Last issue of Thunderbolts I made POTW because of the fantastic sequence of Juggernaut’s mind with Shalvey’s art. While this particular issue didn’t have any of that going for it, it still was an enjoyable and good looking comic to boot.

Jeff Parker is able to balance a lot of plot points into each issue I notice. Not just because he’s got to juggle literally fourteen characters at once, but because a lot seems to happen here. The Thunderbolts have to deal with Juggernaut, Satana is trying to get them out of there, Baron Zemo suddenly comes into play, and of course we need to have more Kaiju monsters at the very end to balance out all the craziness. Parker is able to  deal with each plot point very well and give it enough pages for us to really care about it. The final line, by Warden Walker pretty much sums up the entire attitude of the craziness. Also, I really hope we get a Kaiju title in the future for Marvel because unless you want to buy the Godzilla books, then you can only get it here.

Shalvey is also able to keep the madness going with some great pages in here. The highlight is obvious the page where Shalvey splits it in half where Moonstone is trying to stop the nuclear rocket in time. I also like how Shalvey is able to use the edges of the comic to show something fall down. He did it in that Crossbone’s one-shot a few months ago and it still works here. Also, the two page spread of the monsters attacking the beach is quite enjoyable to look at. There’s so many monsters on that spread, you can see his work on the 28 Days Later comic helps him here.

I was so worried that Fear Itself was going to hamper this title like so many others. But Jeff Parker has been able to make this an enjoyable arc so far by putting a lot (and I mean A LOT) of plot into each issue but makes it fun to read. It also helps that Declan Shalvey has been killing it with the art for the past two issues. This issue just continues to confirm that Thunderbolts is the best Marvel team book on the stands right now. How much more can go on in these pages next time?