Thunderstrike's Back, Finally
The story of Thunderstrike finally gets a continuation as Kevin Masterson is reunited with his father's lost mace, and it is great to return to one of the gems of 90s.
Right off the bat, one of the major strengths of this new Thunderstrike title is the surprising direction Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz have gone with Kevin Masterson. The troubled way in which he has developed in the years since his father's death is actually very understandable and far more interesting than if he was still this well-adjusted, typical kid. It also keeps this from being a predictable story of a kid picking up his father's heroic legacy as we are given plenty of reason to think that it may be a bad idea for Kevin to ever wield the powers of Thunderstrike.
Steve Rogers appears in this issue, because he is the new Norman Osborn like Osborn was the new Tony Stark. Personally, I enjoy seeing Rogers getting out there as the new top cop of the Marvel Universe. His approach to it is a stark contrast to Osborn's corrupting influence.
Marvel played a pretty good trick on people by manipulating the previews of this issue to make it appear that Eric Masteron would return. It is a bait and switch that may piss some people off, but it really is not a big deal. Because aside from that, Marvel has been pretty clear that this was never going to be about Eric's return.
This book is not without one major disappointment, and that is the decision to go for a retro style of storytelling to match the Thunderstrike series back in the 90s. I really enjoyed the previous Thunderstrike series, as I did many titles in the 90s. But I really have no interest in reading stories told in the same way today. It's a decision I really do not understand. Not only does the retro style lessen my enjoyment of the story, it is going to lessen the amount of people willing to give this series a try. It has already been proven time and again that this kind of style is not popular, so why inflict it on a limited series that may already have an uphill battle to be read by many readers? As a fan of Thunderstrike, it's just frustrating. It's frustrating because it hurts the story and because it makes it less likely that this limited series will lead to anything further for the character.
If you can overlook the retro storytelling, this is a good read that doesn't necessarily require you to be a fan or even familiar with the previous Thunderstrike. It takes a twist on a young hero gaining great power that we do not usually see and presents a strong basis for a legacy hero, which is not something Marvel has a wealth of.
