When we last saw a team with the name Thunderbolts, they were fighting The Avengers and their former villainous identities had been exposed to the world. This reboot (with the very cute title, “Reassembled”) takes the team in a totally new direction.
It starts with Abner “The Beetle” Jenkins getting released from prison and reforming the team as a group to rehabilitate villains. It’s a good idea–and will form the core concept of several Thunderbolts iterations going forward. (Just ignore the fact that he’s barely been in prison more than a few years and the last time he was out he participated in all kinds of mayhem–the Marvel Universe’s justice system is remarkably lenient.)
He brings the gang back together, starting with Songbird–explaining that part of the reason they’re so needed is because The Avengers have been disassembled. (See the tag below if you don’t know what this means.). This is a good sign: The last time the T-Bolts was a great comic was when the team formed in the wake of The Avengers’ disappearance due to the Onslaught Event (also see below if you need to). Other members are The Blizzard and Atlas.
Team-formation sequences are always fun.
It’s a small foursome, and their first adventure is against a five-some:
The Fathom Five. Atlanteans, some old some new.
The team struggles against this collection of water villains until Genis Vell shows up for a cameo and teaches them how to work together (and helps them), and they save the day.
But the victory doesn’t last long.
Believing Captain Marvel has romantic intentions towards Songbird, Atlas smashes him (enabling Dragonrider to escape).
This comic is 20 years old, but I’m still not going to spoil who the dude in the trenchcoat is.
Although he was abetted by Kurt Busiek, this reboot is written by Fabian Nicieza, who wastes no time indulging in his penchant for multiple subplots and threads. That didn’t stop me from enjoying the book, but it’s certainly a source of caution for me. In the past, Nicieza has been notorious for leaving these things unresolved. At the same time, this first issue is mostly self-contained, which is nice is this Marvel era where most issues of series are parts of longer arcs.
The most important seed planted here is the big reveal on the final page…
Yeah. Another Nazi supervillain is running this group. OK, that big reveal lets a little air out of the book. I mean, we’ve seen it before and NOBODY wants to see the old Thunderbolts return. By the end, it was just boring and tedious.
I have cautious optimism and skepticism as I begin to read this book.