Review:
Thunderbolts: Breaking Point # 1
Writer: Christos N. Gage
Artist: Brian Denham
It’s Christos Gage again! The Stormwatch PHD author is quite impressive and quickly rising to prominence within Marvel, making otherwise useless filler titles, like this and last week’s Avengers: House of M entertaining.
The Thunderbolts were, in their most recent incarnation, a team of former villains who became heroes. The new Thunderbolt team is pure villains with a few former holdovers who are run by the government to capture non-registered heroes. This issue focuses on the dynamics between two members of the team, Moonstone, the team leader who is wildly jealous and Songbird, the one most choose to follow and a much nicer person.
In this issue, the two feud around the arrival of Songbird’s long lost mother. There is, of course, question about how trustworthy her mother is since she’s been gone so long as well as implications that arise by her arrival as Songbird becomes famous. The issues of Songbird’s mother and Moonstone’s jealousy are properly resolved in the comic, however, the book does not follow common conventions of plot.
There is no real build here and what does exist is terribly cliché. This issue feels like a continuity checkup to make sure a side-plot about Moonstone hating Songbird is appropriately tied up. This ultimately succeeds at this goal, but in the least interesting way possible. The characters are ciphers, with Moonstone being the manipulative femme fatale, Songbird being the street girl with a heart of gold, and her mother the recovering alcoholic who shows up just long enough for another drink. All of this comes together haphazardly, tied around two fights that really have nothing to do with the plot. This could have been stretched out into a proper story, but in one issue the drama never builds and the climax is just thrown in second hand. Gage is better than this.
The art is weak here, with none of the intended emotion coming through. When Dr. Chen visits Songbird in a scene where she’s upset, Songbird looks thrilled. She also apparently where’s lingerie while mourning. Neither of these makes any sense and are merely indicative of the problems in the art.
Gage has a lot of good books out. This isn’t one and should be skipped. Paper thin characters and a plot that lacks structure leave this a flat continuity check.
