The Avengers weren’t the only revamped team to reveal it’s newest incarnation as a part of Marvel NOW! this week. A brand new team of Thunderbolts has been unveiled in the pages of ‘Thunderbolts’ #1 and essentially someone should just go ahead and add an apostrophe to the title and make it ‘Thunderbolt’s’ #1. Not that there’s anything wrong with that because after ‘Avengers’ #28, I wouldn’t mind having more Red Hulk on my pull list.
Back when the team was revealed at New York Comic Con, I was very excited to see this new team of Thunderbolts in action. With a roster made up of the deadliest figures in the Marvel Universe, this new series is sure to be action-packed and over-flowing with badassery.
In this introductory issue, we get to see General Thuderbolt Ross, who’s nickname was a no-brainer indicator that he’d get involved with this team somehow, recruit The Punisher, Deadpool, Elektra, and Venom to his new collective. But that’s about it. Nothing else too exciting. There was a bit with a mysterious purple-haired female who I didn’t recognize that wasn’t featured on the cover, but even with that little bit of mystery, there’s not much to talk about.
Literally, all we got to see in this issue was General Ross talking to each potential member of this team with hints at the carnage that ensued at their hands. Pacing of the issue seemed entirely too slow for how many face-paced, action-packed characters involved in the book. Even Deadpool, a character that Way is very familiar with, wasn’t fully there in full force. For someone who’s the comedic relief on the team, there were no hints of that trademark Deadpool silliness in this issue. I know that there is more to Deadpool than just jokes, but they’re a pretty big part of the character, so why do him the injustice of leaving that out, especially if this is a first impression for some readers.
I’m very confident that once we get these characters together on a mission, we’re going to get some things that are worth talking about. Daniel Way is a talented writer, so once this series really gets into it, we should get some awesome stories with these troubled and complex characters, but this first one was just meh. I know that it’s supposed to establish the universe of the book and introduce the key players in it, but it would have been nice to get a little bit more in the first issue than just that. It’s very possible that reading ‘Thunderbolts’ #1 after reading ‘Avengers’ #1 hurt Rulk’s new team book, but I still have hope for it. I’m not dropping it just yet because I love the cast, but we’ll see how things progress when the next issue comes out.
Final Score:
THUNDERBOLTS #1
Written by DANIEL WAY
Art by STEVE DILLON & GURU EFX
Cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO