The New Thunderbolts

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Issues #1 through "100"

[Luke Blanchard]

With #76 the Busiek/Nicieza Thunderbolts were replaced by a different set of characters who fought in illegal tournaments. John Arcudi and Francisco Ruiz Velasco were the creators. The title was cancelled with #81. A year later the Busiek/Nicieza Thunderbolts feature returned in New Thunderbolts and ran under that title for 18 issues. With #100 the original title and numbering were "restored".

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Ah! Thank you!

And judging by the cover of #1, Genis-Vell was there from the beginning. That series has evidently been collected in three tpbs, too.

Cool!

[Philip Portelli]

Thunderbolts seems to be one of those books that constantly re-invents itself. It's hit or miss, depending on your tastes.

[Dagwan]

Unlike Outsiders, which is a miss or a miss, depending on your pulse.

That's right, I went there.

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"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! It's much better now!

Listen to WOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!

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[Jeff of Earth-J]

On my lunch hour I picked up the first New Thunderbolts tpb reprinting #1-6, so I'll soon be able to let you know what I think!

[Philip Portelli]

Hey, I liked the original Barr/Aparo Batman and the Outsiders! I hoped that you seen those and not just commenting on the current series, which is depressing and morose!

Dagwan said:

Unlike Outsiders, which is a miss or a miss, depending on your pulse.

That's right, I went there.

---

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! It's much better now!

Listen to WOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!

---

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUES #1-6:

On Monday I bought the tpb collecting the first six issues of The New Thunderbolts and I read it last night. I like it so much I know I’m not going to remember everything I want to say about it! I’ve been reading X-Men Forever and particularly enjoying Tom Grummett’s art. I heard his previous series was Thunderbolts, but when I went searching for those backissues months ago I didn’t find any. (I didn’t even look at The New Thunderbolts because I “knew” that was by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato.) My recent interest in Marvel’s “cosmic” comics led me to seek out appearances of Genis-Vell after the cancellation of his series, and as soon as Luke cleared up my confusion I rushed right out and bought the first volume of Nicieza and Grummett’s New Thunderbolts!

I was in on the original Thunderbolts series from the beginning, but it never really clicked with me and I didn’t stick with it more than a couple of issues or so. For one thing, although I did read Hulk #449, I pick up on the fact that the team members’ individual identities were supposed to be some big secret. When it was revealed I wasn’t particularly impressed, but I was also kind of disappointed when I found out it was supposed to have been a secret because I’m sure I could have figured it out. For another thing, it was announced that the team would last beyond the end of “Heroes Reborn” and I wasn’t keen at the time to follow the teams’ “arc of discovery.”

After Avengers Forever, the Thunderbolts I’m most interested in are Songbird and Captain. I thought the perfect time to follow up on the revelations of Avengers Forever was following “Avengers Disassebled” but Brian Michael Bendis went and turned it into a best-selling book instead. ;)

This new series, however, is everything I expect from an established team. It takes six issues to tell its first story but is neither compressed nor decompressed to fit that length. There’s obviously a lot I have missed, but Nicieza does an excellent job of telling me what I need to know while simultaneously leaving me wanting more. Genis appears in the first issue and the sixth but is pretty much behind the scenes for the middle chapter. That’s okay, though, because he’s not the only reason I’m reading the book. Evidently he and Songbird have a prior relationship I missed, but that’s okay, too; I’ll track those developments down eventually.

What surprises me most is, after being so down on Marvel for so long, I discovered that there are Marvel comics out there I like, I just haven’t been finding them!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUES #7-12:

I read the tpb collecting issue #7-12 over the weekend and I enjoyed it every bit as much as the one collection #1-6. Nicieza handled the Purple Man even better than Neil Gaiman, and also the intrusive “House of M” chapter better than any of the (few) others I have read. I find myself very much looking forward to reading the next “88” issues!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUES #13-100:

I just finished reading the third New Thunderbolts tpb. The Thunderbolts were first introduced to fill something of an heroic gap in the Marvel Universe post-Heroes Reborn, but I didn't need them then. I did need them post-Avengers Disasssembled, but I had no idea how good this title was! There are three more tpbs by Nicieza and Grummett following this one. The next one is the Civil War crossover, and if they can make that at all palatable to me I will be impressed!

Well, that's it: 100 issues! (Geez, seemed more like 19.)

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

ISSUES #13-100:

I just finished reading the third New Thunderbolts tpb. The Thunderbolts were first introduced to fill something of an heroic gap in the Marvel Universe post-Heroes Reborn, but I didn't need them then. I did need them post-Avengers Disasssembled, but I had no idea how good this title was! There are three more tpbs by Nicieza and Grummett following this one. The next one is the Civil War crossover, and if they can make that at all palatable to me I will be impressed!

Well, that's it: 100 issues! (Geez, seemed more like 19.)

What are the chances? I just bought the next two tpbs from my LCS a could of weeks ago, and I just finished reading the Civil War trade. As someone who had no interest in the main storyline, this was really pretty good I thought. It deals a lot with the Civil War, but also moves its own plot along very nicely as well.