Thunderbolts: Justice, Like Lightning...

Thunderbolts (1997) #1-4, Annual 1997

by Kurt Busiek, Darick Robertson (Collaborator)

Into the chilling void of super heroes left at the climax of Onslaught leap the Thunderbolts, a new squad of heroes who promise to pick up the torch dropped by Marvel's varsity heroes. But this group has a sinister secret...they are, in disguise, the mailicious Masters of Evil.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

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

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. From the December 1997 edition with a theme of "Offbeat Superheroes":

INTRODUCTION

Even though the field of comic books is dominated by superheroes, I have yet to write a column devoted entirely to the superfolk. Well, let's get down to it, bunky. Here are a few of the more interesting supertitles being published. Not the best, mind you, just interesting. For the best, pick up Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY (Homage/Image Comics)(Grade: A+). Meanwhile, here's the good, the bad and the ugly of comic book superheroes: STARMAN, THUNDERBOLTS, and HITMAN. STARMAN is highbrow; HITMAN is lowbrow; and THUNDERBOLTS would be right in the middle if not for its sinister twist.

LIKE A BOLT FROM OUT OF THE BLUE

THUNDERBOLTS #-1 and #1-9 (Marvel Comics)
THUNDERBOLTS ANNUAL '97 (Marvel Comics)

Kurt Busiek sucker punched me.

He knew my defenses would be down. As I read the debut of the Thunderbolts in THE INCREDIBLE HULK #449 (Marvel Comics), my only thought was: "Oh, look. Marvel is debuting yet another superhero team. " I was not impressed with their appearance in TALES OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE the following month either: "Avengers wannabes. Ho-hum."

I almost didn't buy the first issue of the monthly THUNDERBOLTS comic, but then I thought to myself, "Well, if anyone can make these losers interesting it's writer Kurt Busiek." So I bought in for a few issues.

Or rather I bought into it. I fell for the feint that distracted me from the sucker punch.

Even the first issue of the book did little to impress me . . . until the last page . . until the sucker punch: the Thunderbolts are the bad guys!

It's no longer a secret that the superhero group, the Thunderbolts, is actually the masquerading supervillain group, the Masters of Evil. They've taken on the roles of crimefighters to win the trust of the public and to win access to the secret files of the Avengers in order to sucker punch all those trusting dolts. Y'know, sorta like Kurt Busiek did to me?

The troubling aspect is that the Masters of Evil are getting away with their nefarious plot. Headed up by the mastermind Baron Zemo, the Thunderbolts are knocking off their competition -- fellow supervillains -- and setting up their foes -- the superheroes and government agencies -- for a fall. With the Avengers and the Fantastic Four "killed" during the "Onslaught" storyline, the Thunderbolts have taken advantage of the superhero shortage to step in and steal the public's attention with some high-profile adventures. They literally stepped into the Fantastic Four's place when the mayor awarded them the FF's HQ, Four Freedoms Plaza (formerly the Baxter Building), as a new headquarters.

Some glitches have popped up. While most heroes are appreciative of the Thunderbolts' help, the heroine Black Widow -- a former villainess herself -- is suspicious of them and has begun to dig into their past. The main threat to the Thunderbolts' plans, however, comes from within. The villainess Moonstone, now known as the Thunderbolt called Meteorite, was drafted into the group by Zemo to use her background in psychology to manipulate the media and coach the Thunderbolts in their roles. Moonstone has her own agenda though, which entails manipulating her fellow teammembers. She's encouraging romances and creating divisions to weaken the team's loyalty to Zemo. She's brought in an outsider, a young heroine named Jolt, giving her teammates the added strain of playing their roles 24 hours a day. Her plans are starting to work as several members become seduced by their roles as heroes and question their motives as villains.

This is one of the more daring plot set-ups I've seen in comics in quite a while. It's even more daring if you consider the short lifespan most villain-based comics suffer. THE JOKER and ECLIPSO (both DC Comics) were quickly cancelled. Marvel's super-hyphenated SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP managed to run for a mere 17 issues. The seven year success of Marvel's THE TOMB OF DRACULA is one of the few exceptions in recent memory.

