Juggernaut is now more unstoppable!
The Thunderbolts B Team faces a bunch of zombies, and a hammer hits the Raft, which is picked up by Juggernaut, making him more unstoppable than ever before.
The Good
Although I don't read Thunderbolts on a regular basis, I really enjoyed this as a tie-in. So far, Fear Itself has done pretty well with their tie-ins and it's cool to see how Juggernaut got a hold of the hammer and what was going through his mind moments before grabbing it. Aside from that, as much as it confused me because I'm not a reader of this book, it was cool to see this team in the middle of another story/battle, and all of the sudden, they get interrupted by something larger. Many times, these teams are doing nothing when the major story arc forces them into action. However, this book really showed how busy these heroes can be at some points. I guess there are no days off for super-heroes.
Aside from my confusion, the art and writing are very solid here. The book has a great flow to it, and you can't have that without a great creative team. Jeff Parker is known, at least by me, for writing things a tad bit more comedic in nature, but he's pretty straight-laced here and it works incredibly well. Kev Walker did the art and Frank Martin Jr worked on the color and their style works very well with Parker's writing style. It's a great creative team for this book.
The Bad
I haven't read a Thunderbolts book in a long time, and it was pretty cool to see Juggernaut on the team, but his costume design in this book is incredibly dumb looking. The opening in this helmet is now a giant blocky "Y," and his suit reminds me quite a bit of Iron Man's first suit. Aside from that, before he gets the hammer (which shouldn't be much of a spoiler anyway since he received the hammer in Fear Itself already), he's constantly grimacing. It looks incredibly odd.
For a new reader, like myself, there is too much going on and too many characters to keep track of. There's a zombie threat and the hammer hitting the raft, and Hammer-Powered Juggernaut. There's also many not so well known characters, and it can be a bit confusing since I have no clue who they are.
The Verdict
This is a good book, don't get me wrong, but as a new reader, I was completely confused to what was going on and who most of the characters in the book were. New readers will have a really hard time jumping in here, especially those who are reading for the Fear Itself tie-in, but Thunderbolts fans will really love this issue. This is one of those tough times where I really enjoyed the book, but had little to no clue about the series. If I was a on-going reader of Thunderbolts, I easily could have given this a 4.5, but Juggernaut's helmet and my lack of knowledge dropped this puppy to a 3.5