Thunderbolts #3

Unconventional Warfare

Elektra has been taken into custody by Awa’s troops and Deadpool, after recovering from a head shot, treks back to the team’s base camp. Here he encounters the Red Hulk and the information he’s been keeping hidden from his team. Meanwhile, Punisher and Venom are busy undertaking their part for the mission – training and mobilizing the freedom soldiers of Kata Jaya to rise up against the tyrannical reign of General Awa.

Writer Daniel Way | Artist Steve Dillon | Colours Guru eFX | Cover Julian Totino Tedesco

It seems like everything is going just as Red Hulk had planned. But it doesn’t. In the first issue of Thunderbolts, readers weren’t given an opportunity to witness all the players work as a team. The second issue started shedding some light on how the team can be cooperative with one another (keyword: can) with the promise of more. Within this issue we receive that promise, which is great. But it still feels like the team is unstable. And that’s exactly how Daniel Way wants us to feel.  Already, there are disagreements, especially on the issue of Samuel Sterns aka The Leader (who looks like Sinestro on the cover art…) and Punisher might be the most troublesome out of the entire squad. Red Hulk is not oblivious to this and with the way that this issue ended, we can definitely expect rising tensions between certain team members. I think that’s what’s keeping my attention most though. Yes, we want to see them as a team but the idea that they might implode on themselves is beginning to be far more interesting. Way still keeps some things secret from readers too. We have yet to know why Mercy is on the team though we can only speculate. But he does reveal who the villain is. Way could’ve done better to build up to the reveal; it happened way too fast and abruptly. There was no lead up therefore it lost the effect of a good climax.

Personally, I don’t have any problem with Dillon's artwork on certain projects. I love his artwork in Preacher. So, hopes were high that he would be able to support the scale of action that is being asked for, but I’m starting to feel that his art may not be the right choice for this particular series. Venom, Deadpool, and a Hulk are on this squad. And you can bet that things are going to get fantastic and insane. Red Hulk looks way too small. He just looks like a big, beefy guy instead of a monstrosity. And Venom? When Venom gets angry his suit is supposed to devolve into a grotesque mass of tendrils and teeth. This is something that thrives with an imaginative artist but Dillon’s artwork looks way too rigid to do a good Venom.  The interior artwork doesn’t compliment the cover artwork by Tedesco either. The work is good but it just doesn’t fit with everything else nor does it complete it. I am looking forward to Phil Noto, recently of Uncanny X-men and Ghost, taking over the artwork beginning with issue 7.

Thunderbolts began on a much slower start than expected but this issue was a bit more eventful. The introduction of a super villain and the tension that’s about to occur may be the fire that this series needs.  And with Noto coming on board later, we can hope for more unity with the writing, exterior and interior artwork.