some of these things are the same, some are different
Straight off the bat, something that struck me as odd was the bit of New Avengers cross-advertising. Is Thunderbolts struggling that Marvel thinks the words “New” and “Avengers” will boost the sales? Also, I don’t think this is a “from the pages” kind of story. Jeff Parker has already left his mark on the Thunderbolts book, and it’s better for it. Now, this issue does touch on subjects that laid out in New Avengers, but what story arc doesn’t reference another these days, especially when you live in the House of Ideas?
Now I’m going to take a moment to lay some hate on Parker.
I didn’t like how Cage and Strange were fighting a huge monster at the bottom of one page, and the top of the next is the aftermath with Cage saying “that was nasty”. I understand that wasn’t the main story and there most likely wasn’t enough room, but that felt really cheap.
This may not be Parker’s fault, maybe a lazy editor or something, but Strange is very inconsistent throughout the issue. I like the… de-powered Strange. As Sorcerer Supreme he was just way too powerful to do anything with. I mean, he could just snap his fingers and stuff would get done. Sorry, that’s slightly off-topic. In either Avengers book, both by Bendis, when Strange casts a spell there are words describing the spell, where it came from, or something to that extent, and his magic words seem like (for lack of a better word) real. In Thunderbolts, he makes Roadblock-like rhymes that just sound more goofy than anything else.
I love Kev Walker’s art, especially his Juggernaut. He is perhaps one of my favorite bad guys, and he really looks like a juggernaut the way draws him. The only issue I had was Strange at one point looked too much like J. Jonah Jameson.
As a whole though, this issue was kind of a drag. There was no actual Thunderbolts action; the whole team was only shown at the end for the big tease for the next issue or two. A huge group of inmates were selected by Songbird and the warden to start some training, to replace any current Thunderbolt if they are incapacitated in any way.
This is not a bad issue, but it’s not great either. It serves its purpose, pushes the main story along, but after such big fights and adventures since Parker took over, it’s a little slow.
