On Sale Date: April & May 2014
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Paco Diaz
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Isreal Silva
Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso
Cover Artists: Julian Totino Tedesco & Paco Diaz
In a forgotten river town called Estrella City in Honduras, General "Thunderbolt" Ross and his team are at a bar where he's meeting with a criminal named Cordoba. Years ago, Ross sent a three-man team down the Rio Patuca River and Cordoba was their guide, but they disappeared and Cordoba was the last person to see them alive. Cordoba responds neither to Ross' offer of payment nor his threats, saying that he now runs the town and the General needs to go home. Ross wagers that one of his men can beat two of Cordoba's, with the criminal getting to choose the fighters. He goes to each of the Thunderbolts in turn (Elektra, Johnny Blaze, the Punisher, Deadpool, and the Red Leader), but finally chooses Ross himself. Ross agrees, but like Castle explains to Blaze, he cannot turn into the Red Hulk without revealing his secret, so Cordoba's men are likely to kill the General. Ross does beat both men, setting one on fire and burning the hands of the other with gamma radiation, then tells Cordoba to honor the deal and guide them down the river.
Soon, on a boat heading down river, Punisher reminisces to Blaze about his time on river patrol and how easily it would be to ambush them. Ross tells Elektra that he sent his first team into the jungle to find a power source that would have helped him to kill the original Hulk. Ross possesses the only map, which he had originally given to his first team. He was on a plane when one of his soldiers, Mancuso, appeared in the seat next to him and demands he come look for them...then the plane disappeared, Ross changed into the Red Hulk in mid-air, and when he landed the map was in his hand. Ross gives the map to the Red Leader, who is able to read it and says it was created by the Deviants, an ancient race created by the Celestials long ago. At the back of the boat, Deadpool takes off his costume and jumps into the river for a swim, but he's attacked and bitten nearly in half by a grotesque creature before he can get back aboard. Castle sees a woman parachuting into the river, a woman that Ross recognizes. The General jumps into the water after her and throws her aboard the boat before the monsters can eat her. The woman, Helen, kisses Ross and then puts a gun under his chin. When she realizes she's outgunned by the team, she gives up and goes into the boat's cabin to speak with the General. She's angry because she's the person who told Ross about the artifact and she never heard from him again; he responds by saying he's there to find his missing men, not the artifact. The boat is attacked by the tentacle monster living in the river, which starts breaking the ship to pieces. Ghost Rider snags a nearby tree on the shore with his chain and holds the boat in place through the attack while the other Thunderbolts escape to shore. Before Ghost Rider can flee the boat himself, the Red Leader whispers an incantation that transforms the Rider back into mortal Johnny Blaze. The creature grabs Blaze with its tentacles and rips him to pieces, seemingly killing him. While the Punisher is unimpressed with Blaze's sacrifice, Ross orders the rest of the team into the jungle toward the artifact.
They come to the remnants of a village, which their criminal guide Cordoba says was once a peaceful place until Ross' first team of men came. The skeletal remains of the villagers are disfigured, turned into monsters. The team bunk down for the night, with most of them pairing off: Ross and Helen, Castle and Elektra, and Cordoba and the Leader, leaving Deadpool on sentry duty. Cordoba tells the Leader that he saw what he did to Blaze, and the Leader knows that Cordoba's men have been shadowing them ever since they left the river. Sterns tells Cordoba that they should partner up and will tell him how best to kill the Thunderbolts, starting with Deadpool. Cordoba tricks Deadpool into eating a poison frog that knocks him unconscious, but when the mercenaries advance to kill the other heroes the Leader yells out a warning. Cordoba escapes, though the Thunderbolts kill most of his men.
The Thunderbolts come across an ancient temple, the artifact waiting inside. Ross, Helen, Castle, and Elektra enter the temple, with the Leader left behind as their radio guide and Deadpool as his bodyguard. Deadpool runs off into the jungle, while within the temple the team splits up to cover two possible pathways. Outside, the Leader destroys his radio, cutting the team off from his directions. Elektra and the Punisher stumble into a trap, where Elektra saves Castle from a barrage of poisonous darts. One of the darts hits Elektra in the leg, paralyzing her, while the floor opens up to drop them into another trap. The walls of the room begin to close in on them, with the helpless Elektra tells Castle that this is the best way she's ever died, in his arms.
While he sits outside the Honduran temple, the Thunderbolts' former guide Cordoba rallies his men to kill the Leader and the rest. They are attacked and slaughtered by Deadpool, who causes Cordoba to flee right to the spot that Samuel Sterns is sitting. Before Cordoba can kill Sterns, Deadpool finds him and kills him with the same poisonous frog he'd attempted to kill Deadpool with before. Deadpool returns to the Red Leader, and the two of them enter the temple through a side entrance that should bypass the booby traps.
