Faith in Monsters: Part 3
This is the 3rd issue under Warren Ellis and so far I like this new direction for the Thunderbolts team (if you can call them that). It doesn't seem that long ago that we had Ellis working on Ultimate Fantastic Four, and I must say that I'm enjoying this book a lot more then his run on UFF.
Probably the character I'm enjoying the most in the book is Norman Osborn. I love Ellis' characterization of him. Some writers make Norman seem like a total out of control lunatic, and others portray him like a genius that is in total control. Ellis manages to portray both those sides and it makes for a much more interesting Osborn. When he is with members of the team he is in total control, and knows how to manipulate them to get exactly what he wants. When he's alone however, his obsession with a certain superhero gets the best of him.
There is also a scene involving Mac Gargan (Venom) in the book that is only a few pages long, but it probably does more for the character then any other writer has done with him since he's become Venom. Basically before this, Gargan just became Venom and that's it. Nothing was really ever done with the character since, and nothing was done to show if this had changed him at all on a personality level. Finally we get to see a little bit of what is going on in his head. If Gargan is going to remain as Venom, at least someone is trying to make him a more interesting character.
The plot thus far is very interesting as they try to make this team work while maintaining a good public image. The different scenes involving the TV media might seem borderline ridiculous at times... but really the TV media is borderline ridiculous in real life (and I'm being kind).
Although I see where some things in this series could become old pretty fast, but I have confidence that Warren Ellis isn't just going to rehash the same thing for every storyarc.