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October 9, 2006
New Thunderbolts Penance is Shrike-ingly familiar
Marvel's New Thunderbolts seems destined to be an instant hit. How could any True Believer resist buying a series with an A-list of villains (Green Goblin, Bullseye, Venom, etc) written and drawn by A-list talent (Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato)? Newsarama has covered this thoroughly in the past few days, and today they have an interview with Deodato that features some preliminary drawings. Sounds pretty nifty, although I noticed that Taskmaster and Lady Deathstrike (who were shown on the last page of Civil War #4) are not listed as appearing in the debut issue, Thunderbolts #110. There's a new character called Penance, who you see in black and white in the image above. I immediately thought of Dan Simmons' character The Shrike, 
who is a major figure in his "Hyperion Quartet" (Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion). The Shrike is an inhuman, almost god-like figure, with metallic spikes covering his entire body. Penance looks eerily similar, although he has only two arms and his helmet doesn't have the jutting spikes.
Somehow the whole "A-list of villains" thing reminds me of Fantastic Four #347-349. When Walt Simonson ran into deadline problems, he called in his buddy Art Adams to draw three fill-in issues. One thing led to another and the FF were temporarily replaced by an all-new FF, featuring the most popular heroes of the day (Spider-Man, Grey Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Wolverine). These issues sold like hotcakes and they were very well done. Lots of fun, but Marvel knew these characters had no business teaming up. On top of the cover it says "The World's Most Commercialest Comic Magazine!" New Thunderbolts will be fun to read, but I can't imagine Bullseye putting up with Norman Osborne for very long. Nuff said.
