Marvel Comics has brought the Thunderbolts back in a new iteration, courtesy of writers Jackson Lanzig & Collin Kelly and artist Geraldo Borges. The four issue “Worldstrike” story arc features colors by Arthur Helsi, letters by VC’s Joe Sabino, and cover artwork by Terry & Rachel Dodson. Editing is by Alanna Smith & Kaitlyn Lindtvedt.
This new Thunderbolts series roughly follows the traditional pattern of featuring villains & reformed villains by having several members who at one point or another were foreign enemy agents. The team is assembled by Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier. The line-up includes Black Widow, White Widow, Contessa Val Fontaine, U.S.Agent, Sharon Carter aka the Destroyer, Shang Chi, and Red Guardian.
Following a recent Captain America story arc (which I admit I haven’t read) Bucky is now calling himself “The Revolution.” Having obtained the resources & intelligence of the Outer Circle, one of those ubiquitous globe-spanning conspiracies which populate genre fiction, Bucky is setting out to take down menaces to freedom & democracy. His first target: the fascist megalomaniac the Red Skull.
Judging by the solicitations last year, Thunderbolts was initially intended to be an ongoing series. At some point the decision must have been made to truncate it to a four issue miniseries. As such, Lanzing & Kelly write a “getting the band together” arc that definitely feels like the opening for an ongoing book that is cut abruptly short. Fortunately they do have enough time to conclude the Thunderbolts’ mission to destroy the Red Skull’s current organization while also dealing a blow to Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime and current head of the Hellfire Club.
I wonder if, had Lanzing & Kelly known that Thunderbolts was only going to be four issues, they would have cut out the American Kaiju subplot in the third issue and instead given more space to the final confrontation with the Red Skull. It ends up feeling a bit superfluous, although I can’t deny it’s goofy fun to see Bucky grow giant-sized and fight a Godzilla knock-off.
It’s actually a pity that Thunderbolts has come to a premature end, since I feel there’s potential to the group, with its espionage / black ops focus, opposing the “bad actors” of the Marvel universe.
Additionally, other than perhaps the Black Widow and Shang Chi, the one-time Master of Kung Fu, it’s highly doubtful that any of the members of this Thunderbolts line-up have the ability to successfully carry their own ongoing title. So, it makes sense to group these second-stringers together as a team. I would have liked to have seen more of them in action, especially since I’m interested in most of the characters. Good to see Sharon Carter and U.S.Agent in prominent roles.
This line-up is clearly inspired by the upcoming MCU Thunderbolts movie, and was obviously designed to tie in with that. Lanzing & Kelly include a fair amount of the sort of snarky humor and patter that features in the MCU. I personally thought they went a bit overboard with it, but I suppose that’s what Marvel editorial believes people expect nowadays thanks to the popularity of the movies.
Also, it’s especially weird to see Black Widow with a shape-changing symbiote costume. How ubiquitous are those things nowadays? Definitely a case of Marvel taking one of their most popular characters, i.e. Venom, and churning out innumerable knock-offs.
The real appeal of Thunderbolts for me was the artwork by Brazilian artist Geraldo Borges. I’ve been a fan of his work for a number of years now, ever since he worked on the Legion of Super-Heroes feature in Adventure Comics for DC Comics back in 2011. Borges has a very atmospheric style. I’m not quite sure how to describe it. It feels simultaneously angular and abstract, possessed of a real mood. It was perfect for the tone of the stories Lanzing & Kelly were writing. Borges did a fantastic job rendering the characters, and his action sequences flowed across the page. Arthur Helsi’ colors complement Borges’ work on this series.
Oh, well, for those of us who are fans of Borges’ art, we can also check out the creator-owned series No/One from Image Comics and the Dick Tracy revival from Mad Cave studios. The guy really is prolific!
The cover artwork by the Dodsons was very slick & polished, having a much different feel to it than Borges’ gritty interiors. I guess the Dodsons’ work is considered more commercial. It’s a bit of a shame that Borges wasn’t asked to at least contribute variant covers for this series. Nevertheless, Terry & Rachel did do nice work on their four covers.
I’ve been really cutting back on my comic buying lately – I live in a one bedroom apartment and I have waaaaay too many books – but if Thunderbolts had lasted longer I probably would have continued following the series, at least for as long as Borges was drawing it. Having enjoyed the “Worldstrike” story arc, I hope we’ll get to see this incarnation of the team again.
In My Not So Humble Opinion 
