Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Batman and the Thunderbolts



Thunderbolts is one of Marvel's best concepts in the past few decades.  The original run by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley came out at a time when comics were all about gimmicks - lots of foil covers and variant issues to drum up interest.  The Thunderbolts had the best gimmick of all though, a great plot twist at the end of the first issue which gave the series a unique hook.  Having villains disguised as heroes led to a lot of fascinating character arcs, as each member of the team reacted differently to their newfound hero status.  Some embraced the new outlook and tried to stay on the path of the truly heroic, while others relished in the deceit and grew even more devious.  It was a great exploration of some characters that had been around in comics for many years, and it gave them all some real depth.  Busiek and Bagley proved once again that every character has growth potential when placed in interesting enough circumstances.

6 comments:

STUDENTLOANS said...

how about Batman & Kickass? Using Live Action photos, if possible!

Ross said...

Live action mashups never seem to work as well. The only photo Mashups I've done have used statues (Thing/Rudolph and Thing/Wallace Gromit).

Justin S. Davis said...

Thunderbolts was the only Marvel book I read for a good chunk of the 90s (I got burned by clones and holofoils and such). And the current run is outstanding.

Michael Jones said...

60 pages for 20 cents is pretty cheap!

Hobgoblin238 said...

I got Thunderbolts with the first issue. Had NO idea what was in store. Back then I didn´t have any internet so nothing was ruined for me. I had loved Avengers 222! That was my first exposure to the Masters of Evil. Great concept and I was hooked.

Ross said...

So true. It was great to be surprised that way. Now every major event is spoiled or telegraphed early, and a comic reader has to put out a conscious effort not to have story lines ruined before they get a chance to read them.

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