Thunderbolts Annual 1, Deadpool 21

Letting the quick hits roll.

Thunderbolts Annual 1
Acker and Blacker (w) and Lolli (a) and Campbell (c)

The Thunderbolts are secretly hired by WAND, SHIELD's branch that deals with magic, to assassinate Doctor Strange, who has apparently snapped and is making everyone happy all the time and whose influence will remake the world within a week. After gathering various magical artifacts from typically unwilling sources in order to protect themselves, the T-Bolts attack and start to press towards Strange, who WAND can't kill themselves because he's an Avenger. One by one, the T-Bolts start to get too happy to accomplish the mission until Punisher manages to make it to Strange and brutally murders him, saying that the killing is what makes him happy. It's revealed that Strange, of course, wasn't really Strange but was a demon from another realm posing as Strange and the real Strange shows up to help with the cleanup. It's not the only book this week that will find Strange interacting with a Thunderbolt!

Pretty fun book. There's a lot to get through in it as there are a lot of moving parts including the introduction of a new wing of SHIELD, the gathering of artifacts from people like Elsa Bloodstone and Valkyrie, the covert explanation of the mission (WAND high command tells Red Hulk and Leader what the plan is but makes them misremember how they'd come to it so they can't trace back involvement), and the fight with Strange, all in one extra-size issue. Pretty fun with a lot of really good moments over a somewhat intriguing plot. The best character bit is the fact that everyone else gets overrun by happiness but that Punisher's happiness comes from killing. Maybe not the boldest statement for Punisher but a nice statement that no one else felt that way. Another solid enough outing for Acker and Blacker.

Deadpool 21
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Hawthorne (a) and Bellaire (c)

The cover lists Koblish as the artist but the interior lists Hawthorne and my comic list says Hawthorne so SORRY IF I'M WRONG. Anyway, Doctor Strange pays a visit to Deadpool's mind (I told you!) and tells him how messed up it is while also relating that it might be better this way. He also says he could do a soul trap spell on Preston but he has nowhere to put it once he has it. Meanwhile, the Preston LMD is running around committing crimes and answering online work ads because she just needs to work. Agent Adsit discovers it while trying to make his own Preston LMD to find Preston a new body and reports it to Agent Gorman, the jerk from earlier in the series. Gorman is secretly controlling the Preston LMD and, when Adsit tells him that the real Preston is still alive, he orders a hit on Deadpool for anyone who's interested. Crossbones strikes first to no avail but then the Preston LMD itself shows up to get in on the action. In a covert location, Adsit meets with Agent Coulson to inform him that they've baited Gorman.

Not a bad issue as things start to return a bit to form after what was kind of a train-wreck last issue. I still find myself mostly uninterested with the Preston stuff and I think that hurts the overall issue but they're pretty well stuck into that plot now so I have no better course of action for them to take. The mercenaries should be a lot of fun in this book as I maintain that the writing team is at its best when it puts Deadpool up against or up next to other established Marvel characters. Deadpool's team and any other created character doesn't really land for me but this team has a god history with writing for other heroes, like Daredevil, Captain America, Wolverine, and, most recently, Dr. Strange. Should be fun to see all the mercenaries up against one another and up against Deadpool. It usually is relatively fun when all the mercenaries are called to one location.