THUNDERBOLTS #171

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 4.1
 
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Story by Jeff Parker
Art by Kev Walker & Terry Pallot
Colors by Frank Martin
Cover by Kev Walker

Size: 0 pages
Price: 2.99

Alright I’m going to try and not discuss the elephant in the room when it comes to this review. We all know how I feel on the future of this series so it is not going to hamper the fun I will have till we get to it. But I will say that it does disappoint me slightly after reading this issue. This is one of the best issues of the series in a while and the change does bug the shit out of me….Okay maybe this review will have some anger to it.

I love the pacing of this issue the moment we start this off. We have a great mislead on the opening page and from then on Jeff Parker goes all over this story. (In a good way) What I also love is that we never really see any of the disturbing moments in this, which I think is great in anything scary. Your imagination fills in the blanks and that’s what makes these moments with Songbird all the more scary. Also, this villain who I never heard of before is quiet fucked up. He isn’t Professor Pyg but he is certainly more disturbing to look at. I shudder to think what that hole in the center of his belly is used for. (Especially if he was with two women before that page…) But this is a big moment for Songbird and Parker clearly has made her much more aggressive and scarier then before. It’s a game changer and it’ll be interesting to see how she interacts with others in the future.

What helps makes this issue more creepy to read is the art by Kev Walker. If anything he draws the villains in this very well and they are really gross. I know I don’t wanna see that….’thing’ sucking on my toes. Apart from the creatures and the Doctor in this (who again is mighty fucked up to look at thanks to Walker) I love his designs on Songbird. He makes us focus on her hair early on and her changes throughout the issue are signified by the hair designs. She’s gorgeous in the opening pages, then we see how desperate she is after being knocked out, then the final design on the final page shows how drastically different she has become in twenty short pages. What also helps is Frank Martin Jr’s colors which differs from each sequences. Whether it’s bright and colorful on the beaches, or the palette looking more pale in the labs; I don’t think Walker’s pencils would look even half as good without Martin Jr’s colors.

This was just a great, stand alone issue for all you Songbird fans. Even if you aren’t a fan of the character it is just a great semi-horror issue with beautiful art by a great creative team. It pains me to type all of this because it is all going to be the more painful to drop this once the new team starts. We’ll save that for future conversations because for now, it’s a great time to read the Thunderbolts.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

Comments

  1. Nice review. The villain was very creepy.

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