If you missed out on the action-packed return of the Thunderbolts by Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse, you’re in luck as the trade paperback comes out this week. Titled Back on Target, the five-issue series features Hawkeye as the field leader on a team sanctioned by Luke Cage, who is currently the mayor of New York City. Along the way, they take on new members in an eclectic lineup, to say the least, making for a unique team experience.
Thunderbolts are fun. As far as superhero comics go, Zub does a great job keeping your interest in the narrative by using a crosscutting approach between a scene with the team in action and a scene with Hawkeye being asked to lead the team. It’s a clever way to show Hawkeye’s reluctance and nerves about starting a Thunderbolts with the team in action. This crosscutting leads up until the last page, giving the book a well-crafted approach from beginning to end.
The various heroes in this narrative are also well-picked with new and familiar faces. In one scene, we see how the team was picked, which reads like a funny meta joke as if Zub and Izaakse were patting themselves on the back. The crosscutting also helps introduce these characters, allowing opportune times for them to pop up, face off against a different villain, and generally have their moments. The addition of super-monster Eegro is also a nice touch. He’s comedic in seriousness but also seems to enjoy children’s adoration. He’s a weird one, so he fits right in on the team.
Speaking of the villains, this collection has plenty, like super monkeys to Whirlwind and Melter. The final boss should far outpower this team, but they find a way. The first villain has the team rushing in to stop a group of supervillains like Taskmaster and Abomination, who have teamed up to rob a bank. Sometimes with superhero team-up books, the enemy can feel overpowered, but with an electric crew of baddies at the creators’ disposal, they take their shots and get taken down in logically earned ways.
America!
Credit: Marvel
A reoccurring joke is that this team is very bad at keeping property damage down. Hawkeye is cheery and happy to talk up his team, even if he puts his foot in his mouth quite a bit. Luckily he’s not always a punching bag. Zub and Izaakse show off Hawkeye’s fighting abilities and his ability to train a team in a key training scene, for instance. He does tend to mess up a lot, though, but he’s kind of charming when he does it.
Art by Izaakse is without a blemish, with good detail and extra emphasis on backdrops that add energy and zip. Speed lines are used a lot here, for instance, with broken glass and sound effects popping into panels to amp up the energy of the scenes. Though the issue is limited to full-page splashes, it seems every character gets a splashy entrance, be it half-page-sized panels or epic reveals, as they enter the book. The energy is excellent in the narrative, never slowing down and clearly being as action-frenzied as possible. Java Tartaglia colors the issue giving it a less bright palette and grounding the action.
It’s too bad this series didn’t get an ongoing series order because it’s a strong contender as an excellent team book to run alongside the universe-ending titles Marvel usually puts out. The only downside might be how many ideas it has, which with sequences sometimes feeling rushed as they cram reveals and character work in.
Thunderbolts is an explosive, super-fun series with a good mix of lesser-known characters and plenty of different villains for them to fight. Not only is it entertaining in how it approaches this motley crew super team, but it offers a strong argument it should have continued on past its five issue run.
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