Although I don't think this trade was as good as the one that preceded it (Faith in Monsters), this is still a good read. Before Ellis took over the reigns, I didn't know a thing about the Thunderbolts and didn't care to learn anything about them. Ellis has taken this team of misfits and crafted them into some seriously good stuff. The team's dynamics are fun to watch (as they pretty much implode upon themselves in this trade), and you can see how the Dark Reign event is evolving into existence here. ( )

This is just really good comics. I haven't really delved into the Thunderbolts world, with its profusion of unfamiliar characters and events that always felt like they would probably mean more if only they were happening to the X-Men or the Avengers, but this makes me want to, because it is fun. What Warren Ellis shows us is less a team than a Mexican standoff, as each character implodes at their own speed, in their own way, and some of them still manage to pursue their own agendas, which usually equal bad news for their putative teammates. A bunch of no-names make a credible attempt at putting the Thunderbolts out of commission, and it becomes the backdrop for machinations on the part of Osborn, Strucker, and Songbird, and the spectacular freakouts of Venom and Penance. And yeah, if you were worried about Ellis' sometimes cartoonish sensibility coming out to play and drowning out the psychological sensitivity of which he is also capable, I'd point to his Osborn, who really intrigues me in light of all the Dark Reign stuff, but more than that, to the fact that he manages to salvage Penance and make him not only not an embarrassment, but a character I care about reading again. Not bad. ( )