THUNDERBOLTS does have some weaknesses that might pull it down. As amazing as the plot set-up is, it is not one which seems open-ended, especially with the imminent return of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. At some point Busiek is going to have to change the story's direction and the temptation to make the THUNDERBOLTS true heroes may be too strong to overcome. If that happens, I'm worried, because the superheroics are the least interesting parts of the book. The fight scenes and villains are pretty generic, limited to such rusty old villains as the Wrecking Crew, Arnim Zola, the Mad Thinker, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and Hydra. The Elements of Doom -- with 109 members, each based on an element from the periodic table -- was a painfully bad group of villains who stuck around for three issues. The only interesting foes were an upstart group of Masters of Evil who stole the name since the real Masters of Evil seemed to have disappeared from the scene. Finally, the art, mostly by penciller Mark Bagley and inker Vince Russell, is merely adequate. The book could use more stylistic flair to help it stay alive.

Can Busiek beat the odds and produce a successful villain comic? If it were any other writer I'd have my doubts. But Busiek's already knocked me out once with this series, and I'm not going to underestimate him again. If you try this book, remember to keep your guard up!

Grade: B

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Thunderbolts.

Moonstone and Songbird are two of my favorite comic book characters. Songbird is victim of circumstance. Moonstone is batshit crazy.

Zemo is a crazy villain. I'm a big fan of Atlas and Mach-#. They are guys trying to make good. They start bad but you can tell early on the plan was to turn them into good guys.

Jolt is definitely the weakest of the bunch but she's still somewhat fun. She has the same problems as Jubilee. They really wanted to create the next Kitty Pryde.

[Scott A. Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great to finally see where it all started.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this was.

I adore the Thunderbolts, but until now the few things I'd read featuring them from before Civil war had been hard to follow from overly-convoluted comic writing. But the story in here was very solid, very easy to follow. On top of that the character development over just 8 issues worth of comics was incredibly sold and very believable. Knowing a little bit of what happens to these characters later on, especially Songbird (who is my favorite) I could really see the ground work laid down here.

I also noticed about half way through the read that Mark Bagley did the inking. I normally don't pay much attention to who does the art work unless it REALLY stands out, and his run on Ultimate Spider-man was one of those times. Once I realized it was him I could see the beginning of what would stand out so prominently later in his work there.

[Kurt Rocourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

When this book came out there was nothing like it on the market. It was a strange idea at the time. It's now been copied so many times that people forget that this is the one that started it all. The quality of this book is what carries it above it's successors. The simple idea of bait and switch is something I'm sure other writers wish they could have pulled off as well as this book did.

[M.T. Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dated by today's standards but really, REALLY good for its time.
The characters were pretty strong and some of them (like Zemo and Songbird) later grew quite a bit from what was established here.
A fun read.

[Rafal Jasinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Współczesne podejście do superbohaterów i antybohaterów ewoluowało, odchodząc od idealistycznych wzorców na rzecz bardziej złożonych, wielowymiarowych postaci. Komiksy takie jak "The Boys" czy "Invincible" wywracają klasyczne archetypy na drugą stronę, ukazując ciemniejsze aspekty bohaterstwa i pytając, co by się stało, gdyby nadludzkie moce znalazły się w rękach jednostek moralnie niejednoznacznych. To nie one jednak przecierały szlaki w tej materii...

„Thunderbolts” z 1997 roku jest o tyle ciekawy, że prezentuje – nawet dziś – wydające się oryginalnym ujęcie tematu. Bowiem nie jest to, jak w przypadku "Suicide Squad" czy filmowych (kompletnie różniących się składem) "Thunderboltsów", kolejna niedopasowana drużyna drugoplanowych przegrywów czy trzecioligowych złoczyńców, która szantażem została zmuszona do współpracy w celu ratowania całego (lub wycinka) wszechświata. Nie jest to też, jak w "The Boys", gromada degeneratów uchodzących za herosów, pławiąca się w blichtrze i uwielbieniu maluczkich.

Akcja komiksu zawiązuje się po jednym z TYCH eventów w komiksowym uniwersum Marvela, który „zrzucił z planszy” największych herosów tego świata. Nie ma już Avengers, nie ma Fantastycznej Czwórki, a na ulicach pleni się bezprawie i anarchia. Działający w pojedynkę superbohaterowie radzą sobie średnio z naporem złoczyńców, nie tylko nadnaturalnego autoramentu.

