Thunderbolts in the 2000s: Lightning Strikes Twice
Although the Thunderbolts series was a break out hit in the late 1990s, the longevity of the concept quickly wore off leading to some growing pains, a few fitful reboots, before finding new ground. Taking over from series creator Kurt Busiek, was writer Fabien Nicieza who would continue to write the series for a better part of the decade with Mark Bagley continuing on as artist until issue #50. He would be replaced by Patrick Zircher who would remain on the book (with the exception of the odd fill in issue) until issue #67. The original run of the series was capped off with rotating artists including Chris Batista, Jean Jacques Dzialowski, Stefano Caselli, Manuel Garcia.
I don’t have much else I can say about Bagley that I haven’t already said before. I like his art just fine. However, I noticed that some of his work here seems of a lesser quality than say, his work on Amazing Spider-Man. Perhaps he was feeling some fatigue? Thunderbolts in general utilized a lot of different characters, I’d imagine that was very exhausting to do for 50 issues. On the subject of Patrick Zircher as an artist, I have nothing bad to say. I really like his sharper style. It reminds me of Jim Calafiore’s work. I wouldn’t say it is derivative of Calafiore because Zircher has his own signature style. The just really like stark angular line strokes I guess? The end-of-run artists are all fairly decent, with my least favorite being Manuel Garcia. Not because it’s bad work. It’s very well done, it just doesn’t fit my tastes.
When it comes to story telling, there are times when it seems like there is far too much going on. I think this is a bad habit Nicieza kept after his stint on the X-Men family of books which were plagued with long running storylines in the 1990s that didn’t feel like they were going anywhere. In 25 issues alone there is conspiracy involving the Scourge of the Underworld, the secret of the Crimson Cowl, the identity of Citizen V, fleshing out the V-Battalion, some Counter-Earth shenanigans, Ogre’s secret mission, as well as the deaths and resurrections of Baron Zemo, Fixer/Techno, and Jolt, the formation of the Redeemers, and a splitting of the team following a battle with Gaviton. That’s a lot of shit to cram into 25 issues and while some of these plot lines come at a breakneck speed, others go at a slow crawl and get sidelined because of other things going. Particularly, the murder of Jolt, which you’d expect to be priority number one for the team, but it kepts getting sidetracked because of other plot threads.
Then there was the whole issue with Charcoal, who is abruptly killed off and then quickly forgotten along with any dangling plot threads surrounding him. However, something like that couldn’t be helped since it was due to some goings on behind the scenes. See, Charcoal was a character that was created by a fan who entered a contest through Wizard Magazine. The winning submission would have their character appear as a new villain in an issue of Thunderbolts. It was supposed to only be a one-and-done deal. However, the character was very much liked by the creatives on the book and so they kept on using the character, even going so far as to make him part of the team. This fan was apparently unaware of Marvel’s work-for-hire ways and got upset that they weren’t getting royalties for the character they created (yeah, you and every other creative in the business) and threatened to sue. The situation was settled out of court and there probably was a massive NDA that had to be signed, because nobody goes into any detail about what came of that. Whatever it was, it prompted Marvel editorial to order the immediate killing off of the character. To give you an idea of how much that has stung: The character has never been seen, nor mentioned again, except when its necessary to bring him up in more recent Official Handbooks. Like, I bet in 40 years time the only truly dead characters left will be Uncle Ben and Charcoal.
Still, despite the fact that there is a lot going on, it makes sense and it pays off. When you get to that climax it’s like your first nut after a vasectomy. It’s a relief and you feel kind of sore in the vittles. What I really like most about this run are the parade of characters that were from other titles that
What followed was an ambitious idea that saw two concurrent storylines happening at once. Story arc 1 followed the Thunderbolts on Earth, following the defeat of Graviton as they slowly form a brand new team. The second arc featured the lost Thunderbolts appearing on Counter-Earth and working to save that destabilized planet. This would all culminate in a grand finale where both teams are reunited and prevent a threat from destroying both worlds. Issue 75 proves to be the final issue as the team pairs down and Baron Zemo resumes leadership. With Hawkeye going back to the Avengers, Zemo quickly goes back to his original plot — using the Thunderbolts as a stepping stone to take over the world!
