Alright you guys got me! I got all the issues of Thunderbolts and I am having a blast with this series. But one thing made me cringe when I first learned about this issue. Two words that almost made me forget about this issue in general: ‘Avengers Academy’. Why? Why did Marvel do this to us? We don’t need a horrible group of superhero kids get forced into an excellent team book. Weirdly though, we don’t even seem them at all.

In fact, this issue just focuses on the break-in that will be focused more closely in the Academy book. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. First the good; as in that Parker’s take on everybody here is so damn good. Crossbones is an entertaining maniac, Ghost is a wonderful (but weird) dude, and we have Man-Thing just doing his….thing. When we get into the actual breakout, it’s action packed and fun to read. Seeing Agent Walker just beat the living crap out of some prisoners is worth the price of this issue for me. (It also adds a point to my score for letting Walker narrates the issue).

Kev Walker (aka Mike Mignola’s evil twin) also shines again in this issue. His interesting take on the characters in this are always welcomed. Juggernaut looks to be the same, but Walker adds a little touch of his own take for the character and it just feels right. When the action gets going, he does a great job with the panel layouts in this. I love how for the fight we get a splash page and every third is used for a different fight. That is a great way to show the entire action unfold without wasting the pages (or for filler). It’s a shame that Walker is leaving for a two issue break but at least he’s become a bigger name now because of this fantastic book.

Now we get to the bad, or the one thing that puzzles me since I read the solicitation for this issue: Why?

Why was this issue needed? Seriously I can’t figure this out guys. This was a fun issue, no doubt, but I just don’t get the need of a crossover. Obviously it was done just to get more sales for either book but let’s face it: this title doesn’t need it. In fact Parker had the Academy appear only 3 times in this entire issue which makes the ‘crossover’ even more puzzling. We could’ve had a breakout without even mentioning the team as it would’ve worked on it’s own. Or maybe not just do it in general and continue with the cave fight which, to be honest, felt rushed to complete. I still liked this issue and I’m still loving this series. But the need of crossing over for another title just felt pointless and stupid for this issue. It makes me scared for just how the Shadowland issues will play out.