Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #3

The third issue of Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt continues the trend of the first two - a lot of exposition, a lot of backstory, and just enough action to give Jonathon Lau something to draw.  Issues 1 and 2 gave us a detailed rundown on Peter Cannon's history, including how he became Thunderbolt and a look at his philosophy and motivations.  This chapter fills in the backstory on Master Tiger, by way of the villian personally telling his whole story to Peter, along with giving away his own plans and motives - a story he tells over the course of about half the issue while the whole time holding a sword to Cannon's throat.  These long blocks of text have truly bogged down what is an otherwise promising reboot of a beloved character.

Scriptwork is being handled dually by Steven Darnall and Alex Ross.  Their decision to start the series with so much backstory is truly confounding.  Most comic fans recognize Peter Cannon as the Charlton character who was the inspiration for Ozymandias in Watchmen.  Their origins, personalities, and motivations are incredibly similar and not exactly unknown to the comic reading public.  Especially with DC's Before Watchmen series currently running, it would have been nice to see a more immediate jump into some action.

With all that said, Thunderbolt has a lot going for it.  The story so far, though relegated mostly to the background, has introduced several interesting threads that will be coming into play.  A mysterious villian who seems to be orchestrating things behind the scenes, a chicken-hawk General determined to undermine Peter's plans, and an intriguing twist at the very end has me hooked into continuing to see if this series takes off.