I kinda feel like I'm picking up on unsure territory with Thunderbolts, having not read anything since Warren Ellis's run that overlapped with the aftermath of Civil War. That's a pretty big gap in Thunderbolts history. Luckily, Jeff Parker, who is just taking over with this book, doesn't seem too worried about the previous history, either. He jumps right into the team dynamic (which basically does not exist), portraying the current Thunderbolts lineup as a bunch of psychopaths, madmen, and cowards who don't get along with each other even a little bit. Now, dysfunctional, combative teams are a favorite of mine, so normally I'd be into this. But this team isn't dysfunctional. They actively hate each other and refuse to work together. They end up trying to kill each other about every 5 minutes. With utter lunatic Scourge as their "leader," the team just kind of flops around from battle to battle, surviving more by the miracle of writing than by anything they do together.
Now, all of that sounds pretty useless. And it is. But the thing is, Parker inherited this crappy team of assholes. He's just writing the team dynamic that already exists, and somehow making it moderately interesting despite it all. I applaud that. I also really enjoyed the finale of this book, which feels like where Parker really started steering this ship toward where he actually wants it to go. His use of the Mighty Avengers as the Thunderbolts main enemy is a great fit, and having those guys enter the fray as someone to root for basically fixes the book in its latter half.
After a long battle in Asgard in the eponymous Siege tie-in, the Thunderbolts as we've known them throughout this book are done, and it feels like big plans are on the horizon from Parker and his team. I'm excited to see what he does with a team of his own creation that (hopefully) actually functions to some degree. I don't want to keep reading a series where I just wish all the characters would get killed.