Thunderbolts

[Iambaytor]

Okay, here's how the Thunderbolts series worked.

 

Volume 1 - Picked up right after that whole Onslaught fuckup. Baron Zemo pretty much got a bunch of supervillains together, pretended to be superheroes to fill the void since all the Marvel heroes had disappeared at that point. Eventually the other members of the group (including Karla Soffen who really wasn't as much of a cunt back then as she has been post-Ellis) realized they liked being heroes and told Zemo to fuck off, Techno fucked off somewhere and they got a new member named Jolt and Hawkeye took over leadership of the team. I don't recall how it ended, but I know they broke up and Mach III went to jail for the crimes he committed as The Beatle.

 

Volume 2 - Made it a page into this. From what I understand it's like Nextwave, but with villains-turned-heroes, and not funny. I don't think it lasted very long.

 

Volume 3 - Mach III gets out of jail, restarts the team with Mockingbird, Atlas, Photon (Evil Captain Marvel more or less), and a few other members. This was where some new good members (Radioactive Man and Blizzard) and some utterly terrible ones (Speed Demon and Joystick) then The Fixer came back and so did Baron Zemo and Swordsman joined in there at some point. They got involved with the pro-registration side, rounded up all those supervillains that The Hood is currently in control of and reformed them. Zemo used Moonstone's moonstones to basically save the world and then they stopped him because hew as going to go all Miracleman. Mockingbird killed him, which brought Moonstone back to life.

 

Blizzard and Mach III's suits were damaged beyond repair and the lack of funds meant they were going back to civilian life, The Fixer had no desire to keep up with it, Joystick is in prison for being an annoying backstabbing cunt, and Speed Demon went back to being a z-list villain. So Mockingbird, Moonstone, Radioactive Man, and Swordsmen went on to Osbourne's team and you know the rest.

 

It wasn't a bad arc all told.

[The NZA]

ah, see...i missed out on all that. i only really heard about the book once the cat was outta the bag about Zemo & crew and wizard/etc was all over it. then id hear again about it when it went through some odd Fight Club phase later?

 

but yeah, i only read it regularly when Ellis came on and formed the team that's basically the Dark Avengers right now. solid book throughout, im even enjoying the current b-list team....but yeah, moving our talk over here now:

 

The New New Thunderbolts

Luke Cage

 

Man-Thing

Juggernaut

Ghost (Fuck yeah!)

Moonstone?

Crossbone

 

 

 

Okay, a lot of that doesn't make sense. SUPER BLOCK OF SPOILER TAG ATTACK!!!

 

 

So obviously Nuke/Scourge, Mr. X, and Headsman aren't going to be continuing service since two are Osbourne loyalists and one at a facefull of bullet. Clearly Antman doesn't have the stomach for this kind of work anymore and Paladin never stays with a team for long anyway. So that pretty much leaves Ghost (since we never got the payoff on the REAL Ylena Belova that Norman had in stasis, I don't know what the fuck that was all about) and I suppose it just isn't time for Mach IV (I guess he's Mach V now), Blizzard, and Fixer to rejoin the team but I would have thought they'd bring back Mockingbird and maybe even Radioactive Man, but I guess not. It's a shame, they had a good chemistry.

 

Now Ghost and Juggernaut make sense, they're good antiheroes (they're arguably better at being bad heroes than they ever were at being villains), and i don't know who Crossbone is but I'll say he makes sense too. But why is Moonstone still hanging around? Can't they have her offed by some shitty hero like D-Man or Frankencastle during Siege or something? Karla Soffen should have stayed dead the first time.

 

But the two that really perplex me are Luke Cage and man thing. I guess this was where Cage got thrown now that he's too black anti-heroey to be in the New New Avengers (though I expected all the awesome new members like Wolverine, Spidey, and Cage to go out with this event anyway so they could make room for cool members like the other Mockingbird and Ms. Marvel ) but why is Man-Thing on this team? Does Man-Thing even know how to be on a team? He's like a wild animal and the only thing he's ever seemed to like is Jennifer Kale (In retrospect maybe that's her in the middle, and not Karla Soffen). Not to mention he's supposed to stay in Citrusville to protect the Nexus of All Realities and so he doesn't die from not being on fresh earth.

 

I mean I'm a big Man-Thing fan (yeah yeah, say it, i know someone will) and would like to see more of him in every book because he's an awesome character and way better than that overpowered plagiarized tit Swamp Thing, but he's not really a team player. I mean, people are going to get scared and he's going to get pissed off and melt them. It will happen.

 

I remain optimistic about this team because it's a pretty awesome line-up, but I've not seen a team roster this random since X-Calibur.

 

 

/largely agreed. whole thing's news to me, by the way.

