Thunderbolts Classic, Volume 2

Thunderbolts Classic

by Kurt Busiek (Writer), Roger Stern, John Ostrander

The Thunderbolts' true identities have been revealed to the world. Baron Zemo's plans for world domination have been put into effect. The world's greatest super heroes have fallen under hs control. Only the Thunderbolts can stop things from escalating before it's too late...but are these former villains wiling to side with the angels just yet? Justice, like lightning!

Collecting Thunderbolts 6-14, Heroes for Hire 7

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2012

About the author

Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.

Busiek did not read comics as a youngster, as his parents disapproved of them. He began to read them regularly around the age of 14, when he picked up a copy of Daredevil #120. This was the first part of a continuity-heavy four-part story arc; Busiek was drawn to the copious history and cross-connections with other series. Throughout high school and college, he and future writer Scott McCloud practiced making comics. During this time, Busiek also had many letters published in comic book letter columns, and originated the theory that the Phoenix was a separate being who had impersonated Jean Grey, and that therefore Grey had not died—a premise which made its way from freelancer to freelancer, and which was eventually used in the comics.

During the last semester of his senior year, Busiek submitted some sample scripts to editor Dick Giordano at DC Comics. None of them sold, but they did get him invitations to pitch other material to DC editors, which led to his first professional work, a back-up story in Green Lantern #162 (Mar. 1983).

Busiek has worked on a number of different titles in his career, including Arrowsmith, The Avengers, Icon, Iron Man, The Liberty Project, Ninjak, The Power Company, Red Tornado, Shockrockets, Superman: Secret Identity, Thunderbolts, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, JLA, and the award-winning Marvels and the Homage Comics title Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

In 1997, Busiek began a stint as writer of Avengers alongside artist George Pérez. Pérez departed from the series in 2000, but Busiek continued as writer for two more years, collaborating with artists Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer and others. Busiek's tenure culminated with the "Kang Dynasty" storyline. In 2003, Busiek re-teamed with Perez to create the JLA/Avengers limited series.

In 2003, Busiek began a new Conan series for Dark Horse Comics, which he wrote for four years.

In December 2005 Busiek signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. During DC's Infinite Crisis event, he teamed with Geoff Johns on a "One Year Later" eight-part story arc (called Up, Up and Away) that encompassed both Superman titles. In addition, he began writing the DC title Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis from issues 40-49. Busiek was the writer of Superman for two years, before followed by James Robinson starting from Superman #677. Busiek wrote a 52-issue weekly DC miniseries called Trinity, starring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Each issue (except for issue #1) featured a 12-page main story by Busiek, with art by Mark Bagley, and a ten-page backup story co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with art from various artists, including Tom Derenick, Mike Norton and Scott McDaniel.

Busiek's work has won him numerous awards in the comics industry, including the Harvey Award for Best Writer in 1998 and the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1999. In 1994, with Marvels, he won Best Finite Series/Limited Series Eisner Award and the Best Continuing or Limited Series Harvey Award; as well as the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story (for Marvels #4) in 1995. In 1996, with Astro City, Busiek won both the Eisner and Harvey awards for Best New Series. He won the Best Single Issue/Single Story Eisner three years in a row from 1996–1998, as well as in 2004. Busiek won the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 1997–1998, as well as the Best Serialized Story award in 1998. In addition, Astro City was awarded the 1996 Best Single Issue or Story Harvey Award, and the 1998 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series.

Busiek was given the 1998 and 1999 Comics Buyer's Guide Awards for Favorite Writer, with additional nominations in 1997 and every year from 2000 to 2004. He has also received numerous Squiddy Awards, having been selected as favorite writer four years in a row from 1995 to 1998,

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great! I liked it even more than volume 1.

So Zemo is running out of time as the Avengers/Fantastic Four have returned. After the group works together to save more people they are starting to change their ways. Especially Songbird and Mech-1. But as they begin to change, Zemo reveals who he is and charges forward with his plans of world domination. This leaves poor little Jolt to have to convince the rest of the Thunderbolts to change sides, but will she be able to?

