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Is It Good? Thunderbolts #17 Review

Comic Books

Is It Good? Thunderbolts #17 Review

Thunderbolts has been nothing but a surprise for me. It’s a book that I didn’t really expect to be great when I decided to try out its Infinity tie-in, but turned out to be a lot of fun and a blast to read despite questionable art. With the title approaching the end of its status as a tie-in, does it sink or swim? Is it good?


Thunderbolts #17 (Marvel Comics)


Thunderbolts #17 Cover

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Mercy has gone completely crazy and is starting to attack the city, which is not helping the fact that New York continues to be in the middle of full blown alien invasion by Thanos’ forces. So Red Leader and Red Hulk have to figure out a way to stop her. Meanwhile, Deadpool continues his journey to a pizza shop and Punisher, Elektra, and Venom go wild on the Paguros’ gang.

Thunderbolts 17 01
I would say she went Super Saiyan, but that normally involves yellow energy.

This remains to be such an enjoyable, fun comic every time I read it. The characters are great and are all easily distinguishable with their personalities and mannerisms. The humor is excellent with its timing, dialogue, and physical comedy. The story is enjoyable, if a bit stretched out (seriously? Four issues just to tell this arc?), and the flow is very good, easily moving between story bits and character expositions without a problem.

thunderbolts17_3
You’re all so damn gangly looking. The first step to battling bulimia is admitting you have a problem.

However, there is a problem and that’s the tie-in part. I’m having difficulty understanding the timeline of this all and how this story fits in Infinity and its own tie-ins. Has the story been going on for days, since Thanos’ invasion first started at the beginning of the arc and the Terrigen bomb has gone off in this issue. Didn’t these events happen days apart from each other? It’s rather odd and a bit confusing, otherwise it’s fine as a tie-in.

Thunderbolts 17 02
No you fool! You forgot the tax!

Despite that problem, I could look past it since it didn’t really hurt the story overall. However, I can’t with the artwork here. It’s just not working. It’s cartoonish and more caricatural style might work with the Deadpool story, since that one is rather silly; the more serious, action bits with Mercy and the all-out fight with the Paguros gang do not match up with this artwork at all.

Then you have the empty and blank backgrounds with gradient filters and the poor anatomy of the characters and then you have artwork that is just distracting from the main product. The art might work for something else, but again, just not here.

Is It Good? Thunderbolts #17 Review 8.0

Is It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 ReviewIs It Good? Thunderbolts #17 Review
  • The characters and humor are very enjoyable.
  • The story, while slow and simple, is still engaging.
  • Needs a new artist for sure.
  • This book’s time frame does not make much sense.

Is It Good?

It certainly is. If not for the artwork and questionable timeframe with Infinity (As nitpicky as it is), I would say this would be one of the best fun comic books that Marvel is putting out right now. A simple change in artist and it could do wonders for this comic. Otherwise, it’s still worth a look.

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