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Title: "The Punisher Vs. the Thunderbolts", Part 1
Writers: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Artist: Carlo Barberi
Inker: Carlos Cuevos
Letterer: VC's Joe Sabino
Colorist: Isreal Silva
Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-In-Chief: Axel Alonso
SYNOPSIS
While the Avengers fight a giant monster in the middle of Manhattan, a group of mercenaries specially armed with weapons designed to kill the heroes are preparing to attack from a nearby rooftop. The soldiers are stopped and killed by the Thunderbolts, their bodies incinerated by Ghost Rider to remove all evidence of their presence. The Punisher and Deadpool note that they have perhaps been seen by Hawkeye, but Castle dismisses it as impossible from that distance. The Red Leader has traced the signal from the soldiers communicators back to their source, and while en route Elektra notes that all of the guns are specially designed to kill their target except for the one meant for Captain America, which is loaded with tranquilizers.
They trace the signal to a high school, where inside they find all of the students not only dead but petrified in place. Overwhelmed with the deaths of so many innocent children, Ghost Rider nearly erupts into a tantrum before transforming back to Blaze. In the school's auditorium, the dead students come alive as zombies and attack the team, biting and infecting them until only Deadpool and Ghost Rider remain. This, however, is merely a horrific dream sequence brought on by a type of gas released by an old foe of Captain America, Doctor Faustus. Deadpool, however, was unaffected by the gas and kills Faustus' men, taking the villain hostage. While each of the other Thunderbolts see their own personal terror (the Punisher turned into a zombie, Red Hulk having killed his teammates, Elektra learning she is a Skrull, and Blaze being given the Penance Stare by Ghost Rider), Deadpool wakes them up by spraying them with a water hose. Castle wants to kill Faustus, but is stopped by Ross, who says he will make Faustus work for them to help as many people as he's killed. Punisher refuses to go along with this and quits the team. Castle returns to his personal safehouse in a rage, hoping that he's not still feeling the effects of Faustus' gas, and finds a bomb in his refrigerator that reads "you don't quit us, you're fired". Then the building explodes.
ANNOTATIONS
Elektra was captured and replaced by a Skrull for several years, as told during the Secret Invasion crossover.
REVIEW
Thunderbolts sees its third creative team change in two years as new writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker come aboard.
Acker and Blacker are not familiar to me at all. I understand they do a podcast and have written a handful of Marvel one-shots in the last year, including the Thunderbolts Annual that I didn't pick up. So, I'm coming into their work totally cold with no real expectations on what they may produce. I know that Thunderbolts is a series that really stumbled out of the gate when it was launched by Daniel Way and Steve Dillon, but things picked up considerably once Charles Soule came on as the second writer and added Ghost Rider to the cast (assuring that I'd be reading regardless of quality, you're welcome). So, we have a book with creative problems matched with an unproven writing team. How bad could things be for the series now?
Thankfully, there's a lot to like about this issue, which kicks off a new arc that turns the Punisher against his teammates. The best aspect of this book's premise is that the team is filled with not just amoral heroes but really psychologically damaged vigilantes with alpha personalities and an extreme disdain for taking orders. Much of the conflict has come from clashes between the team members, from Mercy and Venom leaving because of it and Red Leader actively working to betray his teammates at every opportunity. This really came to a head in Soule's last arc, so I like that Acker and Blacker are continuing the trend. The new writers also work well with the characters' established personalities, every one seems spot on in their reactions and attitudes toward what's going on. I even liked the bit of character development they gave to Johnny Blaze, who is fearful of what an unleashed Ghost Rider could do (understandably so, given his nightmare vision of the Rider turning on him).
The events used to justify the Punisher's heel turn are a bit predictable, I assume his paranoia is being induced by Faustus' mind control agent, but the "how" isn't what's selling the concept. The Punisher is the most morally "black and white" of all the members, so him having a disagreement and quitting isn't out of the blue. The surprise ending, with Ross having apparently attempted to get rid of Castle via a bomb, is obviously heading toward a swerve in the last act. With all of the power at their disposal, any one of the Thunderbolts (Ross included) would be enough to eliminate the Punisher, so the use of a bomb throws up the red flag that I have to assume was intentional. That is, of course, what I'm sure the point of this arc is, however. The Punisher may be the least powerful, but he's probably the most dangerous of the Thunderbolts; hence five issues of him taking on the team in what I'm sure will be hilariously inventive ways.
Carlo Barberi returns as the book's artist, and as I've said before he turns in perfectly serviceable work that continues the title's visual continuity. He's just not very flashy and the style might not be to everyone's tastes. He's a more-controlled version of Humberto Ramos, with the slight exaggeration to the action. He draws a decent Ghost Rider, and I really liked the bit with Blaze incinerating the bodies of the soldiers to eliminate the evidence.
I was disappointed to see Soule leave the book just as his run was really getting good, but based on this debut issue I'm hopeful that Acker and Blacker will stick around for the long haul and give this series some much-needed direction.
Grade: B
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