This is great to watch all the inner turmoil of so many characters and feel each one. I loved that Jolt was the heart of the team, after being abused for years, but wouldn't give up on her new family. I love Zemo just being a pure pile of shit no matter what. But yeah, overall, this was just so fun to watch the team bounce back and take their name back. I will say the switch to a new world was jarring and took me out for a bit but the ending was dark and fitting.

Overall, some really great stuff. I'm eager to see how Kurt closes out his second half of the run. A hard 4 out of 5.

[Tym · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great storytelling and good art

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

The idea of Thunderbolts was such a novel idea for Marvel back in the late '90s, and is still a ton of fun 25 years later. Definitely one of the books that kept Marvel afloat during their worst years after the speculator bubble of the early '90s imploded. Kurt Busiek was as good a writer here as he is now. Mark Bagley's still getting it done too.

[Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my review for Thunderbolts Classic, Volume 1 I noted that while the concept Kurt Busiek had come up with for the hero team (that they were actually the Masters of Evil in disguise--if you're this far along, this is no longer a spoiler) in the wake of the Onslaught event that "killed off" the Avengers and Fantastic Four. In the gap left behind by most of the heavy hitters in the Marvel universe being unavailable, Busiek was able to pitch the Thunderbolts as the replacement. The problem here is obvious, however. Eventually those "dead" heroes will return and there must be a reckoning, and because the Thunderbolts were Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil in disguise, of course that reckoning would be against the Avengers and likely once they returned.

Of course, "the return" occurred during the time that the issues in this trade were published and immediately, the reveal to the Marvel universe of Zemo and his band had to happen the moment that they did. But did they? The central premise of the early issues of Thunderbolts was that while the heroes who survived Onslaught (Spider-Man in particular) could detect some sort of familiarity with these out of the blue heroes, they didn't recognize them for what they were. As soon as the Avengers return, Zemo immediately reveals himself and his ultimate goal (world domination, blah blah blah.) But why couldn't they keep the deception up? Heroes like Spider-Man could have ultimately vouched for the Thunderbolts to the Avengers and the story arc could have continued for some time and probably thrived with Busiek behind the continued narrative, as his work on Astro City shows that he is more than capable to do it. But with the Avengers back on the scene, I'm sure Marvel editorial insisted that the status quo be restored. Thus Zemo has to go back to being the bad guy, since in the telling, he is the evil mastermind--only his lackeys are the ones who have the potential for growth and for them to repudiate their previous existences as super villains.

The fact that everything feels rushed in this volume is what spoils it for me, ultimately. Busiek has a way to keep the series going once Zemo and crew are revealed for what they are, but it's a bit of a stretch. I think this book would have been better if the deception could have been allowed to continue, but the fact is that eventually the deception would have to be revealed, and since Marvel needed to sell Avengers books again, Busiek's hand was forced. As with the first volume, I think Thunderbolts stands as an example of why Busiek's work is so phenomenal on Astro City--it was his universe and he could do what he wanted without some editor pushing the publisher's agenda on the creative team. When these good things get ruined, almost always, editorial is at fault.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

As gimmicky as the ideal of the Thunderbolts was, I was totally curious about it and had always wanted to explore their stories more. So it was a bit of a surprise at how quickly they moved to "reveal" the truth of them being the Masters of Evil and accelerating the story into a new direction.

This book is very, very '90s in tone with key plot elements like the "bio-modem" and all that craziness. But I really enjoyed the inner conflict some of them faced as being a hero had started to grow on them. While Zemo will always be Zemo, the others weren't quite so fervent in the desire to literally take over the world.

I wasn't expecting the sort of secondary story at the end of this book that had the remaining Thunderbolts transported to a far-off world for one of those side-adventures, but it made sense. And the fact that there's still a third volume of stories to explore just stresses how they really wanted to pursue this concept with a lot of will-they-or-won't-they really go legit or will they return to their criminal ways. Fun reading all around.

