I was a fan of the Thunderbolts concept the moment it was unveiled. Creator Kurt Busiek managed to use a poor crossover event and an intercompany creative scheme to launch a novel super-hero concept, and it's a testament to that concept that it's lasted almost a decade. Fabian Nicieza has managed to stay true to the original spirit of Busiek's early T-Bolts stories and built upon them nicely, adding to the cast with classic Marvel characters that didn't see all that much character development over the years. I wish I could say I celebrated this milestone as well, but I honestly had little clue as to what was going on at times. The plot is far too convoluted, and some of the elements feel shoehorned in so as to address dangling plot points that add little to this cosmic showdown.
Two different factions of Thunderbolts gather on remote battlefield. On the one side, Songbird and her team, seeking to protect their ally Photon. On the other is Baron Zemo and his group, out to eliminate Photon before his disrupted temporal existence threatens to end all existence as we know it. Both fight for just causes, though Zemo's methods remain as manipulative as they were when he was a villain. How can two teams of reformed villains fight over matters of life and death without sacrificing all they've achieved?
Grummett handles the large cast of characters quite adeptly. The action flows smoothly for the most part, and the colorful array of costumes makes for a dazzling display that keeps the eye engaged. The artist's depiction of Zemo's and Photon's cosmic powers isn't as clear as I'd like, as I don't really get what each is always trying to accomplish. Still, I suspect that stems from a lack of clarity in the script. I was really struck by the strength of several of the updated character designs that have cropped up over the years in this title, and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the new looks with the old, such as Radioactive Man's and Nighthawk's costumes.
I like that for only a buck over its usual standard comic price, Marvel offers two extra comics' worth of supplemental reprint material in the back of this milestone issue. It was fun to revisit those older stories and the radically different motives these characters had when this journey began. I'm guessing newer readers might have been thrown for a loop by Jolt's appearance, but overall, the reprint material celebrates the strength of the premise and offers a nice showcase of a variety of artists.
Zemo with cosmic powers? That was too big a pill to swallow to begin with, and then to throw in all the revelations about his behind-the-scenes manipulations, I found it hard to buy into the story. Was this Nicieza's plan from the start? Perhaps, but the awkwardness of the script and the convoluted nature of the exposition made it seem as though the writer was trying to get a number of square pegs to fit into round holes. The script does offer some strong character-driven moments. I remain impressed with the Radioactive Man as the team's voice of reason and Atlas's seemingly unending conflict over where his loyalties lie. But the core plot itself is just too lofty for a series that's really meant to be about characters, not cosmic conflicts. 3/10
