NEW New Thunderbolts

If you read the comic sites at all, then you must know by now that there’s a new Thunderbolts team in the pipeline, coming in January. The book will be written by Warren Ellis (recently bustin’ his hump in the Marvel U on Nextwave), and drawn by Mike Deodato (recently bustin’ his pencils on New Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man). Here’s the lineup, according to Marvel –

• Venom
• Moonstone
• Bullseye
• Songbird
• Chen Lu, the Radioactive Man
• Swordsman
• “The mystery man called Penance”
• Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin

You should know most of these guys – Venom, Bullseye, and the Green Goblin are big names, what with one of the goals being to New Avengerize the lineup. Quesada even alluded to the fact that Osborn is supposed to be running the team. Moonstone, Songbird, Radioactive Man, and the Swordsman are all from the current lineup, and it’s nice to see (unlike last Thunderbolts revamp) that the current team isn’t getting stupidly kicked to the curb. But Moonstone’s an odd choice as she’s been brain dead for a while, and Swordsman’s an odd choice, because he lacks much of a discernable personality. And then, Penance? It can’t be the Penance from Generation X, since not only is she in The Loners, but SHE’S ALSO A SHE. I have no clue what’s going on there.

And the second question is, who’s missing? Well, on the last page of Civil War #4, we have Jack-O-Lantern, Lady Deathstrike, The Jester, and the Taskmaster, in addition to Songbird, Venom, and Bullseye. While Jack-O-Lantern and the Jester are probably earmarked for death (based on Millar’s track record), that doesn’t explain what happened to the bigger names – Lady Deathstrike and the Taskmaster.

The “stated mission” of the team – as editor Tom Brevoort told ComicBookResources – is “to protect the public by tracking down and apprehending unregistered superhumans,” a mission that should be pretty enticing to some of these characters. Since this story arc begins before the end of Civil War, that means the Act is in effect when they kick off their gameplan, but post-Civil War, well, that remains to be seen. And because of the “Suicide Squad” nature of the team – though with a main difference that the team will be publicly visible – the lineup can still go through plenty of changes, and no doubt it will over the course of the next year. Beyond that… Well, Ellis says he’s only on for a year so far, so we’ll see what happens past that.

Fabian Nicieza will be following up his current run on Thunderbolts with a mini called “Zemo: Born Better,” and he remains on Cable/Deadpool. He hasn’t been doing interviews about this, but it can’t be that nice for him finally to get the book back, and then get insane crossover sales boosts, but not to get the opportunity to run from there.