Wtem! Pojawia się nowa, nikomu wcześniej nieznana grupa, która na „dzień dobry” kopie tyłek Hulkowi – co można uznać za nie byle jaki wyczyn. A potem jest tylko lepiej. Grupa raz za razem spuszcza łomot kolejnym, poślednim i niepoślednim złoczyńcom, zyskując coraz większy poklask i uwielbienie ludzi, a także zaskarbiając sobie sympatię władz, które szybko włączają ją do specjalnych programów antykryzysowych.

Jest tylko jedno „ale” – nowi „world's mightiest heroes” to w rzeczywistości superzłoczyńcy, których zwerbował Baron Zemo we własnej osobie i obdarzył nowymi tożsamościami oraz zdolnościami, sam zaś przyjął miano zasłużonego herosa z przeszłości, sięgającej czasów drugiej wojny światowej.

O ile komiks skoncentrowany jest na pełnych spektakularnych akcji, efektownych bitwach i brawurowych pojedynkach, trącających nostalgiczne struny – szczególnie we mnie, osobie pamiętającej komiksy wydawane przez TM-SEMIC – porusza również ciekawy aspekt, niewykorzystany w znanych mi seriach komiksowych (wliczając w to wymienione powyżej) czy ich adaptacjach.

Zemo, a bardziej jego poplecznicy, z czasem zaczynają czuć się lepiej w rolach „tych dobrych”, odkrywając, że sprawia im to więcej przyjemności, satysfakcji i spełnienia. Trochę z powodu tego, że stają się idolami, ale także dlatego, że po raz pierwszy w życiu doświadczają efektów tego, co niesie ze sobą pomaganie innym, bronienie słabszych i stawianie czoła autentycznemu Złu. Poza tym, zyskują przestrzeń i odwagę, by dopuścić do głosu emocje oraz te części swojej osobowości, o których istnieniu dotąd nie mieli pojęcia, bali się lub wstydzili, wybierając "karierę" rzezimieszków i stając się niewolnikami stereotypów, oczekiwań i stygmatów związanych z tymi rolami.

Bardzo dobry album i zaczątek historii, której chętnie poznałbym ciąg dalszy – póki co, nie ma go w zapowiedziach albumów mających ukazać się w serii „Legendarnych Komiksów Marvela”, do którego mam zastrzeżenia jedynie w kwestii estetycznej. To bardzo subiektywna kwestia, ale ciężko było mi się przyzwyczaić do kreski Marka Bagleya, jego sposobu rysowania postaci i często wymagającego gruntownej analizy chaosu dominującego na kartach komiksu. Na pewno ten styl ma swoich fanów. Ja się do nich nie zaliczam, komiks jednak polecam!

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the aftermath of Onslaught, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four are presumed dead and the world's remaining superheroes are pushed to their limits. Suddenly a new team of heroes makes its public debut, but these Thunderbolts hide a dark secret; they are supervillains in disguise.

I always loved the core concept of the Thunderbolts; that in the absence of the Marvel Universe's greatest heroes, a team of villains would step in as impostors, only to find the adulation and feeling of righteousness generated by being heroes powerfully seductive. And on top of that brilliant concept, I really liked the heroic redesign these villains got in the process, with the Beetle's transformation in the Mach-1 being my favourite.

It has to be said, however, that the delivery of that core concept here, in the collection of the Thunderbolts' first appearances, isn't as compelling as I remembered. This is just mostly the Thunderbolts going into battle against other supervillains and trying not to let slip in front of the public that they're not really heroes, over and over again. It's not bad, but the elements that really intrigued me, such as the so-called Masters of Evil actually being somewhat seduced by doing good, weren't fully developed here.

