Thunderbolts #118
The evolution of Penance.
The concept is simple enough…. In this post-Civil War Marvel U., someone is needed to do the governments ‘dirty-work’ of tracking and apprehending heroes who violate the Registration act and with the 50 state initiative still a work in progress, the government has turned to a group of former baddies to do the job. The diversity of the current team roster, as well as the great pencils of Mike Deodato Jr. (and the writing talents of a mister Warren Ellis) really bring to life the disturbing undercurrent of this book.
Let’s take a second to look at that team roster I mentioned.
The team is led by a highly medicated Norman Osborn, who is constantly struggling to contain the Green Goblin side of his persona. It employs two notable psycho murderers in Venom (who has a thing for eating people…check out this issue, ugh!) and Bullseye (who is currently in a coma with a broken neck), three former members from ‘back in the day’; Songbird, Moonstone, and Radioactive Man and another slightly unhinged member in the Swordsman. But the most interesting piece in this book has to be its final member, the hero formerly known as Speedball, Penance. Yes, THAT Speedball…The one partly responsible for this whole Civil War mess. His evolution as a character of import in the Marvel U has been as masterful as anything done by them in the past 20 years. If you can say that anything good came out of the Civil War, then Penance is it.
Now that you know the players in this monthly thrill fest, we can get to work on getting you caught up on what’s currently going on as I make it my mission to keep you up to date on everything happening in this little noticed, but highly valued, monthly mag.! Join me next month for Thunderbolts #119 as we take a look at the current story arc, Caged Angels, and answer the question, Just how many Venom chomps does it take to get to the center of a security guard?
