After all the action last issue, the team does an extended debrief. Moonstone tries to rationalize the reasons why a lame-o like Jack Flag was able to defeat the team and nearly evade capture, while Songbird (who wants her leadership position back) disagrees.
Radiative Man complains about his new uniform to Norman Osborn, who says they can only change it after focus group testing.
We also see Osborn checking on Bullseye, Penance…
…and Venom, all of whom don’t play well with other and are kept separate.
I like the one-to-one conversations that have appeared in each issue so far. It shows Norman Osborn’s “divide and conquer” approach to leadership, and gives us a look into each of the team members. They conversations show how…seductive he can be. The allure of doing bad for a good reason. But his leadership style begins to fray when Moonstone and Songbird start comparing notes.
We also keep seeing Osborn’s one-on-one conversations with himself, where he continually obsesses about his arch enemy, Spider-Man.
And there’s more fun commercialization of the team, including by a familiar face…
Oh, and I finally have a version of Swordsman I’m interested in! Andreas Strucker was one-half of Fenris, the villain team consisting of him and his sister who, like the “Wonder Twins,” have to touch to activate their powers.
GIF OF 3ONDER TWINS
We learn that Strucker’s sword, which was shattered by Jack Flag last story, has a graft of skin from his dead sister, so that his powers activate. And we learn that Osborn is cloning his sister, which is the hold Osborn has over Andreas.
Like I said, we FINALLY have an interesting version of Swordsman!
On the hero side, we see a few panels or pages about some unregistered heroes, Shadowoman and American Eagle. I like that this book gives Ellis and Deodato Jr. a chance to play with geek fodder characters who would otherwise go unseen. The reason those two heroes get a little time up front is because they’re in the same city as Steel Spider. Osborn settles on Steel Spider for their next target, but the name “spider” causes him flashbacky angst as he thinks of his old foe.
And speaking of geeks and nerds, Steel Spider is Ollie Osnick—a fanboy who became a hero after inventing his own armor. But he’s much cooler now, and has ripped muscles. Yeah, he’s an official badass now.
And he’s got help.
When the T-Bolts arrive to capture Osnick, American Eagle and Shadowoman are there to help. Once again, the Thunderbolts struggle against heroes who should be very easy for them to beat.
As part of her goal to undermine Moonstone and take her team back, Songbird removes the nanochain from Bullseye, which frees him to kill his handlers and then escape. He does the former, but the killer still decides to go after American Eagle, just because he wants to.
And he gets served when Jason Strongbow kicks his ass. (But look at the page above. Apart from the amazing art–some of the best of Deodato’s amazing career, he inserts water towers into nearly every issue!)
He’s beaten so badly that he ends the story paralyzed once again. Lester was paralyzed by Daredevil way back when, and those injuries were used by Osborn to goad Bullseye in the very first page of Ellis’ run of this series.
The writing and plotting here is so far beyond anything we’ve seen in this title before. As proof that this book really delivers: Speedball and Swordsman are two of the best characters in it!
English (US) · 