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Thunderbolts (2006) (Collected Editions) #10-17
Thunderbolts: Uncaged Omnibus
A new era for Marvel's ever-evolving, always-controversial team! The most dangerous criminals on Earth are now all in one hellish prison, and the only way out is through rehabilitation and contribution to society via the Thunderbolts program - under the leadership of the steel-hard-skinned Avenger named Luke Cage! So bring on the first Juggernaut! Crossbones! Ghost! Moonstone! And…Man-Thing?! Can Cage restore the Thunderbolts' tarnished heroic potential? And when new recruits are called, who out of the Marvel Universe's vast pool of powerhouse criminals will make the cut? Then, when the T-bolts end up lost in time, a new group steps in to replace the Dark Avengers! You can be sure that the two troubled teams are on a collision course! Collecting THUNDERBOLTS (1997) #144-174 and #163. 1, DARK AVENGERS (2012) #175-190 and material from ENTER THE HEROIC AGE #1.
- GenresComicsMarvelSuperheroes
1192 pages, Hardcover
First published December 5, 2023
About the author
Jeff Parker
1,190 books131 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 9, 2025
So, this is my fourth damn Thunderbolts Omnibus that I'm tackling, and a pattern's emerging: these books seem to dwindle down by the end. Now this one has Luke Cage stepping up as the leader for this Thunderbolts crew. And I gotta say, the premise of him hitting up a prison to handpick guys he thinks he can actually reform? Fucking brilliant. A dude like Cage, who got railroaded into prison himself, is the perfect guy to try and steer these scumbags onto a better path.
What I absolutely loved was how this run kicked off. Luke Cage comes across as a total badass, no question. On top of that, we're introduced to some seriously twisted motherfuckers in this crew, like Crossbones, one seriously sick bastard. I also dug the fact that Man-Thing gets a little love, and we see the return of some OG Thunderbolts like Songbird and Mach-5.
So yeah, the beginning is top-notch. It's basically Cage having to wrangle these characters, including the goddamn Juggernaut, and trying to make them work as a team. Of course, it's gonna get messy, silly, and a whole lot of fun. And those first two, maybe even three arcs? Freaking gold. They feel somewhat grounded, with these natural stories of villains actually trying to do some good.
Unfortunately, we eventually stumble into the time-traveling bullshit that I personally can't stand. But I gotta admit, for the most part, the Thunderbolts handled it decently enough in the early stages. But as we go deeper and deeper into the past, and half the team gets split up, it just keeps going downhill and never recovers.
And then we crash-land into the Dark Avengers arc, which eats up the last ten to fifteen issues, and these guys just feel like a bunch of throwaways. The first half of that ain't terrible, with some genuinely entertaining moments and decent character development and goodbyes to the old crew. But then, the very last seven issues or so? This damn elseworld story leaves this Omnibus just floundering at the end.
Overall, I'd say this Omnibus is a fun ride. It's definitely worth reading, especially for that first half, which I think is some of the best Thunderbolts material I've read. But at the same time, that seriously lackluster ending makes it a tough sell. The highest I can go is a three, maybe a generous 3.5. It kind of falls in line with the Thunderbolts Volume 2 Omnibus – some seriously high points, but ultimately dragged down by some of the more stupid moments.
What I absolutely loved was how this run kicked off. Luke Cage comes across as a total badass, no question. On top of that, we're introduced to some seriously twisted motherfuckers in this crew, like Crossbones, one seriously sick bastard. I also dug the fact that Man-Thing gets a little love, and we see the return of some OG Thunderbolts like Songbird and Mach-5.
So yeah, the beginning is top-notch. It's basically Cage having to wrangle these characters, including the goddamn Juggernaut, and trying to make them work as a team. Of course, it's gonna get messy, silly, and a whole lot of fun. And those first two, maybe even three arcs? Freaking gold. They feel somewhat grounded, with these natural stories of villains actually trying to do some good.
Unfortunately, we eventually stumble into the time-traveling bullshit that I personally can't stand. But I gotta admit, for the most part, the Thunderbolts handled it decently enough in the early stages. But as we go deeper and deeper into the past, and half the team gets split up, it just keeps going downhill and never recovers.
And then we crash-land into the Dark Avengers arc, which eats up the last ten to fifteen issues, and these guys just feel like a bunch of throwaways. The first half of that ain't terrible, with some genuinely entertaining moments and decent character development and goodbyes to the old crew. But then, the very last seven issues or so? This damn elseworld story leaves this Omnibus just floundering at the end.
