbones, on the other hand, actually is just as evil and horrible as he appears on the surface, but this was one of the reasons why he was selected. As always, the Ghost is bizarre, and he becomes even more so when we get to see his face.

One of the best secondary characters is the Raft’s new warden: John Walker, a.k.a. the U.S. Agent. You may recall that he was in Siege: Thunderbolts; near the end of that story, he was crippled by Nuke, with nearly the entire left side of his body damaged. He now has an obvious prosthetic arm and one missing leg. However, simple life-threatening injuries can’t stop someone as crazily awesome as the U.S. Agent, and he demonstrates this during “Scared Straight.”

Kev Walker’s artwork is … weird, albeit a good kind of weird. It’s an extremely stylized type of artwork that at times seems out of proportion. Essentially, if a character is big, then he’s huge; this is especially true with Juggernaut, and to a lesser extend with Crossbones and Cage. Mark-V also has some weird shapes and is surprisingly bulky for a man who is essentially wearing a fighter jet.

Once you read a story or two, however, you get used to it, and every character looks more or less the way they’re supposed to … except Songbird. For some reason, Songbird has a vertical shock of hair that, in my opinion, looks really stupid, especially with the streak her hair has always had. I’m not the only person to complain about this, and I’ve read ahead and her hair does grow out, so it’s only a temporary issue. Walker does make up for it with the great detail of a cloud of flies always surrounding Ghost, reminding us that as creepy as he looks and acts, his smell is even worse.

Quite simply, the current iteration of this series is one of Marvel’s best, and with Thunderbolts: Cage, you can get in at the start of this new era. The series has finally returned to the core theme of redemption, and with a combination of great character choices and great character writing, it’s impossible to not want to keep on reading. Also, it has Man-Thing. I dare you to look into Man-Thing’s eyes and not want to buy anything featuring him. (Just don’t get scared.)

This trade comes courtesy of Twilite Zone Comics in Glen Burnie, MD.

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Review: Siege: Thunderbolts hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[A new guest review by Doug Glassman, who blogs at Astrakhan Industries.]

It’s time to move past the “Dark Reign” era and on to “Siege,” recounting a war between the Asgardians and Norman Osborn’s H.A.M.M.E.R. Many of the “Dark Reign” plot threads were wrapped up in “Siege” and the new “Heroic Age” era began. The Thunderbolts have come a long way, too, since my review of Justice, Like Lightning.

The title has gone through some changes of concept recently. What began as a team of redemptive criminals masquerading as superheroes was first retooled into a Fight Club rip-off (if you’ve ever heard the derogatory term “Fightbolts,” it refers to the last few issues of the original run). The New Thunderbolts reboot in 2004 returned the team to its roots, eventually growing into an army of villains during “Civil War.” Warren Ellis then famously had Norman Osborn take over the team, resulting in violent new members like Venom and Bullseye and a change of concept from redemption to Marvel’s version of Suicide Squad. That team then became the Dark Avengers, which went back to the original concept in some ways, while a new team of Thunderbolts emerged as Osborn’s personal killing squad.


Siege: Thunderbolts takes place during the inevitable “fall” period of any empire. It was only a matter of time before Norman Osborn came crashing down spectacularly, and his team of killers is along for the ride, if only peripherally. In the two stories presented here, Osborn is getting ready for the siege of Asgard, so he’s mostly seen in holographic messages.

The team is led by Scourge, who is actually Nuke, the flag-faced, pill-popping villain initially seen in Daredevil: Born Again. As a military man, he tries to keep his team in line . . . but all of his teammates have a few issues with authority. Mister X is a constantly shirtless, egotistical and violence-addicted Wolverine villain whose telepathic fight abilities are reminiscent of the Midnighter from The Authority. The Headsman, Cleavon Twain, is a hick who uses Green Goblin-style technology -- and yes, that is his real name, and yes, there is no way he could have gone into any other business. 


