Thunderbolts #136 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Pop Mahn & Carlos Rodriguez (art), Frank Martin & Rain Beredo (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: Black Widow and Songbird find themselves in a bad spot, as a divide begins to form between the Thunderbolts.

What’s Good: It’s really quite tragic that in Diggle’s final issue,  the team finally feels fully established, with its members feeling legitimate and competent.  Each character is fully defined, and I found myself caring about each and every one of them.  The bad guys on the team felt like nasty, powerful adversaries, while I was firmly cheering for the good guys on the team.   While Ghost has been awesome for some time, Headsman is now very lovable in his own right, Paladin gives off a twisted Scott Summers feel, Ant-Man is in intriguing character that’ll be trouble later on, and Mr. X is the evil, all-powerful badass that he should be.

All of this comes courtesy of the team breaking apart early on in the issue, which allows each character to shine in his own right.  It fully manifests the sort of bizarre team dynamic that should define the Thunderbolts;  Diggle spends much of the issue with half of the team acting like heroes, or at least anti-heroes, while the other half are flat-out villains.  This is the sort of moral impasse that can make Thunderbolts such a fascinating comic, as while none of the characters are good guys, each represent a different sort of villainy.

Beyond that, the action has the fast, slick, and frenetic feel that you’d expect from Thunderbolts, with fancy explosions aplenty and a fun chase sequence.  This is really dynamic, yet shadowy stuff with the great shading that has come to be a requirement in a Thunderbolts book.

What’s Not So Good: It’s hard not to feel a little frustrated as you realize that Diggle has left his book in a state where nothing has really changed.  Through some rather convenient techno-wizardy, Ghost ensures that the team will have no memory of their infighting – meaning that the roster stays the same and the internal strife that made this issue so interesting is put back into the closet.  Meanwhile, a “new” member introduced at issue’s end essentially  undoes the biggest twist of Diggle’s entire run.

Diggle just feels overly concerned with making the series as accessible as possible for incoming writer Jeff Parker.  It’s as though we’re back to issue 3 of Diggle’s run, with Parker merely inheriting Diggle’s original team, but almost none of the events that came after that roster selection.

The unmasking of Scourge was also underwhelming.  It really is a C-list character, one I can imagine many people being totally unfamiliar with.  Worse still, those who are familiar with the character probably saw this coming a mile away.

Also, perhaps due to having a larger art team, things can feel a bit scattered and a little too frantic, with a few too many angular panels, some faces looking off, and some panels being clearly done by a different hand.

Conclusion: A great issue that makes me feel that Diggle’s leaving too soon.  It’s too bad that so much is undone.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans

Thunderbolts #135 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (art), Frank Martin (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: Black Widow and Songbird make a run for it.

What’s Good: Diggle writes an interesting script for this issue, one that’s self-referential in many ways.  Whenever a character says a line that sounds ridiculous, cliche, or out of character, another character immediately picks up on it. It’s actually fairly clever.  They pick up on the failings in each other’s dialogue or the more ridiculous aspects of certain characters. There’s an especially funny line regarding the cliche nature of Nick Fury’s voice that isn’t to be missed.

This is overall a fairly solid issue, and one of the reasons for that is perhaps the first time since the beginning of his run, Diggle actually makes his team feel not only competent, but nuanced and outright intimidating. All too often, Diggle’s Tbolts have felt woefully ineffective. It was great to hear them finally speak of with fear. By placing them in the role of pursuers as opposed to main characters actually does wonders for the team and has given them a shot of legitimacy. Too bad this comes at the end of Diggle’s run.

Character-wise, I’m glad that Mr. X was finally was put to good use in this issue, and unlike most martial arts monsters, he actually is as invincible as he should be. Mr. X is a scary, scary dude and his action scene was fantastic, lightning quick stuff that looked and read great. Norman was also oddly competent this month. Dark Reign has often made him seem a bit bumbling, but this month, he puts out the brainpower that one would expect out of someone running the show, in a twist on a twist that’s really rather cool.