My favourite part of this book (collecting a Spider-Man Team-Up comic that I bought on release back in the day) sees the Thunderbolts being tasked with hunting down the wanted criminal Spider-Man, much to the delight of the Beetle. However, after Spider-Man saves Mach-1's life and they fight side by side, the former Beetle helps to clear his nemesis' name; "Well, maybe the Beetle could've stabbed him in the back... but Mach-1 couldn't". It's a nice little glimpse into the effect being 'good guys' is having on the world view of the team of villains.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Ανδρέας Μιχαηλίδης · Rating 4 out of 5]

This turned out to be quite an enjoyable superhero comic, with all the caveats of such literature, especially pre-Civil War. That is to say, by today's standards, it's a clever idea with a somewhat naive execution, banking on a long-established suspension of disbelief. Civil War made that impossible and in many ways ruined the genre as a whole for Marvel, in trying to portray its universe realistically.

Regardless, if you had been reading Onslaught at the time, and having witnessed the "death" of non-mutant heroes in order to contain him, you were very much shell-shocked, and the shock of the Marvel world felt entirely believable.

Thus, the appearance of a a new team with clear Avenger analogs (Citizen V - Captain America, Mach-1 - Iron Man, Techno - Dr. Pym, Atlas - (actually a) Goliath, Captain Marvel- Meteorite, Songbird - Not Entirely Sure) made sense both to the reader and the people in the Marvel Universe. Except, well, 20 years later the cat has long been out of the bag, they are a new iteration of the Masters of Evil.

Interestingly, Meteorite fills a double role as narrator, psychological planner and overseer, shining a spotlight on the parts where the not-quite-former villains start enjoying being heroes for various reasons.

It is an excellent codifier and partial upsetter of the superhero tropes, with art that is 90% very enjoyable, especially when Mark Bagley and Sal Buscema are at the helm. Solid superhero narrative.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was aware of this title when it first came out, but I wasn't reading a lot of mainstream Marvel stuff at the time, so I didn't buy it then. And the premise sounded a little corny. Well, it is a little corny, I guess, but it's a fun book.

Kurt Busiek is a really good mainstream superhero writer. He also does some more ambitious stuff, like Astro City and Marvels, but this isn't quite like those. It's not turning the genre on its head or anything like that. It's fun, but silly, with a lot of big fight scenes. There is some interesting character development going on in the background, but they don't get too far with that in the first volume. Through most of this book, we don't get much insight into why these characters are motivated to work together, other than the standard "taking over the world" super-villain motivation. And their plan here is pretty far-fetched, to be honest. But, overall, the book is on an interesting trajectory, and I think I'll hunt down the rest of Busiek's run and see where he went with it.

As for the art, it's mixed. Bagley is a good superhero artist. The overall look is very 90s Marvel. If that's your thing, then here it is. I'm not sure that style has really aged well though. Some of the character designs seem really wonky now. But that's all part of the fun, I guess.

[Mr. Stick · Rating 4 out of 5]

"YOU ARE NOT AN INDEPENDENT OPERATOR HERE! YOU'RE ENGAGED IN THE GREATEST DECEPTION IN HISTORY -- CONVINCING THE WORLD THAT WE ARE HEROES -- THAT THEY SHOULD TRUST US WITH THEIR MOST SECURE SECRETS, LOWER THEIR DEFENSES...
...LOOK AROUND YOU! LOOK AT THIS BUILDING! THEY GAVE IT TO US -- AND STOCKED IT WITH THE FINEST COMPUTERS, VEHICLES AND OTHER TECHNOLOGICAL WONDERS KNOWN TO MAN. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH THIS COST? BUT STILL, THEY GAVE IT TO US."
- Citizen V (Baron Zemo) to his team, The Thunderbolts (The Masters of Evil).

I decided to check this book for two reasons... 1) my cheap ass found it on the clearance shelf and 2) Mark Bagley. If Bagley illustrated a DIY root canal manual, I'd probably buy it. I've been partial to his work after having read Ultimate Spider-Man many years ago and I tend to grab up his stuff whenever I find it.
So, what happens when Earth's Mightiest Heroes die in battle against a global menace? Who will fill the superhero power vacuum? Five super-villains pretending to be heroes so they can exploit the kindness of the public. While pretending to be something you're not just to get free s@#$ from strangers isn't a new idea, but this doesn't feel icky.
The last story Zemo's full explanation of how Zemo formed the team and got the idea in the first place. This is (as far as I know) an original idea and a HELL of a lot of fun!
Four stars!