[Myrmidon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Thunderbolts continuano la loro attività di eroi, diventando sempre più popolari e mettendo a rischio la loro stessa vita nell'affrontare dei nemici tanto bizzarri quanto letali, nella loro impresa finora più pericolosa.
Ma lo stato di grazia dei nostri "eroi" è destinato a durare poco perché, poco dopo il ritorno miracoloso dei Vendicatori, dei Fantastici Quattro e dei restanti eroi creduti scomparsi, il segreto sulla reale identità dei Thunderbolts viene rivelato: mentre il resto del team si danno alla macchia (compresa la giovane Jolt, del tutto ignara che i suoi amici fossero in realtà criminali), il Barone Zemo dà inizio al suo piano per dominare il mondo. Da che parte staranno i suoi compagni? E anche riuscissero a fermarlo, cosa riserverà loro il futuro, dopo aver ingannato così tante persone?

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even better than the first volume of Thunderbolts Classic. These comics are great fun and I actually prefer them to Busiek's Avengers, they are thrilling and have plenty of character development, which is not something usually seen in the world of superhero comics. In this volume, Busiek writes the big reveal of the Thunderbolts' true identity and then explores what it means for each of the characters. I have a soft spot for Meteorite/Moonstone (she is one complex superhuman!), so even though the last two issues dealing with the Kosmosian realm are a bit of a bore, I enjoyed them because they let Moonstone shine.

The art, again, not my favorite. Too many anatomically incorrect fighting poses to please the male gaze, but still better than Pérez!

[Nanao Midori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really a fan of this team roster. The only members I like are Moonstone and Zemo. The rest are all quite bland and unimpressive that it is hard to believe that they are the main characters. The stories are alright. I love issue #9 which basically retcons Avengers #16 and it had some great focus on Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver when they were all first made official members of the Avengers. Zemo really hard-carried the team and his ideals and motivations were wonderfully explored and consistent. That said, the premise of the Thunderbolts is pretty refreshing and the creators surely didn't waste time exposing their true nature to the public.

[Arnoldo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the game-reversal of the superheroes team. However, how many times can it be flipped? The idea that people can be enslaved by computers is nothing new but seeing how manipulative it can be without having to be present or getting one's own hands dirty is so prescient.

[matt murdock · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this!! most of the characters—songbird, mach 1, jolt, atlas—are all really growing on me i really like them. moonstone annoys me a little bit tho 😖 this was really fun, a really enjoyable read, it really sucked me in at parts and there weren’t really any low points

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

[Brandon]

The wild conclusion of the first year bleeds into an even wilder status quo, with villains struggling with heroic instincts. Really fun.

[Steven W · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tremendous amount of fun. I liked it a lot!!

[Malcolm Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to see the first year and main story arc close out. The Kosmos storyline is no fun though.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good comic book

[Odo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5.0

[Brian Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid comic book fun. Busiak pushes his redemption arc for these characters to their next logical places and opens the door for more exploration. More 90s comics should have been this good.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints Thunderbolts (1) #6-14 and Heroes for Hire (1) #7 (September 1997-May 1998). Baron Zemo’s plans are coming to fruition. The Thunderbolts have gained the world’s trust, but Zemo also realizes that some of the members are no longer playing heroes...they are becoming them. With Jolt rallying the Thunderbolts to be something more and the return of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, it is time for Zemo to hatch his plan...and the Thunderbolts might not know what they really signed up for.
Written by primarily by Kurt Busiek with help from Roger Stern and John Ostrander, Thunderbolts Classic—Volume 2 collects the “big reveal” of the popular series. The collection features a crossover with Heroes for Hire and a summation of what was occurring in that book at the time of the crossover.

I loved the Thunderbolts at the time of these comics and was a reader of the series. This collection has what readers all were waiting for...what would happen with the villains were found out. I was rather surprised that it happened so quickly, but it was a smart decision.

Busiek could have easily dragged out the “who are the Thunderbolts” a lot longer after Heroes Return limited series which ended the Heroes Reborn timeline. Instead, he decided to jump the gun a bit and have the secret come out in Thunderbolts (1) #10 (January 1998) with the world (and Jolt) learning the Thunderbolts real identities. I like the previous issue with Black Widow uncovering the truth and offering a warning to Songbird and Mach-1 and this was a good follow-up...though I did find Zemo being the spoiler a bit weak since it seems that regardless of the Thunderbolts loyalties, remaining incognito would have been more advantageous to his plans.

