Thunderbolts (2013) # 21

"No Mercy, Part 2"

Cover Date: March 2014

On Sale Date: January 2014

Writer: Charles Soule

Artist: Carlo Barberi
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Israel Silva w/ James Campbell & Thomas Mason
Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso 

Cover Artist: Greg Land

Having been accidentally sent to Hell, Ghost Rider leads the Thunderbolts (Red Hulk, Venom, Red Leader, and Deadpool) up the Bonespire in search of a way out. Blaze tells the team that while getting into Hell is easy, "getting out's a bitch". They have to find "a personal hell", which is metaphysically closer to the world the soul left behind, in order to break through back to Earth. Blaze then comments that Hell feels different now, and he's not sure why. They find a damned soul wrapped in a cocoon of hair, which sucks them inside when the Leader touches it. While Ross is attacked by a giant facsimile of his own moustache, Ghost Rider finds the damned soul and frees him from the prison. Unfortunately, the soul has been driven insane and will be no use to them. When Ross complains that Blaze has no idea what he's doing, Johnny replies that he warned him about not being good at spells before they started. Blaze then points out the glowing pentagram on Hulk's chest, calling it a "Hell Mark" that means he's been claimed by someone in Hell. A moment later, the Thunderbolts find themselves transported before Mephisto, lord of Hell and the owner of Ross's "Hell Mark".

Back at Thunderbolts headquarters, the two members of the team that stayed behind, Elektra and the Punisher, decide to take care of an assassination job provided by Elektra's contact. Inside the complex, they find an assortment of vehicles confiscated by the government that they can use to get where they're going.

In Hell, Mephisto tries to call in the marker owed to him by the Red Hulk, but the team discover that the demon is no longer ruler of Hell and can't enforce the spell. Seeing an opportunity, the Red Leader engages in a deal with Mephisto: the Thunderbolts place Mephisto back on Hell's throne, and in return he will send them home and bring Mercy down to Hell. While Mephisto, Leader, and Red Hulk negotiate the terms of the contract, Ghost Rider has a conversation with Venom and Deadpool about the purpose of the Thunderbolts. On Earth, Elektra and Punisher travel a compound to assassinate a mob boss, but before they can they are both attacked by Mercy, who can no longer feel Ross and Sterns on Earth and wants to know where they are.

Back in Hell, Ghost Rider tells Venom about his failed attempt at becoming a movie star, which resulted in the Spirit of Vengeance becoming bored and killed one of the movie producers over a hit-and-run murder he'd done years before. Red Hulk signs the contract with Mephisto (with Deadpool standing in as a notary), and the heroes are instantly transported before the current ruler of Hell: Guido Carosella, formerly the mutant Strong Guy of X-Factor.

Ross, you're biting off more than you can chew.

THE ROADMAP

Johnny Blaze last visited Hell in Ghost Rider (2011) # 9. He had previously been imprisoned there for an extended time and made his escape in Ghost Rider (2006) # 1.

Red Hulk (along with Venom, X-23, and Alejandra Jones, then host to the Ghost Rider) was given the Hell Mark by Mephisto in Venom # 13.3.

Guido Carosella became the ruler of Hell during "The Hell On Earth War" in X-Factor # 250-256.

CHAIN REACTION

Ghost Rider takes the Thunderbolts on an impromptu tour of Hell before meeting both the old and new bosses of the Underworld.

This was such a batshit bizarre issue, you guys, I don't even know where to begin. Charles Soule and Carlo Barberi give us a very strange interpretation of Hell, and as is tradition when it comes to Marvel's depiction of the place, it's wildly different than what we've seen during Ghost Rider's previous visits. Blaze is presented as something of an expert about the place, which makes sense given all the time he spent trying to escape back during the Ennis and Way runs, and I like the descriptions given about how people wind up in Hell to begin with. There is no redemption, it's all a PR scam by the lead devil in charge, which is what makes Mephisto so angry about Guido's current reign: he's letting souls go on to Heaven, time served. It's an interesting angle to take, but things take a left turn into weirdsville when we get the guy being tormented by hair. It's apparently a legitimate phobia, chaetophobia as the Leader calls it, but damn is it not strange. It's not creepy or scary at all, especially when you have the heroes fighting off a giant white mustache.

When it comes right down to it, though, this story just seems like an exercise in continuity clean-up (something I didn't Marvel even bothered with anymore). In Peter David's X-Factor series, the "Hell On Earth War" had all of the various Hell Lords (Mephisto, Pluto, Satannish, Satana, Hela, etc...) killing each other in a contest to become supreme ruler of ALL the Hells. In surprising twist at the end of the story, the recently-soulless Strong Guy wins the contest and takes over Hell's throne. Now, no one expected this to stick, especially since X-Factor was cancelled and subsequently relaunched with a different cast not long after, but wrapping up this plotline in Thunderbolts just seems odd. Granted, having Ghost Rider and Mephisto in the story kind of necessitated some kind of explanation, but to base the entire arc around undoing a twist in an unrelated series is something you'd expect to see in a 1970s comic, not one from 2014. On a related note, though, Soule again shows that he's down with continuity by referencing yet another story I thought we'd never hear from again, namely 2011's "Circle of Four" crossover that involved Red Hulk, Venom, and Ghost Rider becoming marked by Mephisto. This is a very traditionally done comic, what with all the callbacks to other stories, and such a thing has its good and bad attributes.

Where Soule excels is the dialogue, because there's some really clever stuff being said by these characters. I loved the extremely tongue-in-cheek bantering between Mephisto and the Leader as they negotiate the terms of the deal, and I do think Soule gets Johnny Blaze down rather well. The conversational friendliness between Blaze and Venom shines, and Blaze gets a great dig in on Daredevil that made me chuckle.

The weakest part of the issue, though, is definitely Barberi's artwork. Don't get me wrong, as I said in the last issue's review, he's a better-than-decent superhero artist that can tell a story clearly. This story, however, desperately needs an artist with a darker, grittier style to convey all the weirdness the script calls for. I can imagine that, while yes the humor is certainly intentional, the hair phobic sequence could have had the horror dialed up quite a bit more than we get in the issue. Likewise, Barberi's version of Hell is so boring and cliché, lots of rocks and fire, and you can't imagine why anyone would want to rule over such a desolate and uninteresting place.

I'm really not sure what to think about this series, it gets so many things right but seems to fall down in the end. The potential is certainly there for great things, it's just not quite there yet.

Well, the toothbrush would melt, right?