On art, Sepulveda brings his awesome shading techniques that make the book look unlike any other, giving it a neat “painted” feel.

What’s Not So Good: But that’s all I can say that’s good about the art this month, which is quite inconsistent. Close-ups of faces often look completely strange, even muddy and distorted. Nick Fury in particular looks horrible, and it’s clear that Sepulveda can’t draw beaten and battered faces. He also struggles with people shouting.

Unfortunately, many of  the other panels aren’t much better. When the shot is zoomed out a bit, a lot of detail seems to be lost, to the point of looking flat-out weird. Inexplicably, Sepulveda’s action scenes look great and don’t suffer from any problems. It’s only in zoomed out panels without action that it all becomes a bit blank and blurry.

Frank Martin’s colors certainly don’t do Sepulveda’s art any favours. It’s clear that Sepulveda’s art looks best with dark colors, but with much of the book taking place outdoors, Martin makes the book look damned bright; and it just feels very off, inappropriate even. Worse still, I feel that the strong bright colors ended up battling Sepulveda’s equally strong shading, resulting in a very weird looking comic book.

Despite the cool action scenes, there’s some sloppy work here, and the overbearing colors don’t work with Sepulveda’s drawings.

Conclusion: A fairly decent issue held back by off-putting artwork.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans

Thunderbolts #134 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (art), Frank Martin (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: Mr. X and Headsman butt heads and the Thunderbolts hunt down Songbird, but not before she makes contact with a couple of old friends.

What’s Good: After not being present last month, I’m glad to see Mr. X establish a place for himself on the team. Not only is he a powerhouse, but his sophisticated sadism and arrogance is a good fit, shown here in how it bounces off the “rough around the edges” Headsman. X is as much fun to read as he was a couple of months ago.

Meanwhile, seeing Songbird meet up with a couple of teammates serves as something of a nostalgia trip.  Diggle shows an admirable display of logic in having one former teammate balk at helping Songbird: they earned their clean slates, why would they give that up to help her? Still, it’s a nice, warm moment that also serves to make the new Thunderbolts look pretty ugly in comparison.

The real star this month, however, is Miguel Sepulveda.  Last issue, I believe I said that Sepulveda was doing his best Roberto de la Torre impersonation. This month, he truly comes into his own, bringing his own, unique “painted” Gene Colan-esque style to the book– well, in a dark, gritty, and digital Colan anyway. Either way, it looks great and Songbird’s powers are rendered gorgeously in bright contrast to the darkness of the rest of the book, much like her place in the current storyarc. While it’s clear that Sepulveda is using photo references here and there, it’s not at all static or overbearing.

What’s Not So Good: Unfortunately, this issue hedges on its shocking twist ending which is just flat-out ludicrous. It’s a twist that has been suggested on various message boards but has been continually dismissed for being groan-worthy and flat-out stupid. Well, logic be damned, Diggle actually goes for it.  Who cares if certain things will never add up? It’s “shock for shock’s sake.” And “genetic camouflage?”  Seriously?

I’m also feeling increasingly bad for Headsman. First, Deadpool makes a fool out of him for an entire crossover and now it’s Mr. X’s turn. As if that wasn’t enough, Ant-Man then basically goes on to point out how much of a fool he’s been for Diggle’s entire run… and it’s true. After the Deadpool crossover, Diggle’s team of unknowns has needed legitimacy; since continuing to undermine a guy who should be one of its more menacing members just isn’t a good idea.

I also have to point out that, while it’s not necessarily fair to the book itself, it’s hard not to read this without thinking about Diggle’s impending departure. This month once again feels like a writer establishing his characters and settling in for a long run. In reality, he’s setting up what’ll probably be his team’s final conflict, which means that this is about as good as it’s gonna get.

Conclusion: A book that’s a beginning that feels like an end. A fun read with fantastic art, great action, and solid character moments but a terrible ending.

Grade: C+

-Alex Evans