Inside the temple, General Ross and Helen continue looking for the last team sent to find the power source inside. Ross tells Helen that one of the soldiers, Mancuso, appeared to Ross like a vision and told him he would end the world if Ross didn't come find him. They discover a huge chamber that contains the severed head of a Celestial, which is leaking streams of cosmic fluid into the temple. Elsewhere inside, Red Leader warns Deadpool not to step on a stone that will trigger a booby trap. Deadpool comments that Sterns talks in his sleep and that while the other members of the team all treat the Leader like a joke he knows he isn't helpless or friendly. Deadpool says he's not dumb and steps on the stone that Sterns said was booby trapped, then stabs him through with his sword. Leader then triggers the actual booby trap, sending Deadpool into a pit of lava, killing him.
Inside the Celestial chamber, Helen explains that she's been searching for the place for hundreds of years before transforming into a monster. Ross turns into the Red Hulk, thwarting "Helen's" attempt to kill them. She tells him that she is a member of the Deviant race that killed the child of a Celestial and severed its head, letting its blood seep into the world so they could use the power to make them its rulers. The Deviant is incinerated by a blast of energy from the awakened Mancuso, who has been mutated by the Celestial's energy. Mancuso murdered the rest of his team and led Ross to the temple to talk. A badly wounded Red Leader enters the chamber unseen and drinks the Celestial fluid, which causes his brain to expand so quickly that his head explodes. Mancuso shows Ross a vision of his team of killers: one of which he drove away, another he sent to Hell, and the rest all dead on this latest mission. Mancuso explains that Ross is now an unkillable monster since he became a Hulk, and that the Thunderbolts are another failed attempt to ease his guilt in sending men off to die in his name. Mancuso offers Ross a choice: he could die there in the temple or he could use his power to make a difference in the world. Ross makes his choice and is enveloped by white light...
And the once-again alive Thunderbolts are back in their headquarters, ready for Ross to tell them about their next mission. He holds the map to the Honduran temple in his hands, but changes his mind, saying "let's try something different."
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| I'm digging the red-and-black motif. |
THE ROADMAP
The Thunderbolts have a "do a mission for Ross, do one for me" system, with each member getting to choose every other mission. Red Hulk chose the mission to send Mercy to Hell in Thunderbolts (2013) # 20, and last issue Venom chose before leaving the team.
The Red Leader most likely learned the spell that incapacitates Ghost Rider during his dealings with Mephisto in Thunderbolts (2013) # 21.
The member of the team that "fled because he feared what he was turning into" was Venom, who left in Thunderbolts (2013) # 23, and the one that the Red Hulk "rewarded by sending her to Hell" was Mercy, who was trapped in Hell at the end of Thunderbolts (2013) # 22.
CHAIN REACTION
The start of a new story-arc finds the Thunderbolts actually taking on a mission that doesn't involve killing one of their own teammates! How novel!
The plot that's driving this arc is much more focused and intriguing than the recent segue into Hell that introduced Ghost Rider to the cast. It has a nice mystery surrounding it, and Soule sets it up nicely, even if he does spend a bit too much time on the macho posturing between Ross and Cordoba. The first two thirds of the issue, in fact, are given over to their grudge match, and it reads like space-filler to me. The other Thunderbolts don't get much to do other than stand around and get the mystery told to them, but some great bits of characterization get to shine through regardless. In particular, Soule has a great handle on both the Punisher and the Red Leader, the latter of whom is surprisingly interesting now in comparison to his status in the book's first year.
"Well. I don't think any of us were expecting that to happen." You said it, Deadpool, you said it. Johnny Blaze meets his rather gruesome end six pages into this issue, and while it certainly looks convincing, it obviously isn't. Of course, there's a twist coming before the end of the arc. The important part here is that the team believes Blaze is really dead. The Thunderbolts, particularly Ross and Castle, have some interesting reactions to their teammate's death. Ross is saddened, treating Johnny as a fallen soldier, while Castle just calls Blaze "stupid" and is totally ungrateful for his life being saved. That does, of course, fit the Punisher to a tee; in fact, I can't see any of these characters beyond Ross caring if any of them took a dirt nap (well, yeah, Castle and Elektra care about each other, can't forget that).
Artwork this story arc comes from Paco Diaz, another in the same school of style as Carlo Barberi and Kim Jacinto. I highly enjoyed Diaz's work in these issues, much more so than the previous two artists, because his characters each have their own distinct characteristics instead of just being stock comic looks. In previous issues, it was almost hard to differentiate between Johnny Blaze and Flash Thompson in their normal guises. Diaz's work reminds me a bit of Mark Brooks, cartoony and flashy but with enough of a uniqueness that it doesn't look cookie-cutter. He gives Ghost Rider a great spotlight sequence and one of the more gruesome death scenes, so his artwork is alright with me.
I think Soule's run on the title should be viewed as a success, even though it had its fair share of problems (Ghost Rider not being utilized well after the fanfare surrounding his addition to the cast, the use of an entire arc to tie-up plot threads from other writers, etc...). He took what was a seriously flawed series under original writer Daniel Way and turned it into an interesting look at how seven damaged vigilantes could feasibly work together. Here's hoping the incoming writing team takes the cues from this issue and does something a bit different from "team kills bad guys".
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| Ghost Rider's dead, the end. |
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