Well I get the feeling that Ghost was separated for a while to give the new characters time to develop. When you have one character who everyone likes and then introduce a bunch of new people, you have to give the readers a chance to know them. I can dig it.

I kind of hope Mr. Hyde gets to stick on the team since he's my choice for a Juggernaut replacement, but I really don't think the team is going to be okay with him for too much longer.

i agree with this

Anyone have an idea on what Zemo is up to over in Captain America? I get that Brubaker is making him all villainy again, but it feels very off for Zemo. He seemed to have buried his hatchet with Steve, and now he's back with some wild scheme against him.

I get that he isn't really a hero, but he isn't really a dastardly villain anymore either. Most of his plans seemed to be for a better purpose but involved dirty paths to get there. Like a man who wants to reform but doesn't know how.

Anymore it just feels like he's given up on that and is just back to Snidely Whiplash mustache twirling, which is boring for Zemo.

Well I liked evil Zemo because the "well meaning, but harsh super genius villain" niche is already filled by Dr. Doom. Those early 2000's stories about good guy Zemo felt like a bad knockoff and it made no sense to me that they would make him like that at all. A big part of Thunderbolts was that they wanted to reform, but always had a bad guy tempting them back to the wrong side. The team deciding that Zemo was a better fit for their leader than Hawkeye was the worst moment of the entire series in my opinion.

That being said, I have no idea what he's been up to.

See, I don't necessarily see Doom as someone with noble ends. Zemo I liked as this 'the ends are good, but I use horrible means to get there'. I liked how he was turning out like a warped version of the other Thunderbolts.

Where the others were really trying to change and take more noble methods, in a trial for redemption, it was like Zemo only read the cliff notes and said 'hey, maybe this isn't so bad'. Someone to arrogant to really get beyond the high level concept. He struck me as someone moving towards a Punisher like heroism (i.e. the ends justify the means).

Doom is still just a meglomaniac. Occasionally with a thin veneer of morality, but mostly he's just out for Doom. Zemo was moving towards self sacrifice, but for the purpose of making himself look good (without realizing this).

I'm really looking forward to this old school Thunderbolts goodness:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=36409

Been really enjoying this time-tripping stuff in general. Boomerang is fast becoming my new favourite T-bolt.

Got a laugh when I picked up the latest issue today. My very first thought when I saw the alternate costumes was "WTF:! Didn't we just have an X-Men crossover? I thought I was looking at Emma, Cyclops, the Goblin Queen/Madelyn Pryor, a beefy Sabretooth, some dude I didn't know that might have been Fantomex, and Troll as the only actual T Bolt on the cover.

And now I can't shake that idea of a team out of my head. Talk about some head trips for Scott . . .

I got a laugh out of the latest issue too. In the scene where they're all eating breakfast, Centurius is just casually making Pop Tarts.

I didn't have any of the right pieces to do it, but I made Troll in Soul Calibur 5 anyway. I imagine her fighting like Lizardman (Minus one axe and a few moves where he grows wings...)

http://www.snakevsmongoose.info/SCTroll.JPG

Has nobody been reading Thunderbolts? The last two issues were awesome.

Man, the modern vs. classic crossover has been awesome. I'm worried about what will happen to Fixer, though. He really needs to stop and think before he acts.

Yeah, but I like that they're finally addressing Fixer's change in personality. I always liked the horny, joke-making Fixer and was kind of worried that the new writers forgot/weren't interested in what he's supposed to be like.

I'm also really happy to see Moonstone back in form. She hasn't really been up to her normal tricks since waaaay back when Hawkeye was on the team. Since then she went into a coma and then went through a long phase of being evil and slutty, but not so scheming.

Also Ghost in a party hat.

I would love to jump on as Mr.Hyde!
Thunderbolts is amazing, never really has my top characters but is consistantly one of my favorite books. Whenever I have to drop titles to make room, Thunderbolts always gets a pass. Just great reading.

So Fixer is gone. I was kind of hoping they would address that weird plot hole from after Techno (the robot one) died and the original Fixer showed up out of nowhere and was just like "Oh yeah. I never died. Just forget about it."

I liked that they referenced Abe and Melissa's relationship too. I kinda thought the writers forgot about it.

That DID happen, didn't it? I immediately thought of something else in the book's history that might help address this absence of Fixer modern day though: Kevin Costner.

And if he was the one who showed up saying "Fuhgeddaboutit" . . . well, that certainly makes things interesting too, doesn't it?