Overall, I'd say this Omnibus is a fun ride. It's definitely worth reading, especially for that first half, which I think is some of the best Thunderbolts material I've read. But at the same time, that seriously lackluster ending makes it a tough sell. The highest I can go is a three, maybe a generous 3.5. It kind of falls in line with the Thunderbolts Volume 2 Omnibus – some seriously high points, but ultimately dragged down by some of the more stupid moments.
December 16, 2023
One of the most enjoyable eras of Marvel's favourite misfits, now in one (enormous) volume. A wonderful trip down memory lane.
June 3, 2026
Jeff Parker's run on Thunderbolts is a difficult book to review as its first half and second half are essentially completely different.
The first half is made up of fun, episodic stories that sees Luke Cage and Songbird lead a team of the Raft's imprisoned inmates on dangerous missions (with excellent art by Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey). The second half however (just after the Fear Itself tie-in) takes a more long form approach as most of the Thunderbolts find themselves sent backwards in time to various eras of Marvel history.
Of the two sections the first half was definitely my favourite. It was light, it was fun and the team had a crazy roster of characters. The second half however still has good stuff in it, but around the time of #175 when the team transforms into the Dark Avengers I found myself getting tired of it, as the story became more convoluted and epic in scale. Unfortunately the arc continues until #184 and I was just waiting for it to be over by that point.
Despite the book changing titles, the Thunderbolts are still very much present in the Dark Avengers section of the narrative (until the last few issues) which was a nice change from the previous volume when all the members I cared about were jettisoned. The final arc is just the Dark Avengers on a multiverse mission, it seemed good but the New Avengers issues introducing the team aren't collected here so I didn't really care about them.
It is unfortunate this era of the T-Bolts ends with the classic members essentially being kicked out of their own book, I think it shows Marvel values the team's name but not the characters who made it a name to be valued.
Overall if I were to ever read this book again I'd probably stop around #175. The stuff before that was very fun but it loses itself a little after that.
The first half is made up of fun, episodic stories that sees Luke Cage and Songbird lead a team of the Raft's imprisoned inmates on dangerous missions (with excellent art by Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey). The second half however (just after the Fear Itself tie-in) takes a more long form approach as most of the Thunderbolts find themselves sent backwards in time to various eras of Marvel history.
Of the two sections the first half was definitely my favourite. It was light, it was fun and the team had a crazy roster of characters. The second half however still has good stuff in it, but around the time of #175 when the team transforms into the Dark Avengers I found myself getting tired of it, as the story became more convoluted and epic in scale. Unfortunately the arc continues until #184 and I was just waiting for it to be over by that point.
Despite the book changing titles, the Thunderbolts are still very much present in the Dark Avengers section of the narrative (until the last few issues) which was a nice change from the previous volume when all the members I cared about were jettisoned. The final arc is just the Dark Avengers on a multiverse mission, it seemed good but the New Avengers issues introducing the team aren't collected here so I didn't really care about them.
It is unfortunate this era of the T-Bolts ends with the classic members essentially being kicked out of their own book, I think it shows Marvel values the team's name but not the characters who made it a name to be valued.
Overall if I were to ever read this book again I'd probably stop around #175. The stuff before that was very fun but it loses itself a little after that.
April 18, 2025
I love this series, great to read it all in one big chunk, Parker gets that the Thunderbolts are a mix of villains forced to do good and villains trying to redeem themselves, with most somewhere in between, but ultimately they form their own brand of loyalty and purpose together. This is packed with action and adventure and great ideas and terrific characters of all stripes, awat from and sometimes under the shadow of the clashes between the big-gun heroes and villains, love Kev Walker's art in particular, and this goes all the way through so that even the appalling Dark Avengers manage to get their one single shining moment.
March 14, 2024
I loved the original run, where a bunch of villains pretended to be heroes and were changed in interesting ways by the experience. Years later, we get a new run where a bunch of villains get Suicide-Squaded, which feels pretty dull, then go on a Cross-Time Caper (the final chapter of which was missing due to a printer error on my book), which is fun enough but runs long, then get replaced by a new group of fake Avengers who have all the personality of a bag of cotton balls. It wasn't a waste of time, but I don't think I got my money's worth from a $125 omnibus.
September 12, 2026
The best omnibus I have read so far. Definitely 5 stars. I will say, the second half of the book is better than the first half. I was really into crossbones in the first half of the book but he kind of just disappeared. But when he did, thats when things got really good. Man Thing is my favorite hero and he was awesome!!!
February 25, 2024
Falls apart at the end with the Dark Avengers era, but otherwise really compelling superheroics that is strongly differentiated from Suicide Squad after starting with a similar premise.
March 5, 2025
Parker does an amazing job of keeping the story fresh and interesting and surprising over the entire run, which is no small feat. A really fun run of modern superhero comics.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews