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Writer: Jim Zub Artist: Sean Izaakse Colourist: Matt Yackey

Thunderbolts #7 kicks off the “Caught Red-Handed” story-arc that serves as a follow-up of Civil War II and also seems to be dealing with some more of the fallout of Avengers: Standoff and the Steve Rogers’ Hydra plot.

This issue sees Winter Soldier captured and held prisoner by SHIELD, visited by both Maria Hill and Steve Rogers in attempts to discover the location of Kobik, the living sentient Cosmic Cube. Meanwhile, the rest of the Thunderbolts team try to devise a plan to bust their captive leader out of jail, turning to former team member, former Avenger, and former SHIELD agent, Songbird, for her reluctant assistance.

Jim Zub does a good job interlacing the two parallel narratives, particularly at the beginning as the Thunderbolts are laying out the groundwork for their plan for the prison break atop Hill’s arrival at the detention facility and working her way to Bucky’s holding cell.

He also adds a nice amount of humour to the dialogue and ending situation that helps make the overall issue a pleasant and fun story. It’s nice to see these characters interacting again and Zub has managed to capture what feels like how old friends and colleagues would operate.

Sean Izaakse’s art is nice. It reminds me largely of what could probably be considered the early ‘00s Marvel “house style” exemplified by artists like Patrick Zircher and Pat Olliffe, but also to a certain extent Steve Epting or Mark Bagley. That a couple of them also worked on Thunderbolts for long periods of time also gives a nice consistency to the title, especially in bringing back together much of the original team. It’s a clean style, suitable for action and the brightly coloured costumes supplied by Matt Yackey.

The layouts are also very well done, both in visual interest and in storytelling. Particular standouts are the panels two above, with Moonstone effectively sticking her foot in her mouth to one side and the reactions from the rest of the team tiered next to it. The repetition of page layout for Hill and then Rogers visiting Bucky in his cell below are also a pleasant touch.

Ultimately, I rather liked the set-up for this next story-arc and will definitely be seeing at least it through to completion. I’m also kind of thinking of picking up the Avengers: Standoff collection and likely the first six issues of this series. I like what both Jim Zub is doing here and what Nick Spencer is doing over in Captain America: Steve Rogers and I’d like to see the seeds of the bigger picture going on.

I’d easily recommend this to fans of the original Thunderbolts title, under both Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza. Although this is different simply by fact of dealing with SHIELD, Winter Soldier, and the ongoing Hydra plot, this feels like classic Thunderbolts and Zub seems to have a good grasp on the characters’ voices and interactions. It also feels like one of the most “Marvel” titles that Marvel’s currently publishing, if that makes any sense.

Week Five: You’ve already read my thoughts on the first issues of Avengers, Occupy Avengers, and The Unworthy Thor. I liked all of them to a certain degree, but The Unworthy Thor was definitely the standout.

Foolkiller #1 was a pleasant surprise. It’s another spin-off out of Deadpool & The Mercs for Money, but unlike Solo it seems to have a wee bit more personality outside of the fairly generic action hero set up. Being a somewhat reformed villain probably helps as well. Max Bemis adds a fair amount of humour to Greg Salinger’s normal life as a therapist with a depth to the narration that coveys more of Foolkiller’s backstory than most people probably know. Dalibor Talajić’s artwork is also nice. I’ll be reading at least the first arc.

Spider-Woman #13 has some very nice artwork from Veronica Fish, who has certainly been delivering a fair amount of solid work this month, also handling the art duties on BOOM!’s Slam #1.

Week Six: I had initially planned to cover more than just Avengers #1.1, but both technical difficulties and one of the worst sinus infections I’ve ever had helped put an end to much of what I wanted to do that week and beyond through the month. November 9th was a fairly large week for Marvel NOW! 2.0 releases, with five other titles beyond Avengers.

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1 is a fun comic. I really liked the lead story from the regular team of Gerry Conway and Ryan Stegman, that featured a good story and some great art. I felt like I’m missing a big part of what’s going on, but the first issue was still rather enjoyable that I’m intent on tracking down the mini-series that spawned this. The two back-ups were a mixed bag, although Anthony Holden’s had a hilarious moment of Peter leaving Anna May with Sandman while off delivering photographs.

Since the second volume of Black Panther isn’t out until January, I also decided to hold off on Black Panther: World of Wakanda #1. I know that the first issue at least is supposed to take place before the current series, but I think I may miss context for the characters.

Captain America: Steve Rogers #7 continues on detailing his past history that was rewritten by Kobik. Meanwhile in the present, the machinations between both Red Skull and Captain America continue apace. I went back a month or so ago and have been reading this since the first issue. It’s definitely a different take. Red Skull’s current incarnation of Hydra as a European stand-in for ISIS is also interesting.

The review for Invincible Iron Man #1 was the one that kept deleting itself during this week. I had originally intended on passing on it, much like Infamous Iron Man, due to not liking Bendis’ take on Tony Stark, but the preview art from Stefano Caselli was just too captivating. Upon reading, the story was decent, the artwork phenomenal.

Power Man & Iron Fist is another series that I decided to start reading before the NOW! initiative. David F. Walker and Sanford Greene are doing some great work on the series, bringing together past elements and characters from previous incarnations of Luke Cage and the Heroes for Hire. It’s a great book. #10 kicks off a new story-arc that promises to create another antagonizing element and I’m excited to see what happens next.

Week Seven: I had intended on reviewing both NOW! titles during this week, but extenuating circumstances preventing me from formulating any coherent thoughts during this week or the following one.

Thanos #1 I thought was phenomenal. I’ve been a big fan of Jim Starlin’s work on the cosmic side of Marvel, as well as the kick in the arm that Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning gave it coming out of Annhilation, so I was predisposed to at least partially like this. Jeff Lemire and Mike Deodato, Jr. did a great job. It picks up largely after Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity and feels like it’s going to be another cosmic epic.

Deodato’s artwork itself was incredibly impressive. Evoking for me some of the more inventive layouts and panel breakdowns from some of the spaceborn work out of Heavy Metal, George Perez’s work on Infinity Gauntlet, and for some reason old Epic and Marvel UK comics. That latter probably because of the heavy use of dots and other shading sheet techniques. I’m onboard this one for the long haul.

Uncanny Inhumans #15 doesn’t feel like a Marvel comic. I don’t know how to better describe that, but the idea of New Attilan and a New York City filled with new and old Inhumans, just feels weird. It feels like either an alternate reality or something else entirely. That’s not to say it’s bad, it just feels like something that doesn’t quite fit. The story itself by Charles Soule, with some nods to Casablanca and a different kind of existential investigation. was entertaining and the artwork from RB Silva was good. I’ll be reading this title through the IvX crossover, but I can’t really recommend it as a starting point for anyone else.

Week Eight: Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur I’ve already decided to read in collections. It’s a fun book from Amy Reeder, Brandon Montclare, and Natacha Bustos that I feel does all ages right. The stories and artwork are endearing and I’d feel comfortable giving the book to a younger kid.

I didn’t read any of Al Ewing’s last Ultimates series, but after reading Ultimates2 #1, I feel like I may want to. Although the story about needing to solve ultimate problems in a reformation of the team is interesting, I think it would be better informed by reading the series’ previous incarnation. Travel Foreman’s artwork is nice.

I’m of two minds for Venom #1. Overall, I didn’t really like it. I can’t say I’m a big fan of an evil, brain-eating Venom any more, we’ve got Carnage for that. I’ve liked the growth of the various hosts and even apparently the symbiote here. I really liked that aspect that Mike Costa gave for the narration from the symbiote itself, trying to do good. I don’t really like the new host or the criminal world that he operates in, though. Although I’m interested in what happens to the symbiote, I don’t really care what happens to his current host.

Also, the story of how the symbiote got separated from Flash Thompson seems to have been lost somewhere.

Week Nine: Ghost Rider #1 disappointed me. I like the character interaction that Felipe Smith writes between Robbie and Gabe. I thought that was honest and heartwarming. The rest of the book, not so much. One of the more disappointing bits was Danilo Beyruth’s art. While his vehicles, superheroes, and action seemed on point, some of his facial expressions, constructions, and depictions I felt were empty or weird, which is a shame when a large part of the story was normal human interaction between Robbie and Gabe.

I also can’t say that I enjoyed the bulk of the first story focusing instead on Amadeus Cho, that felt like a weird set-up for a first issue, especially since I don’t think Smith did a particularly decent job of setting up the current Ghost Rider’s situation to people who’ve never read this Ghost Rider before (or haven’t seen him on Agents of SHIELD, even though that Rider seems to be slightly different in his origin and such than this one). I’m sure that there are people out there who will enjoy this, but this series is a pass for me.

And finally, my thoughts on Thunderbolts #7 are up above.

Next: X-tenuating Circumstances.

d. emerson eddy does not fit nicely into a standard sized shoe box. Nor a hat box.

#Monday #Marvel #Thunderbolts 7 #Jim Zub #Sean Izaakse #Marvel NOW! 2.0 #What NOW!?#posts by d. emerson eddy