Thunderbolts #120 Review

THUNDERBOLTS #120
Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Mike Deodato

Man, they shouldn't release the Thunderbolts one-shots so close to the infrequent appearances of the actual book. It just makes the one-shots seem so much worse than they are and goes to show that very few are as twisted or insane as Ellis is.

As predited, Venom didn't suffer any fatal wounds in his epic battle with Swordsman last issue and the symbiote is actually repairing him as we speak. Swordsman seems to have regressed to a more childlike state as he stumbles aimlessly through the compound and the telepaths are ramping up their plans and now forcing the Tbolts to target civilian workers.

Oh, and Norman Osborn was awesome and has my vote for president. As witnessed throughout this storyarc, he's gradually been losing it, probably due to the telepaths, messed up meds by Moonstone and general Goblin insanity. This issue sees it come to a head as he goes to collect his Green Goblin costume and equipment from storage in one of the more entertaining naked dictations I've read as Norman makes mad plans for presidency, bemoans having to do everything himself, from knocking up (god, why are they referencing this?) and killing the blonde girlfriend (Gwen Stacy for those not in the know) to running the Thunderbolts. It's a great scene and you can look for it, and many other Goblin related scenes, in the Moments of the Week.

Once fully garbed in one of the cooler renditions of the Green Goblin costume to date, Norman begins searching for Swordsman and Venom to put a stop to their tantrums. He stops casually to ask two guards where they are and they can barely spit out an answer before he takes off, cackling all the way, to kill Venom and Swordsman. We later see him catching up to Swordsman, who is practically whimpering like a child, and verbally berates him, saying things like he was born when a pig coughed and so on before absolutely tearing into him with bombs and those razor sharp batarangs. We find Swordsman, later, crucified, with the batarangs pinning him to the wall, near death and bleeding profusely as we cut to Norman, who's about to slaughter the entire complex population thanks to the telepaths' prodding.

The other Thunderbolts weren't forgotten either. Radioactive Man wants to give everyone cancer and, before he can do anything, one of the guards starts bashing him in the back of the head, knocking him out. Songbird questioned him and he said he didn't want cancer and Songbird agreed and complimented him on a good job before leaving. Moonstone was pushed towards going after Doc Samson and Penance, who are still having a casual chat about him becoming Speedball again. I'm not sure how they will stop these telepaths, as everyone seems to be insane, incapacitated or under their control at this point, so I hope Ellis has thought that far ahead and we don't get some rushed conclusion.

Verdict - Must Read. It was another deliciously insane issue of Thunderbolts and makes me sad that Ellis has made enough money off of us and is going to go do other stuff now. Might want to trade wait on this one if you haven't been picking the series up, but it is definitely another amazing issue of Thunderbolts.

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