SUPERHERO

Having run for the past few years as a fanboy-friendly graveyard for all of Marvel’s most colourful and perhaps least inspiring villains, this first issue of Warren Ellis’ tour of duty as writer promises to make it a title worth reading.

The idea is that the Thunderbolts are a group of government-sanctioned ‘heroes’, a bunch of ex-crooks coerced and blackmailed into hunting down other super-powered types. Ellis has very kindly binned all the feeble also-rans who were crowding out the title previously and settled on the best of the worst. So the line-up includes a nefarious Green Goblin, Daredevil’s psychotic nemesis Bullseye, the ever-scary Venom, the mysterious Penance and murderous super-powered psychiatrist, Moonstone.

Ellis is one of the best ideas men in comics and this is well worth a read if you like super-heroics with a bit of intelligence.