Thunderbolts (2013) # 26

Cover Artist: Paco Diaz
Published: July 2014
Original Price: $2.99

Title: untitled
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Paco Diaz
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Isreal Silva
Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso

SYNOPSIS
Ghost Rider, Elektra, and the Punisher are all dead following the Red Leader's secret betrayal of the team. 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."

ANNOTATIONS 
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.

REVIEW
Charles Soule wraps up his run on the series by killing off all but one of the team and then hits a cosmic reset button, providing a strange but hopeful end to the series' status-quo.

So, yeah, Johnny's totally not dead after all. I can't say I didn't see that revelation coming a mile away, but the way Soule resolved things certainly DID surprise me. I had assumed one of two things: that Blaze somehow survived the Red Leader's betrayal and would come back in the last act of the issue or that the Red Leader didn't really betray the team and had planned things out with Blaze. But no, Johnny (and Elektra and the Punisher) all really died last issue, followed quickly this issue by both Deadpool and the Leader himself. It was brilliant if a bit cliched to pull the "reset button" ending out of thin air, but I'm giving Soule the benefit of the doubt for one really big reason.

The Thunderbolts are a team of murderers (Blaze arguably as an outlier) that has cycled out one unrepentant psychopath (Mercy) and one hero turning away from their dark path (Venom). Red Hulk isn't really to blame for these characters being killers, he simply gathered them up in one place and pointed them like a gun at his enemies, but when you have a group like this you can't really write a story where their motivations or personalities change. Elektra and the Punisher will ALWAYS be murderers regardless of their justifications, so having Mancuso prompt Ross to be a "leader of men" instead of an assassin dealer is the one way to inject a little bit of hope into what is a necessarily bleak premise for a series.

Soule adds some really nice touches to this issue, particularly with Red Leader (who is definitely the stand-out character of this arc) and Deadpool. I've never been much of a Deadpool fan, but the sequence at the beginning of this issue was fantastic. It was also nice to see Soule acknowledge Deadpool as being more than an insane serial killer by having him be the one character to figure out the Leader's deception. That scene was not only the best of the issue but of the entire series so far. With Ghost Rider unfairly sidelined so early and both Punisher and Elektra taken out at the end of the last issue, Deadpool gets his chance to shine.

Paco Diaz turns out another very strong showing on the book's artistic front, providing what I still believe is the best art the series has seen so far. His depiction of Deadpool eliminating the mercenaries was great, finally making the character look scarily competent instead of silly, and the gatefold splash of the baby Celestial head was appropriately momentous. The colors are much better in this arc as well, perhaps that's due to Israel Silva being more complimentary to Diaz's work than the artists before him.

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".

Grade: A

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