Thunderbolts 19, Nova 11, Marvel Knights Hulk 1

Thunderbolts 19
Soule (w) and Walta (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The Thunderbolts are taking a road trip as they make their way to the next base. Deadpool is dead in the backseat (he'll be fine, he wanted it to pass the time) but everyone else is merely waiting out the car ride. Leader asks Ross for a cigarette lighter, wanting to re-center himself. Ross allows it and quickly Leader figures out a plan to dispatch with everyone in the van, including using his radiation emissions to knock Ross out before lighting Deadpool ablaze and using the magnesium in a road flare to neutralize the Venom symbiote while stabbing Flash through the chest, ultimately sending Punisher and Elektra to their death by directing them to save the others and tossing a bag of grenades in after them. He nixes the plan, though, when he realizes that then Mercy would show up and undoubtedly kill him. He also admits that he's not sure he's thinking clearly and that he's not seeing all the variables so he decides to wait it out, knowing that every team needs a leader.

Pretty fun little book. Despite it being a kind of "it was all a dream" issue, there's a lot to be gained. First and foremost, Leader seems to be moving quickly back to his old ways despite putting on a good show to the contrary. We, of course, have known something was up since we saw him willingly let Mercy out of captivity on the sub and force them to ground but now we can see his plans in their entirety and he's giving us a rare first person look into his mind and his plans and his goals. It's a very interesting issue and one that's certainly interesting to read even if it ends in the somewhat predictable "he's not actually doing any of this" way. Still a story that needs telling to show us exactly where Leader is right now and what he's thinking. Also, Gabriel Walta's first issue on the book brings some pretty impressive and very unique art to the series, not too far removed from Jefte Palo but also definitely its own style. Nice issue, great cover.

Nova 11
Duggan (w) and Medina and Vlasco (a) and Curiel (c)

Nova's getting readjusted to his normal life on Earth and trying to get it to fit in with his life as Nova. After believing that he was going blind upon returning home last time and seeing bright lights all across his vision, he visits their family doctor who tells him it's probably just temporary blindness brought on by stress and maybe a little by any recent hits to the head he's taken recently. While in one of his classes, Sam realizes that the lights he had been seeing are a map. That night, he flies to the nearest light and finds a dead Nova there. Also there are a horde of giant spiders hanging around that he manages to take down one-by-one. He hears the log from the dead Nova and it shows him an even bigger spider who gored this Nova throw the chest. Sam figures it out just in time and flies up and blasts the giant one from the safety of space. Realizing that the dots are all dead Novas, he decides to go home for the night. However, new enemy Cadivan, apparently a hunter or gladiator or something from deep space has kept a Nova helmet just in case some others should appear for him to kill and take as trophies. Now his helmet has flickered showing that someone is still out there.

Not a bad start for Duggan on his first full NOVA issue. Little bit of a slow start here as we get some time with Sam at school and Sam still trying to deal with his father running out on them and his mother looking for a job. Still, those things aren't bad things to have; the best characters are the ones who are deeper than what happens under the mask, in the vein of Peter Parker or Tony Stark. It does feel a little like this book wants to create the new Spider-Man, someone who lost the man who initially taught him about power and responsibility but he's still left with a strong if slightly helpless role model and support system all while navigating the treacherous waters of high school. Sam's voice still isn't bad here; it's maybe not as free-flowing or imaginative as Zeb Wells' but that may not be fair to judge after one issue. Not a bad issue and retaining the solid art team of Medina, Vlasco, and Curiel helps keep the tone pretty consistent, as the art of a book has as much to do with tone as any other aspect. It'll be interesting to see how a full arc progresses here.

Marvel Knights Hulk 1
Keatinge (w) and Kowalski (a) and Filardi (c)

Banner is face down in a river as this book starts and pulled out by a woman who saw him earlier that day on the metro (they're in Paris) having something of a freak out. She pulls him out and sees that he's got gunshot wounds. The woman, named Dyane, brings him to her apartment and gets to work trying to fix him up a bit and letting him rest. He wakes later and the two of them walk about the city as he tries to get his bearings. He remembers hulking out at some point but doesn't know where he is or who he is. As they walk around the city and she tries to get him to remember things, two mysterious men in trench coats track down Dyane's uncle George and show him a picture of Banner, asking if he's been seen. George says he has and answers all of their questions without hesitation but they gun him down anyway. They manage to find Banner and try to fight him, trying to bring the Hulk out. On the orders of their superior, they both inject themselves with some sort of serum and turn into something like hulks themselves, wrecking their way through the city on his trail. Finally, after scores of casualties, they explode in a blinding light right on top of Banner.

The first image in this issue is a full page panel of Banner face down in the water and I got flashbacks to Keatinge's first scene back on MORBIUS THE LIVING VAMPIRE, which found Morbius chased through the streets and getting "killed" brutally within the first issue. Apparently Keatinge has something of a theme going here. This issue, somewhat unlike MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN and MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN, seems to be hitting some clichéd ground, including the face-down man in the river, the mysterious but helpful stranger, the amnesia, the trench coat guys, etc. On top of that, the art isn't bad but it's not as experimental as it is in the other new MARVEL KNIGHTS books which really sets them apart from the more mainstream titles. So I guess maybe this one isn't going to be my favorite of the bunch; it moved a bit slowly and you could probably play a drinking game with the beats of this book. If he has a memory of hulking out but tries to downplay it, take a drink. If he has amnesia, take a drink. If he inexplicably gets asked out by the girl who really knows nothing about him except that he ends up face down in lakes, take a drink. If the men in trench coats have sunglasses, hats, and dark motives, take a drink. If you're bored by the end of the issue, take a drink. Thirst should be pretty well-quenched by the end of this one.