Monday, May 19, 2014


The Spokane Comicon is a couple weeks away--if you're there, look for me, I'm the guy buying all the comics. It also means maybe I should consider putting away some of the comics I picked up last con, but I have been working at rebuilding my stack of random comics for blogging purposes. Like today's book! From 2007, Thunderbolts #114, "Faith in Monsters, part five" Written by Warren Ellis, art by Mike Deodato.

Even though it still had some of the same characters like Moonstone and Songbird, this would've been in the middle of the book's third or fourth reinvention: this time, the villains were working for the government, bringing in unlicensed and unregistered heroes. This month, the T-Bolts are circling Sepulchre, American Eagle, and Steel Spider. Wow, that's pretty deep into the character roster: I'm pretty sure the editors give Ellis a list of characters and he picks the ones he can work with.

Somewhat unusually for the title, there were characters actively not seeking any sort of redemption, including Bullseye and the Mac Gargan Venom. Gargan was a bold choice for Venom, since it means taking away his Scorpion identity, but it made Venom an outright villain again rather than an anti-hero or "Lethal Protector." But there was a masked character who identity was hidden from readers for some time, a trope Thunderbolts used a lot: this time, with their new Swordsman. I had to look up who he was, and I had forgotten, it was kind of gross; but a nice touch from Ellis.

Later this week, we'll probably look at another government sponsored super-hero villain team...


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