When Thunderbolts: Doomstrike #2 begins, Bucky Barnes is not in a good spot. His attempts to expose Doctor Doom have gone south, left him with a decimated base, and even worse Doom sent a nuclear missile careening into his hometown of Shelbyville, Indiana…and set it up so that he’d be blamed for the attack. Yet the Revolution is ready to continue his attack against Doom’s regime, and he’s gathered another team of Thunderbolts to do it: John Walker, aka the U.S. Agent, Sharon Carter, aka Destroyer, and Sal Romero – the Ghost Rider of 1944.
It was Romero’s involvement that got me excited to read Thunderbolts: Doomstrike #2, especially considering that he and Bucky bonded during Hellhunters (another surprisingly entertaining comic about superheroes battling fascist forces.) It also keeps in line with the approach Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly took to their previous Thunderbolts series, where Bucky would deploy select teams for specialized missions; you never knew who you were going to get.
Yet this time, the vibes are different. Walker enters the picture drunk to high heaven and pissed at Bucky; Sharon, having liberated the city of Austin, Texas (here’s where I stop and thank the creative team for having a scene in my hometown) is sober, yet equally pissed. Lanzing and Kelly definitely deserve credit for showcasing how Bucky’s actions leave him on the outs not just with Doom, but with his potential allies, but they also show how no matter what, sometimes people have to stand up for something even if it costs them everything. The only question is, how much with the battle against Doom cost Bucky?
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Tommasso Bianchi starts to show that toll, especially in the opening page. Bucky is shown sitting in a room, shadows dancing across his face and rage boiling in his eyes. The final page repeats this imagery, only with the added caveat of him gripping a metal bench until it bends in his hands. All the while, images of what happened to Shelbyville race through his head, given a blood red tint under Yen Nitro’s color art. Bianchi and Nitro also give readers a truly epic spread of Ghost Rider ’44 gunning his motorcycle as he races one of Doom’s trains, leaving hellfire and barbed chains in his wake.
Oh did I mention that Thunderbolts: Doomstrike #2 features a train robbery? This not only sets up the next issue, but it finally draws Bucky and his Thunderbolts into contact with the new Citizen V – and showcases that once again, Doom is playing for keeps. It does lead to a little less Ghost Rider ’44 than I expected, but it proves Doomstrike is gong to be a rough ride for Bucky and everyone involved with him.
Thunderbolts: Doomstrike #2 puts Bucky Barnes through the wringer in more ways than one as he continues his battle against Doom. One World Under Doom may have only started, but this is a series that serves as the perfect counterpart to the main storyline, and it looks like things will only heat up in the next installment.
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