Thunderbolts #14 – Review

Charles Soule (Writer), Jefte Palo, Terry Pallot (Artists), Guru eFX (Colorist)

The Plot: It’s Frank Castle’s turn at choosing the mission the team has to do as he explain just what he has in mind for this team to do. Lucky him, the Avengers are in space…

The Review: Following characters isn’t something that is logically sound when one thinks about it. While a reader might want to know everything that happens with a certain character he or she grew to like, it does not mean that person will get quality stories featuring the beloved fictional being as not every writer know how to handle things the way those people like it. The more a character is popular, the worse it can get as you can get characters that get poor or uneven characterization, resulting in frustrating experiences for the aforementioned reader.

While I do rather like characters like Frank Castle, Deadpool, Venom and Elektra, the main reason I gave this title a shot to begin with was to see Red Hulk, a.k.a General Ross in action, a character that Jeff Parker made me like immensely in the solo title he once possessed. However, I only did so recently as Charles Soule, the current writer of Swamp Thing, went in with another artist to give a new direction and a shot in the arm to this title that needed it. Does he succeed in keeping the characterization and giving some quality to this team now that he is actually writing them all in action for the first time?

He is quite competent actually, as not only Soule understand the dynamic between each characters and how their personalities might clash, but he does so in a way that is entertaining. This result in a team that is barely functional (as exposed by Deadpool nicknaming the team ”The Selfish Avengers”), yet it is one that is professional enough to get their task done. The military tone and their awkward morality comes in play here, as it creates a vibe that is different from a lot of the team out there, one that is not unlike Remender’s Uncanny X-Force. It’s not quite there in terms of quality when it comes to comparison, yet the characters are well-written, especially Frank Castle and Red Hulk. The only one I could have any disappointment about would be Flash Thompson, who comes as rather gullible and without any real personality, going with the flow without doing anything much.