One thing I didn’t really like about the later end of Nicieza’s run is how many of the characters in Thunderbolts become overly horny. Be it revealing outfits, suggestive comments, or just character being down right horn-dogs (particularly the Fixer, who suddenly becomes a total sex pest). It’s distracting and unnecessary to any of the stories that are written. I think it was emblematic of comic books in the late 90s and early 2000s. Being a horny teenager at the time, this sort of thing did appeal to me at the time. It was everywhere. Pick up an issue of Wizard magazine and it was full of this ogling over female characters.
And look, I’m not a prude, I’ll have you know that I have a robust que over at PornHub. But I read these latter issues of Thunderbolts and its very cringy and sad that someone thought this was necessary to maintain readers.
Thankfully, the title undergoes a massive change, and the Zemo plotline would playout in the Avengers/Thunderbolts limited series that would be released about a year after. The Thunderbolts, as a title continued going, it just went in a wildly different direction.
The early 2000s were an experimental time for Marvel. They had just avoided going out of business, movie adaptations were keeping them flush with cash, and editorial wanted to take things in bold new directions. In some cases it was assigning new writers or adopting unique art styles. In other cases it involved complete overhauls in both story and tone. The most successful of these was X-Force which was revamped by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred.
In the case of Thunderbolts, issue #76 saw the start of a totally new, unrelated storyline by John Arcudi and artist Francisco Ruiz Velasco. The series followed the story of Axum, a reformed super-villain who is down on his luck until he gets roped into the lucrative world of super-human pro wrestling. As the reigning champion he is making a mint. However, he soon begins discovering that the price of fame and fortune has its price…. and then the series was cancelled. According to what little information I can find on the internet, it was apparently the change was a commercial failure and the series was cancelled.
Which is a real shame, because going back and reading the storyline today, it was pretty interesting. It was also building up to something bigger, before being truncated by cancelation mid-storyline. Axum was being tempted back into a life of crime when the story suddenly does a 360 and ends with a pretty weak “they lived happily ever after” ending. Axum and his cast of characters haven’t been seen again, but at least they’ve gotten handbook profiles. I feel that the series was a victim of the entitlement of the fan base. Rather than give something new a chance, they have a shit fit because it’s something different from what they are used to. Mind you, this story is so far removed from what the title was about before, I wonder how it would have fared if it had been allowed to be its own thing under a unique title. It is also a little disappointing that nobody has revisited Axum and his family, because there is a lot of story telling potential left on the table with this character.
The series remained on a hiatus until it was returned in 2005 in the wake of Avengers Disassembled with New Thunderbolts. However, whereas New Avengers was a new take on a legacy team, New Thunderbolts was a lot of the same old. This is probably because Fabian Nicieza was back as the lead writer on the book. Nicieza did try to get into the more action orientated, visually expressive format that its sister series was knocking out of the park. However, it is much more muted here. After 18 issues, the title was reverted back to simply being called Thunderbolts to commemorate the 100th issue of the series. From there the book went back to its legacy numbering. There’s not really much I can say about this run that I haven’t already said about Nicieza’s first pass on this book. There is a lot going on, often too much. It feels a lot of it is just going through the motions. The one thing I find amusing is how 3 issues were shoehorned in to the Civil War event, but only in the most superficial of manners. But yeah, it follows all the regular beats. The team is trying to prove to the world that they’ve reformed, Zemo comes back and swears he’s a good guy now, cosmic threat, Zemo pivots to world domination and has to be stopped. Nothing terribly original going on here. It’s not bad, it’s just predictable.
Starting in issue #110, the series pivots. Warren Ellis takes over as head writer and pairs up with Mike Deodato. Problematic writer aside, this was the kick in the pants the series needed to make it interesting again. Following Civil War the Thunderbolts get conscripted into being enforcers of the Super-Human Registration Act on behalf of the government. In what is probably Tony Stark’s dumbest idea ever, he puts Norman Osborn in charge thinking Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis will take this as an opportunity to change his ways and not, you know, abuse his powers. After Ellis’ departure, Andy Diggle would carry on the story as the Thunderbolts team became more and more amoral.
When Nicieza was writing the book, it always felt as though the title ran adjacent to the rest of the Marvel Universe. It would barely dip its toes in what was going on and what happened outside the book had little impact with much of what was going on in it. When Bendis revamped the Avengers line of book and set up the events of nearly a decade worth of stories (House of M, Civil War, Secet Invasion, Dark Reign, and Siege), the Thunderbolts may not have become more involved in these events, but the reprocussions from them had an impact on where the story ultimately went. There was a stronger connection to the MCU.