The reveal takes the comic into a whole different direction. The first little Kosmos storyline after Zemo’s plot is resolved does give a hint to the future of the team and how the book becomes an even bigger game of chess with Meteorite/Moonstone continuing to manipulate the team who doesn’t know what to do…plus, you have Zemo and Techno as lurkers in the background.

Thunderbolts was a fun series under Busiek’s helm. The comic continued to evolve and change and wasn’t just a one trick pony like it could have been. The Thunderbolts have been interesting characters throughout the series (and following series) so it is worth checking out this collection. Thunderbolts Classic—Volume 2 was followed by Thunderbolts Classic—Volume 3.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

As villains, the Elements of Doom aren’t too thrilling, but their 3-parter offers really nice character evolution, especially for Songbird and Techno, and really pushes the comic’s main plot as well [7/10]. The Heroes for Hire crossover is unfortunately written badly over-the-top, especially in the poor characterization of the Thunderbolts. The clumsy way the crossover is written into the comic’s narrative doesn’t help [3/10]. The one-off that follows feels like a time-waster as it mostly focuses on Captain America’s misfit Avengers, as an analogy to the TBolts. Still, it’s interesting and sort of chilling what Widow has figured out [7/10]. The three-party that finishes off the villains-as-secret-heroes plot is really fulfilling, especially because you didn’t see climatic game-changing stories like this at the time. The whole Zemo-can-control-the-world bit comes a little out of nowhere, but seeing the characters react in ways that’s thanks to a year of development is really fulfilling [8/10]. The Kosmos two-parter that finishes things off is unfortunately dull, with just a few character moments to give it some heart. But beyond that, we’ve lost all the tension of the superheroes-in-disguise plot [5/10].

[John Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever since the start of this series, we all knew that the Thunderbolts' secret would come out eventually. However, I didn't expect it to happen this soon, and I also missed a couple of my guesses about which way each character would jump (hero or villain).

Some of this relies on past continuity, but Busiek does a decent job of explaining the necessary backstory. I might not have been particularly curious to learn more about Kosmos, but it still provides a decent story and an excellent cover.

I have mixed feelings about the artwork. It's clear, so I always understand what's going on, but Bagley shows an unfortunate tendency towards "cheesecake" poses here, particularly where Moonstone is concerned. For instance, look at #13: her spine is twisted around so that her backside and breasts at the same time. That can't be a comfortable position to stand in!

Re-reading this now (15 years after publication), some of the cameos are more significant: the Radioactive Man would meet the Thunderbolts later, and Cassie Lang (Ant-Man's daughter) has been involved with the Young Avengers.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, that ended a lot sooner than I thought. I'm not sure why you would continue the Thunderbolts after the "big reveal" or why you would have the "big reveal" so soon.

The guest star cast is also a reminder why (a) Heroes Reborn had to try to reinvent these characters and (b) Heroes Reborn failed. There's so much putative star power assembled, and none of it can help tell a story or attract a reader.

[Chaz Donaldson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great premise - All of Earth's heroes are swept off to Franklin Richard's imaginary world, leaving the villains with a choice, Rule the WORLD, or SAVE IT? Kurt Busiek takes a bunch of worn-out "super-villains" and makes them interesting, not an easy task. This run on Thunderbolts shows the promise that he would later deliver on with works like MARVELS and ASTRO CITY. Worth a read.

[Devero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dopo gli inizi le storie decollano e i primi dubbi morali dei Thunderbolts prendono piede tra più di uno di loro. Perché finalmente questi criminali conoscono il rispetto degli eroi e l'ammirazione della gente.

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even with the reveal blown, these are amazingly good issues, as this concept is explored very thoughtfully. Really good stuff.

[M.T. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grand spectacle of its era.
Head and shoulders above the whole Onslaught thing that preceded it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the first book. Very curious about where the series goes from here.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone is on to the Thunderbolts, and Zemo is getting bored. An ok read.