 

 

Juggs & Ghost seem like great candidates, Crossbones is a classic Cap villain played a small part in his death, im guessing he's the new bullseye "kept on a leash" one? and yeah, Man-Thing might not even know he's there, poor bastard. just glad Sentry didnt really kill him.

 

Cage...im guessing there's some kinda major falling out after Siege to land him here. what a weird choice, i thought he was a shoe-in Avenger, too. i wonder if this happening has anything to do with Alias putting on the spandex again...?

 

looking again, i dont know that Cage needs "fall into" anything, he might very well volunteer for this, as kinda a symbol of superhero reform (to that end, Clint would work as well...actually, where's Brock? he'd be great).

[Genroh]

I'm all for Man-Thing getting more page time. It's the only reason I am even bothering with Frankencatle Punisher at the moment.

 

Ghost Has been the only one of Ozzy's new TBs I like. Crossbone, meh I just have a soft spot for Skull masked baddies. It's a childhood thing don't ask.

I'm indifferent towards Juggs.

 

I like Luke Cage. I honestly do not understand all the hate.

 

Fuck Moonstone.

[The NZA]

im not hating on the choice of Cage, just mildly thrown off cause i thought bendis made a great case these last for years for him as a shoe-in Avenger. he'd better at least get a card.

 

Ghost is fun, im mostly reading right now to see Mr X get his ass beat cause i hated him when he started in and still do, granted i think you're supposed to though.

 

Juggs...can be cool, but hasnt in a while now, so like Brock, he's wide open for some good writing these days. bit off topic, but since you're the only guy i know on board: how is FrankenCastle going?

[Iambaytor]

Good point, where the fuck is Eddie Brock? That Anti-Venom mini was the first good Eddie Brock story I've read in a very very long time, so why hasn't Marvel cabbaged onto him for this? Or at very least Toxin, for Christ sake he's been MIA since his series ended.

[Newtype]

FrankenCastle?

 

No such thing.

[Iambaytor]

The people on the Brian Keene forum tell me that in spite of it being a horrible idea that FrankenCastle is actually a good arc. I read the first one and haven't bothered looking for the rest, so I wouldn't know.

[Mr. Hakujin]

I'm DL'n a Thunderbolts mega-torrent now. But I highly doubt I'll end up reading it all. I read the Barron Zemo mini a while back where he was time-jumping to all his ancestors. I don't know if it's the lame costume or the fact he can come off ass a low-rent D-Class Doom knock off, but I just couldn't get interested in him as a character.

 

I mainly want to catch up on the post Civil War/Osborne Era stuff. I read most of the Civil War tie-ins but dropped off and have some issue gaps. I'm also curious to read and find out why Luke Cage (and Iron Fist--which is a series I'm about 10 issues behind on as it is) are all up in the Thunderbolts bidness now. (I avoided the spoilers above).

[Iambaytor]

Skip the first 2 volumes and go straight to the 3rd one, you'll know it because it starts with Mach IV getting out of prison and talking about re-starting the Thunderbolts. It's a little slow to start, but soon you'll get into familiar territory with the post-Avengers Disassembled shit. Zemo doesn't show up till about halfway through that and when he does he manages to be pretty awesome. Just stick it out through Joystiq and Speed Demon's annoying shenanigans and you'll be at Osbourne's crew in no time.

[Iambaytor]

This current roster, for my money, is the best Thunderbolts has been (yes, even better than Ellis' version) ever and honestly, probably the best book Marvel has going right now.

 

The whole Crossbones thing ended pretty quick (I think probably cause he's really just a more dickish version of the Punisher and has no real valid use) and the introduction of Hyperion to the team makes me wonder why they ever bothered to create The Sentry in the first place when this guy already existed. All I know is I just watched Juggernaut and Hyperion fight and Man-Thing has been awesome, maybe the artist will fix Mockingbird's hair soon and all will be well.

[Jables]

Purely a publicity stunt that should have just stayed gone.

[The NZA]

i honestly dropped the book a few issues into Cage's team, but baytor's stuff sounds interesting.

[Iambaytor]

It started out a little slow but after that half-assed crossover team up with "Homogenized Avengers Unit #6" led by Shiny-Cap (I will refer to him as this from now on, as I still hate him and can't wait for him to go all US Agent) it picked up and it's honestly one of the few books in this new "Heroic Age" that I actually feel like following, I do need to catch up on Secret Avengers.

 

They seem to be circling a new fledgling member I couldn't give less of a fuck about, but I still like the direction we're headed.

[The NZA]

Secret Avnegers is top-notch for me right now (just had to pass the first slow arc); i reckon you'd dig the shit out of Secret Warriors, possibly S.H.I.E.L.D. too. im enjoying Panther on Daredevil more than i thought i would as well, but i gotta let the first arc tie up before i can really speak on it.

 

might start reading this one again on your say-so; niche stuff you've endorsed like Ghost Rider/etc has been nothing but enjoyable for me so far.