Thunderbolts #2 Review *SPOILERS*

Written By: Jim Zub

Art By: Jon Malin and Matt Yackey

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: T

Price: $3.99

Last moth I rushed to my local comic shop to get Punisher #1. It was the book I was looking forward to the most, and the book I was most disappointed in. That book just pissed me off, it was like reading a reprint from a 90's Punisher book. Lucky for me I got two other books that day. Oddly enough they were written by the same guy, Jim Zub! Those books were Dungeons and Dragons and Thunderbolts. And I loved both books! D&D had humor and action and Thunderbolts had a good combo of character introductions with a great cliffhanger right off the bat. I gave both books a 9.5 and was waiting for both issue #2's. 

We pick up right were the last book left off, with Moonstone dying and her chest ripped open. In the previous issue she was trying to take control of the team and said that if anyone thought they can lead that they are welcomed to try to take the stone from her heart. The problem is that they have a kid made out of the cosmic cube pieces named Kobik who takes everything literally and she did just that. SHE RIPPED IT OUT OF HER HEART!

Kobik is not aware of what she did and wants to get yogurt and play video games as Moonstone lays dying. Bucky tells her to put the stone back to keep Moonstone from dying. He tells her that Moonstone was wrong and she needs it back right away. The rest of the team is getting hostile and Kobik still has not put the stone back, so bucky tells her that she will be kicked off the team unless she puts it back so she does it and it starts to stabilize her. Now the team is back to the dozens of Inhuman type cocoons that they were investigating last issue. Just like last issue, Moonstone says they should burn them all but Bucky is not having that at all. At that moment one cracks open and a creature comes out attacking. More cocoons break open and they are under attack by about 8 creatures and the Thunderbolts are taking care of them pretty easily, until the rest of the cocoons open and they are seriously outnumbered,   

My favorite Thunderbolt Atlas grows to the size of a building and starts splatting and squishing the poor bastards! Kobik wants to help, but Bucky won't let her. In theory Kobik can stop all of them easily, but she can also hurt the Thunderbolts as well. You can tell that Bucky is in a tough spot trying to help her fit in and be able to help the team without killing them!

The Thunderbolts get all the creatures in the warehouse and Bucky decides to torch the place.Moonstone has an "I told ya so" look on her face and wished she had marshmallows. Then a ship comes down and it is similar to SHIELD technology, but it is not SHIELD. It is the Inhumans and they are pissed! Were those creatures Inhumans?! Were they experiments of the Inhumans?! This book seemed to be a faster read, but that could be because last issue set the tone and showed the structure of the team and laid down the ground work. With that being said, the book did a great job with the pacing. The art is really good, the only issue with the art is that some backgrounds are just filled in with reds and blues lacking a feel of depth. It is not to distracting and does not hurt the book at all, it was just something I remember noticing right away. 

The writing was well done again, but I felt that too may characters were displaying a negative or combative attitude as opposed to last issue where it was just Moonstone. It just seemed too soon for the internal conflict or tension to turn it's ugly head. With all that aside, the book did a good job resolving last issues cliffhanger and set the tone of how the arc will play out. It will be interesting having a teammate that can kill the whole team without even realizing it. It is similar to that episode of the Twilight Zone where that kid with powers can wish people into the cornfields, except Kobik is not evil. 

Issue one set the bar pretty high and I was worried that issue two would not be able to deliver. Zub did a great job following it up, and has me wanting to stick around to see where it goes. 

8/10