Updated – 1/22/2007, 8:20 PM

Recently, forum member Blanktoe brought some spoilerish information to our attention, thanks to Amazon’s early-solicitation schedule for trade paperbacks. Continue reading after the jump for a screencap of the listing, a copy of the image it revealed, and some discussion on how believable it may or may not be.

I repeat, last chance to abandon ship –

SPOILER WARNING – SPOILERS BE AHEAD…
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Thunderbolts #110
written by Warren Ellis, art by Mike Deodato

As Civil War trudges along, it’s finally time for the much-hyped new Thunderbolts lineup launch! While I’m a longtime fan of the group under Fabian Nicieza’s excellent pen (and I question the decision of taking the book out from under him – again), I won’t deny that the different approach Warren Ellis is bringing to the table has caught my interest.

In the new lineup we have cold-blooded killers mixed in with former, more heroic Thunderbolts. With the psychotics being controlled by nanites, and unwilling holdovers being forced on the team for yet unexplained reasons, things are no doubt going to be tense and violent, and with the ever-brilliant Mike Deodato (ever-famous for his work on the Hulk – where he even drew the Thunderbolts’ first appearance, in Incredible Hulk #449) on pencils, they should also look fantastic. Keep on reading after the jump for 5 preview pages – you really don’t want to miss it; Bullseye show off the different facets of his crazy while never lifting a finger – and also for our quick ‘n dirty rundown on the characters involved.

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If you live on the West Coast, you better bust your hump on Thursday to get into your comic shop early. For some reason, retailers are getting screwed to a ridiculous degree on their order quantities of Civil War issue #6. In the words of retailer Brian Hibbs of San Francisco, “it looks like EVERY West Coast retailer is getting massively allocated (to the tune of 10-15% — I ordered 100 copies, and am recieving 14) on CIVIL WAR #6 this week.”

There’s no way of knowing why, as Diamond Distributors has done nothing to warn or notify retailers as to the hows or whys of it all, which of course is par for the course. Suffice to say, if your West Coast store typically orders 100 copies, you’d better be one of the first 14 in the door, and be one of the weekly regulars, because otherwise all your punk friends in Baltimore and Boston will be laughing at you all week long.

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.

Marvel updated their site yesterday with a brand new Civil War trailer. It’s available HERE and it’s the perfect lead in for issue #4, which hits stands today. And while the idea of a video trailer existing for print media seems a bit off, the results remain badass.

Popcultureshock.com is the only place I saw it, so we’re mirroring it here: Preview pages for Civil War #4, pages 1 through 3. Er, and the cover. But I bet you could’ve figured that out without my help. Here’s a link to their previews page, and here’s our mirrored pages:

In related news, Christos Gage – who wrote the fantastic Deadshot mini for DC a couple years ago – will be writing an upcoming Civil War one-shot, Casualties of War: Iron Man/Captain America. As he describes it during his Newsarama interview, “This is the first time since it all started that they’ve met one on one, out of respect for their many years as friends and allies, to talk it out. We’ll reference incidents from Marvel history to show why each man feels as strongly as he does, and each will have to defend his position as he tries to convince the other to rethink his own.” It’s supposed to take place earlier in the series than issue 4. (Obviously.)

Gage’s previous work includes episodes of Law & Order: SVU and tomorrow’s new Union Jack mini, spinning out of his appearance in Captain America. Though the issue arrives in stores tomorrow, but SilverBulletComics got a preview copy and sicced their reviewers on it. Overall it seemed to get pretty good reviews, despite the scathing pair of two-bullet reviews. I’ll have to see for myself tomorrow if the magic he worked on Deadshot will hold up in the world of Marvel.

Episode 4 of PowetToys brings us a look at Marvel Legends Icons Captain America and Iron Man with twist of Civil War.

Popbox Collectibles is putting together a line of statues that link together at their base and form a diarama. The line will be made exclusively for the asian market. It supposedly features major players in the Civil War conflict currently playing out in the Marvel Universe. I say supposedly because the first wave is compromised of almost noone from the actual storyline. You can see the line ups below. Wave 1 is slated for October and Wave 2 is slated for December of this year. Pictures are below.

• Wave 1:
  • Wolverine (old yellow costume, not Astonishing X-Men outfit)
  • Cyclops (in old Jim Lee uniform)
  • Juggernaut
  • Beast (Astonishing X-Men outfit)
• Wave 2:
  • Captain America
  • Iron Man
  • Spider-Man
  • Thing