So I bought myself a comic book for my birthday.
“What!? A comic book? The devil you say!” The devil I do say, and the comic I picked up was this one:
Even though I dropped Thunderbolts years ago after the Kurt Busiek/Fabian Nicieza storythreads pretty much petered out, I found myself intrigued when I saw that Jeff Parker introduced Man-Thing onto the team during his recent run. But, for whatever reason, I didn’t start reading the series again, though once this issue popped up in our weekly shipment, I had a hard time resisting that great Art Adams cover. Took me a couple of weeks, but I finally relented and picked the darned thing up.
The story inside is Man-Thing-focused, which was an added bonus (since in these modern days of funnybooks, the character featured on the cover may not necessarily be the character starring inside). For those of you who’ve been reading Thunderbolts this whole time…are there other issues of this series of late that are Man-Thing heavy?
For my birthday, the girlfriend gifted me with a couple of Xbox games, one of which being the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 fightin’ game all you kids are into. Now, I don’t know any of the Capcom characters, really…well, Chun-Li I recognize, I suppose, from Street Fighter covers and those splayed-leg PVC statues from the back of the Previews catalogue. And I’m not entirely sure I understand the game just yet, as it’s a bit more complicated than the last video fighting game I played and so far, my play strategy has been “mash the buttons in a panic” over “ah, I have my opponent at a disadvantage, so I shall use this two button and joystick special combo-move to defeat him.”
My initial three-player team was Thor, Wolverine, and She-Hulk, and I managed to direct them successfully through several matches (on the easy level, of course), until I reached the battle versus Galactus and promptly had all three virtual butts handed to me. But, it was fun, and I imagine I’ll catch on to the subtleties of the game in short order.
There is the nice touch of having situation-appropriate dialogue when certain characters oppose each other (such as She-Hulk mentioning something about a family reunion when encountering her cousin, the Hulk). And apparently there’s a (non-playable cutscene, darnit) cameo for Man-Thing at some point, just to bring it back to the original topic of this post.
The other video game I was given was Soulcalibur IV, another fighting game, but this one has, somewhat inexplicably (despite some awkwardly-written in-game backstory attempting to explain), Yoda from the Star Wars series. So, apparently, at some point Yoda will be fighting this one gal with the thong swimsuit and a whip, which is, um, a bit weird, I guess. “MmmMMMmmm, catch a cold from a draft, you will!”
Thunderbolts has been (relatively) chock full of Man-Thing, and is a really fun series to boot. One of Marvel’s best and – along with Avengers Academy – most underrated. Definitely worth checking out.
Yeah, Man-Thing’s been a regular participant; not always featured, but he’s been getting a scene or two per issue. This is the first time Parker’s spotlighted him, though.
Right now, I’m enjoying T-Bolts as much as any Marvel comic I’m reading.
Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is a pretty good way to dip your toes into fighting games. While the ultra combo craziness still lurks beneath the surface, 4 attack buttons are a lot easier to get a handle on for new players than six.
Yeah, this cover made me buy it too. Never read Thunderbolts before, but the cover was awe-inspiring.
Thunderbolts is, without a doubt, one of the best Marvel books to come out in years (as written by Parker). Man-Thing gets plenty of exposure (!!!), anf the rest of the team are great characters to boot. Check it out in trade, perhaps…
Because only a Man-Thing comic that says “Thunderbolts” on the cover can actually sell in today’s market.
How long until Swamp Thing joins the Suicide Squad?
They live in the same swamp, after all…
I will echo the sentiments on Thunderbolts, and the Man-Thing love (oh doesn’t THAT sound wrong) that just oozes (oven worse sounding) from the creative team.
While Manny doesn’t always get a lot of screen time (or activity) per issue, when he DOES do something, or is noted, it is ALWAYS fabulous!
Here’s my love-note to the issue that started it all rolling (# 144) – as well as a bit of historical canon preamble bringing readers up to speed as to the whole “teleportation” angle:
http://sanctumsanctorumcomix.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-fear-ferry-man-thing-or-have.html
Since Jeff Parker has taken over the reigns, Thunderbolts has been consistantly the FIRST book I MUST read on its given Wednesday.
It performs so well that it won the coveted “BEST TITLE” category in my annual SANCTUM AWARDS (of 2010) found here;
http://sanctumsanctorumcomix.blogspot.com/2011/01/2010-sanctum-awards-3rd-annual-event.html
Mikester,
You would o yourself a disservice to not be reading this title.
~P~