TNI Comic Book Review: New Thunderbolts #8

New Thunderbolts #8
Speed Demon: Hero, Villain, or Both?

When this title was first announced, I really wasn’t interested in trying it out. I’m not actually the biggest Marvel reader since Disassembled came. So I was in the shop and the advance copies for next weeks comics came out. New Thunderbolts was one of those titles. I flipped through the book and it liked interesting enough to give a shot. I was a big fan of Tom Grummett’s work and this was the only book he was doing monthly. I don’t usually buy a book just for the art, so I really wanted to give it a shot. By the end of issue #6, I found this to be one of the titles I was always looking forward to each month. I called it my “rare” gem.

For those who don’t know about the Thunderbolts, it is a group of former villains, who have changed their ways and become heroes. They are constantly proving themselves yet some still doubt them. The original team was lead by Baron Zemo and was made up of the Masters of Evil, Baron Zemo was betrayed from within when the group started to like fighting for justice.

In the last issue, the team finally made a huge name for themselves, but they lost one member. Songbird has left the team due to her disagreements with Abe a.k.a. Mach IV also formerly known as The Beetle.

I hope I caught you up somewhat because I am now going to talk about the latest issue.



The latest issue belongs to Speed Demon, he steals the spotlight. Recently, the Thunderbolts former supplier/funds, Hydra has disappeared. So Mach IV is having trouble getting the funds to run the place. Speed Demon has been talking to Shocker and agrees to help him with a job, Blizzard sees this and tries to convince him not to do it. Speed Demon ignores him and this leads to Blizzard trying to stop him later. Key word here is trying. The interesting thing that Speed Demon does at the end is nice. Am I going to tell you? NO! I can’t just spoil the whole issue here.

Another thing going on is the appearance of the new Photon. Captain Mar-vell was attacked by Atlas while trying to help the T-Bolts. He was thought to be dead but came back with new powers, a new look, and randomly changed his name to Photon. The reason why he has changed or what his new abilities are have not been revealed yet. This is going to end up with Photon colliding with the other Photon of the Marvel U.

This book reminded me, Shocker is a good villain. Some of Spidey’s villains are just lame in my eyes. Shocker just has a unique style to him that I can dig. (Did I just say dig?)
I found myself enjoying the story, only issue I didn’t like was #7 (the fill in artist was just horrible in my eyes)

Fabian Nicieza is an under-rated writer. This book has been fantastic. The art and the story give it a classic Marvel feel and it is reader friendly where anyone can jump on without having to know a lot of details. Nicieza has done great things on this title so far and I can’t wait to see what is in store for the future.

Tom Grummett is a great artist. He has an original style that any generation can enjoy. He is also an under-rated artist as he has been in the business for awhile and I’m glad he is still out their today.

With the ending to this issue, it looks like things will get more interesting. I hope you go out and give one of the best Marvel titles a try.

This title gets 4 out of 5 from me.


Credits
Writer: Fabian Nicieza Pencils: Tom Grummett Inker: Gary Erskine Color Art: Chris Sotomayor Letterer: RS & Comicraft’s Albert Deschesne Asst. Editor: Schmidt, Morre, & Lazer Editor: Tom Brevoort Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada Publisher: Dan Buckley

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