Thunderbolts #4 (Marvel) - 18,128

> Thunderbolts #4 (Marvel) - 18,128

What went wrong?

Shit artist.

Nobody wants Liefeld art.

> shit artist
> mediocre at best writing
> three issues of terrible and incoherent action with barely any character and relationship building
> focus on Bucky at the expense of everyone else until four issues in
> zero direction or hook for interesting development for either Bucky or the Thunderbolts

The garbage art prevented me from buying any of the issues.

The art killed it, alongside the shock ending removing future interest.

writing and art.

not getting Bagley on board
and someone who could write an interesting story without making Kobik resolving everything at the end of each issue would have been good too

The art completely misunderstood the appeal of Thunderbolts.

It was like "Thunderbolts is from the '90s therefore '90s art therefore Liefeld clone."

But Thunderbolts was a reaction against edgy '90s comics and Bagley was the guy whose art was more of a throwback to traditional Marvel art. That's why his New Warriors and Thunderbolts both have more of a nostalgic feel.

What's puzzling is Tom Brevoort edited this and the original Thunderbolts so he has to know how wrong this art approach is for the franchise. Maybe he just doesn't care any more.

Complete lack of redeeming qualities.

most people's thoughts of Thunderbolts art is probably deodato

Art turned off most people, the Thunderbolts weren't a particularly high profile team to begin with, and what Thunderbolts fans there are were turned away by the fact that the first 3 issues kinda sucked and lacked the character drama that the series is known for.

#4 was a step in the right direction but for most it'd probably be too little too late.

That's because what most people think of when they hear Thunderbolts isn't actually Thunderbolts but Ellis' Suicide Squad.

I think the way the writer and editor are pushing the book as "THE WINTER SOLDIER! Don't you love Bucky? Don't you love Stucky and BuckyNat?...oh, yeah I guess those other guys are there, too" and with the writing very much reflecting that attitude until issue four helped turn off the old T-Bolts fans pretty fast.

Did they ever explain how Fixer escaped his time loop?

>Songbird was the Thunderbolts draw all along

>bad art
>filler until the inevitable HydraCap crossover
>didn't get kind of readable until the #4 but it was too late to think people would keep buying to that point

not yet

The thing is if the filler had actually been good and used to to deal with, say, the emotional aftermath of Pleasant Hill on the T-Bolts right from the beginning or why Bucky lets Fixer, Atlas and Moonstone stick around at all considering that they had helped Zemo take over Pleasant Hill, you might have had something worthwhile.

lol cosmic cube

>"THE WINTER SOLDIER! Don't you love Bucky? Don't you love Stucky and BuckyNat?
Y'know, frankly, I don't really give a shit about Bucky. I was looking forward to Karla bullying him like the little fuccboi he is.

Only now is Zub starting to hint at her making plans. Well, I say 'hint', but that implies there's subtlety involved.

Zub sounds like he's getting into a groove of it. the art just needs to click with it

I feel like Zub is gonna address it.
He actually had the Mach X plan already written at the time folks were complaining about it.

Fill-in artist looks decent

They had the entirely reasonable and interesting idea to bring back the (almost) original incarnation of the Thunderbolts with Bucky leading them. It's an interesting dynamic, since you have someone who has a pretty complicated relationship with the concept of heroism leading a group that has been, in many of its incarnations, bad guys trying to make good.

It fell apart almost immediately thanks to an absolute lack of research. Abe (Mach) is a character who actually made good and became a hero. Atlas tried to but couldn't make it stick, so he just kind of disappeared from heroics/villainy altogether save for odd-jobs. Moonstone didn't care to go straight, and Fixer was back and forth thanks to a persistent loyalty to Zemo. The writer didn't do anything with ANY of this.

And that's actually not the WORST thing, in cases like Atlas who could be made interesting. The worst thing is that the characters were distilled down to weird and unfitting archetypes that were general and NOT based on the characters themselves. Abe doesn't act like Abe, he's so obviously different that it makes the writer seem incredibly lazy.

Then you out the nail in the coffin with Kobik. Not sure how the character behaves? Then just write her like a hyperactive child with no comprehension of morals (which is key to her character in the Captain America Hydra thing).

You can complain about the art, but a good coat of paint on something this lazily and inattentively constructed wouldn't make a difference.

I do agree with your general point.

But to be fair, Zub started to do something decent with Erik and Abe in the fourth issue. However, the character's voices are still extremely off and he should have done the stuff with Abe and Erik right in the beginning.

Expecting people to hang stick around for dull filler action with shitty art because it might get interesting and might address people's issues later on and that the writer might actually get the hang of everyone's character at some point...is not exactly a good way to sell a book, much less one headed by c/d-listers.

I blame the Inhumans.