The Long and Short of It- Thunderbolts #108

Reviews

Thunderbolts #108

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Gary Erskine
Colours: SotoColo’s J. Brown
Letters: RS & Comicraft’s Albert Deschesne

The Long of It

I just don’t get Fabian Nicieza. Cable & Deadpool is consistently one of the funniest, best-written books out there. And when he worked on T-Bolts before, it was a great book to read. There were twists and turns along the way, but you always had the feeling that the book had a direction. And I used to enjoy travelling that direction. It was like being in the back of a really comfy bus, all by yourself. Sure it wasn’t the height of luxury (this was never one of Marvel’s real A-list books), but it was a nice journey nonetheless.


This book creeps in through your eyes, and takes a dump on your cerebral cortex.


But this run of Thunderbolts has been nothing short of a head-f*ck, and not in a good, Nextwave kinda way. This book creeps in through your eyes, and takes a dump on your cerebral cortex. It’s just too damn confusing, and sadly not very good.

For a start, you have too many lead characters. The core Thunderbolts team at the moment is eleven members, including complete no-marks like Joystick and Smuggler. They’ve got virtually three team leaders (Zemo, Songbird, Mach-whatever-number-he’s-up-to-now). And they’ve expanded the team with a combination of villains from A-List (Doc Ock) down to some kids who stole the old Beetle armours or Blacklas’s old gear.

They killed off Genis-Vell because”¦”¦ well, it looks like they killed him off just because they didn’t know what to do with him. OK, that’s possibly not fair. There might actually be a reason; with some stuff that’s coming up at the end of Civil War; but that actually implies some logic being applied to this book, and really I’ve given up hope of that.

And now this unwieldy cast of characters is fighting to stop Grandmaster from releasing the energies of the Universal Wellspring, which he’s doing because”¦”¦.. nope. Ya got me. Why is he doing this? Why am I even reading this, let alone writing about it?


It’s like watching a junkie try and find that first high again, only to fall face down in the gutter in a puddle of his own vomit.


This series started with one of the biggest twists ever in comics. They kept dropping twists and turns as they progressed. But now it seems as if they’re hooked on twists (Speed Demon switching to work with the Grandmaster, only to be revealed as a spy in his camp, whereas Joystick was playing the opposite game etc, etc). It’s like watching a junkie try and find that first high again, only to fall face down in the gutter in a puddle of his own vomit. You had the big reveal, and it worked. You got us hooked on the title. Now just try and develop it properly as a team in its own rights.

In the words of Mach-thingy and Fixer (in just about the only thing they actually do this issue), “Can’t you read anything in this soup, Abe?”. “Barely ‘Bert”.

Which I can tell you is more than I can read from this soup. And don’t even get me started on a rant about Zemo’s master plan, for which he’s been cutting deals with Cap, Tony and Reed in recent months. Just don’t go there. I’ll hurt you if you do.

I know Fabe can write. I see it on a regular basis. I even know he can write most of the characters in this book. I’m still holding out for Zemo: Born Better which will be spinning out of this arc (which concludes next issue). It looks like a good read. So why oh why oh why are we getting this confused garbage? Please Fabe – take a rest from doing anything other than C&DP. Just get your head back. I want to like T-Bolts so much, but I just can’t at the moment.


He makes everybody look lumpy; like their muscles are made of cold porridge.


As for the art”¦.. Nah. Sorry, I just don’t like Grummett’s pencils. I think his layouts confuse Fabe’s plot even more (and it doesn’t need any help). He makes everybody look lumpy; like their muscles are made of cold porridge. His whole style just looks cheap to me, and contributes to the feeling of T-Bolts as a C-list title. It’s an afterthought book, and desperately needs re-inventing (in a non-Fight-Club way).

Which is why it IS being reinvented, with Warren Ellis taking over the reins and a new team of psychos like Bullseye and Venom. And as much as I like the original team, Fabian himself summed up how I feel about the changes coming:

“As if gathering breath in anticipation of a sigh of relief.”

Let me sigh that sigh. I’ve been holding my breath so long waiting for this series to work that I’m starting to turn blue.

The Short of It

I wanted it to work. It didn’t. It was a valiant if confused attempt to have this book be significant again, and to prove that Fabian can still write a team book. It was in vain; and I’m sad about that; but I look forward to seeing what Ellis will do with the title (because that’s about all he’s keeping). It’s just too far gone at this stage for anything other than a revolution.

Grade: D- Confusing, desperate shambles. Which makes me die a little inside.