3 out of 5

Interesting.  I’m not sure how anyone expected this to work.  I mean – it didn’t: it was canceled after six issues.  I suppose I’m just curious how Arcudi was planning to evolve this, and if it ever would’ve gotten closer to something that would’ve satisfied fans.  Because his revamp of Thunderbolts – as part of Quesada’s early 00 Marvel lineup changes that, I believe, produced things like Ennis’ Punisher run and X-Statix and the Ultimate lineup – wasn’t bad, it just was, by no means, anything that could be recognized as Thunderbolts.  Most of the other high profile changes at the time maintained something that carried over for the fanbase; for X-Statix, while it might’ve baffled diehard X-Force fans, it was still a superhero book, and at least the team was still using the name.  And, smartly, the book parodied the scene X-Force had come to celebrate without taking direct potshots at the previous team or run.

But T-Bolts…?  They don’t mention the team name anywhere in the six issues collected here (which was the entirety of the revamp), nor does anything even representing a team – Thunderbolts traditionally villains teaming up and functioning as heroes – really ever formalize.  Instead, the pitch would seem to be a “real world” Thunderbolts, where also-ran villains – Battler, in this case – try to walk the straight and narrow in a world that only sees them as ex-cons who got beat up by Spider-Man.  So we follow Battler as he struggles at his construction job to make rent, to make child support, and to maintain a sense of dignity… and to slowly get wrapped up in a much better paying, much more “respectable” underground fighting ring.  Man-Killer and Armadillo are along for the ride in various capacities.  That it’s Arcudi writing means we get interesting depth in the characters, who realize the manager of the ring is taking advantage of them but have trouble resisting the draw of the lifestyle; again, though, with no real hero stuff going on or no connection to what came before, one must wonder how this was ever expected to hold an audience.

The art, by Francisco Ruiz, is also rather poor.  He has a cartoonish Skottie Young style but no control over his embellishments or a consistent sense of framing.  So “poster” shots look very dynamic, but the moment to moment bits are all over the place with odd limb lengths and inconsistent expressions.  The humble, low-key style of the story might’ve been better suited to a Marcos Martin type who can keep the everyday looking fresh and bold but equally manage the action.

So it’s really not bad if you read it as a standalone story; in fact, it’s a pretty interesting “day in the life” tale, told at length, that we pretty much won’t get from Marvel at this type of casual pace again – barring some future EiC’s round of changes.  And John does us the favor of actually wrapping things up for the most part by the sixth issue.  But, given that it was canceled, the book – intended as an ongoing – also never really gets a chance to assert itself, and the art isn’t a huge assist om giving it any extra legitimacy.