Apart from these whackos and the Grizzly, a super-strong Spider-Man foe who joins up later, there are a few more complex characters. Paladin is a hired gun who has been around for a long time and who starts having some suspicious feelings which may resemble a conscience. The new “Irredeemable” Ant-Man, who premiered in a great series by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester a few years back, is just an all-out coward and opportunist who wants nothing more than to get out of the Thunderbolts.

The most interesting character here is the Ghost, an anti-corporate raider who has been a thorn in Iron Man’s side for decades. He’s gone through an impressive redesign, both physically and character-wise, and while it began in the Iron Man: The Inevitable mini-series, Thunderbolts takes it even further. Starting out as an alternate version of the Taskmaster, he’s become a spindly, gas-masked creep, with the social manners and speech patterns to match it. However, he has his own weird moral code. I’ll talk about the Ghost more in later Thunderbolts reviews and the Invincible Iron Man: Stark Disassembled review.


While Andy Diggle (creator of The Loners) put this team together, it’s Jeff Parker who takes the team apart. Sometimes, when a new writer is brought on board for a “bold, new direction,” it’s easy to just kill everyone off and pretend the past never happened. However, Parker successfully transitions from this band of killers into the upcoming “Heroic Age” incarnation. In the first story, this is accomplished by using the Agents of Atlas. This team is Marvel’s closest equivalent to the Justice Society of America in that they’re heroes of the past reinvigorated by a continuity-happy author to create a fantastic team in the present. Like an inverse of the original Thunderbolts, the Atlas Foundation and its Agents pretend to be a shady business operation while they secretly use their funds and power to do good deeds. The Grizzly faced off against them previously, and he certainly gets some revenge in.


The actual “Siege” tie-in finds the Thunderbolts as raiders of the Asgardian arsenal to find Gungnir, the Spear of Odin. In doing so, they face off against the Mighty Avengers, which on the surface has a rather odd line-up, featuring a younger, reborn Vision; Stature, former Young Avenger and the daughter of the second Ant-Man; U.S. Agent, the super-patriotic Captain America replacement/knock-off; and Amadeus Cho, Hercules’ super-smart buddy who thinks in mathematical equations.

Yet despite lacking powerhouses (Herc was dead-ish at the time, Hank Pym was busy and Quicksilver gets there late), this odd assemblage puts up a good fight in one of the best laid-out superhero battles I’ve read in a while. Much of this is because the villains aren’t pulling their punches; at least two are actively murderous, and most of the others wouldn’t mind taking some Avengers down permanently as well. There is also some giant-on-giant combat, which has been depressingly rare recently. In both stories, Parker gets to indulge in some very dark humor, including a post-hypnotic suggestion gone horribly wrong and Mister X’s fantastic moment in which he realizes that he just killed a god. 


Helping this dark story is some dark artwork from Miguel Sepulveda and Wellinton Alves. While I have never read anything drawn by Sepulveda before, Alves’ art has improved tremendously from his fill-in stint during War Machine (although I have a feeling that may have been a rushed job due to time constraints). Thankfully, there are no major artistic shifts, which can often ruin an ongoing story. The art is heavy on the shadows, and most of the main characters have a dark color palette; even the constantly shirtless Mister X has numerous black chest tattoos. Standing out amongst this is the pure-white Ghost, which provides some good contrast. When at their base or in-transit, the lighting is always red, darkening things even more.

One design quibble I do have is the change in helmet design for Ant-Man. He loses the forehead antennae and instead has a helmet that wouldn’t look out of place on an Autobot. Personally, I feel that Ant-Man should always have an ant-like head, or at least one that isn’t so distractingly un-ant-like.

Siege: Thunderbolts is a good pair of stories, especially if you like anti-heroes. This is at the end of an era, so I’m sure some of the story beats would be even more powerful with the context of previous storylines. I’d still say it rates a look, if only because it might hook you on Agents of Atlas.


This trade comes courtesy of Twilite Zone Comics in Glen Burnie, MD.

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