New Thunderbolts #1

November 11, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: One Step Forward

With the Avengers torn apart, a new Thunderbolts team emerges.

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Voice of Reason: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Gary Erskine
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Tom Grummett & Chris Sotomayor
Publisher: Marvel Comics

I don’t know if the revamped Thunderbolts was orchestrated to mirror the premiere of the original series or if it was just fortuitous, but the creators of the new series took full advantage. Like the first time around, the team is formed at a time when the Avengers are essentially gone. New York is hurting for heroes, and the appearance of the new team is welcomed. And like the first time around, the last page pulls a big shocker that puts the entire issue in a different light and most certainly sets the tone for where this series is going to go.

Abner Jenkins, Mach-IV, is determined to re-form the Thunderbolts, and to do it, he needs Songbird. Their romance has been on the skids, but she agrees to come along anyway, and is greeted by an old friend and a disturbing new teammate. When the city is attacked, they mobilize and go on their first mission as a new team.

The story is solid, and it’s nice to see how each member of the team is introduced (or re-introduced). It seems that Nicieza is really going to play up the potential soap opera aspects of the title, though, and that’s not a part I was ever really a big fan of. It’s done well, don’t misunderstand, but I always felt the book was strongest when it stuck to the core stories about villains reforming and the deep exploration of the Marvel Universe.

The artwork, by Tom Grummett, Gary Erskine and Chris Sotomayor, is very strong. They’ve got a great feel for the characters, and Captain Marvel (yes, he appears in this issue) looks better than ever.

This is a good foundation for the new Thunderbolts to start from. The big question now, naturally, is where will they go from here?

Rating: 7/10

Legion Secret Files 3003

November 18, 2003

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: The Earth Spins Presents: The Legion Secret Files 3003

A Daily Planet reporter takes you along to meet the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Pencils: Leonard Kirk
Inks: Robin Riggs
Colors: Sno Cone
Art (Profiles): Tony Harris & Tom Feister
Letters: Nick J. Napolitano
Editor: Ivan Cohen & Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Tony Harris & Tom Feister
Publisher: DC Comics

From the very beginning of the Secret Files program, the individual issues have been hit and miss. This may be the biggest hit yet, and it gets there by completely eschewing the standard Secret Files format and embracing the purpose of the book. Abnett and Lanning, rather than giving us a couple of fill-in-the-blank stories and a scattering of profile pages, instead work the profiles into the story itself, telling a nice tale that gives us insight into every member of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the world they live in.

We see how Cosmic Boy is dealing with Superboy’s sudden appearance in the 31st century, how Sensor is failing to deal with her transformation into a more humanoid form – beautiful to her teammates but hideous in her own culture – and how Live Wire is trying to deal with his resurrection in the crystalline body of Element Lad. (This is a particularly good segment, although it does call to mind the perfectly reasonable question of, “If the Legion can’t trust Live Wire because he looks like a member that went crazy and killed several of them, why doesn’t he at least stop wearing Element Lad’s uniform? The obvious questions are the most frustrating, aren’t they?)

We are also treated to a prologue and epilogue that tie in to the current “Foundations” storyline running in the regular Legion title, in which dark (but frighteningly familiar) beings are working for the resurrection of the greatest evil the DC Universe has ever known — Darkseid. Any longtime Legion fan who remembers the epic “Great Darkness Saga” should be getting chills at this point.

It’s always nice to see Leonard Kirk’s pencils – I was very sorry to see him leave JSA, and the Harris/Feister team continues to impress for the most part, although the double-page spread featuring Brainiac 5, Spark, Violet and Invisible Kid looks kind of sloppy – a couple of the characters look like they could have fallen out of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

If you’re interested in reading Legion and didn’t learn all you wanted from the fantastic Legion #25, this should answer any questions you have left. It’s one of the best Secret Files ever put out.

Rating: 8/10