[Brian Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter discovered Songbird in Avengers Forever and asked to see more of her, so I pulled out my Busiak Thunderbolts. This first volume is solid if disjointed. It's not Busiak's best work by a long chalk, but it holds together well enough. The central metaphor of being careful what you pretend to be because you become what you pretend to be giving space for a redemptive arc for a cluster of Marvel villains is an interesting concept that is pretty well executed. Busiak's work on Thunderbolts and later Avengers are really the only good thing to come out of the mid 90's "Marvel Reborn" nonsense.

Bagely's artwork is fine, if too angular, too busy and occasionally too convoluted for my taste. This volume doesn't suffer from the problems that my recently reread Black Panther stories had with the massive tonal shifts in artwork inside the story arc. Bagely produces reliable content that doesn't uplift the story, but doesn't actively hamper it. For the mid 90's that's a blessing.

[Emilie]

Some background here about how Screaming Mimi became Songbird, and something like that for other Thunderbolts characters. I think Moonstone has been around for quite some time in the Marvel Universe. Here she gets to use her psychological manipulation skills as she deems suitable. The Beetle is humanized as "Abe," and has feelings, which grow to include feelings that are not all about being a criminal. Moonstone was aware that people who were acting the part of a good person, a hero, could fall into a pattern of doing good, especially with plenty of positive feedback. She didn't particularly push back against that the way she could have.

Interesting to me for the background and the start of the Thunderbolts, though I was spoiled for the revelation years ago. The story has been out there for a long time, so I don't have issues with already knowing about it.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mind is too smacked around to effectively read more than comics in the minimal spare time. This looks like a response to the MCU announcement, but it was more randomly picking a series I have wanted to get myself through for a long time. No guarantee I will have headspace and time to go further, but Busiek starts this book at such a wonderful point. It would have been a fun experience to be reading this as it came out as a minimal relief for what they did to the Avengers crew (giving them to another comic company to produce for a fairly epic failure).

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing premise, that the villains take on roles of heroes to gain power, and the writers began, or at least hinted at other interesting character developments, but none of them went anywhere in this collection. Mostly, it was one battle after another. The writing was heavy-handed, almost to the point of saying, e.g., "Hey reader, don't miss the fact that Spiderman saved that guy's life!"

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. This is a combination of a bunch of stuff I don’t really care about, but it’s very well written/drawn.

[Jordan Risebury-Crisp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the team.
Some of the art and panelling was cluttered and difficult to follow.

[Aldo Verde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zemo best villain.

[Gary Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 43

Essentially inessential, like a majority of Marvel's mid-to-late-90s output.
Unless you're a fan of any of the main characters in this book (in either Hero or Villian guise), or are a DC fan who's curious as to how Marvel handled their version of the '52' concept (10 years before DC tried it out), there's really no reason to pick this one up. Yes, it's a decent Superhero title, but "decent" is as good as it ever gets. And considering Marvel went back and erased/retconned most of the devestation left in the wake of Onslaught, and that the Tunderbolts as they exist in current continuity are much different than the ones presented here, there's nothing here that really affects the last 10-15 of Marvel Comics. In fact, it's kind of a pointless read.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Slowly trying to fill in the 8-10 year gap when I wasn't reading comics. But, I seem to be mainly sticking to Marvel.
Go figure.

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Da una grande idea ben disegnata deriva un gran bel fumetto.
In seguito a Onslaught, gli eroi protettori dell'America sono scomparsi. Restano i mostri, i sociopatici, i criminali, i reietti. Chi riempirà questo vuoto?
La rivelazione dell'ultima pagina del primo numero dei Thunderbolts è ancora oggi qualcosa che dà un brivido.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an amazing concept when it came out. Who would have ever thought that the bad guys would be the Thunderbolts? A terrific concept that culminated in a truly amazing climax. A perfect example of superhero writing for comic books.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the early Thunderbolts stories, especially the first issue, and there are lots of fun 2nd-, 3rd-, and 87th-string villains in attendance, but this collection is pretty uneven.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bravo Kurt Busiek... and Georgia's own Mark Bagley, for reanimating Marvel superheroes (and, um, villains) during a fallow period.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok seeing though the cover spoiled it......it's still a solid read