Thunderbolts Annual #1 – Review

by Ben Acker, Ben Blacker (Writers), Matteo Lolli (Artist), James Campbell (Colorist)

The Story: It seems that Dr. Strange has gone insane, making people happy whether they want to or not thanks to his spells. Thankfully, the Thunderbolts are here to kill the mood…

The Review: There always comes a time when a reader has to weight down on what’s more important as far as personal experiences go. Does consistency holds a bit more value than pure entertainment? It may seem like a silly question, yet with so many retcons or with some concepts being handled in hazardous ways, it can be somewhat problematic if someone knows he should enjoy something, yet cannot for things that may seem minor at best.

In a way, this annual feels a lot like that for me. The premise is absurdly fun, with some very entertaining scenes and choices put down by the creative team, yet they do so in a lot of ways without any regard to previous stories or to the detriment of previously established elements. Is the story worth the disregard to continuity or is the lack of consistency with previous books something that hold this annual back?

This issue simply cannot be reprimanded for lack of trying, though, as both Acker and Blacker inserts quite a lot in terms of ideas, both old and news. With scenes like Venom and Punisher going to Asgard, Elektra and Deadpool going to visit Bloodstone Manor as they want to collect magical artifacts, there is plenty of opportunity for shenanigans that wouldn’t always be connected with those characters in the first place.