Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
December 1999
****
Busiek’s swansong recounts Jolt’s trauma during the Onslaught attack—no surprises yet. His real interest is in a techno-oddball right out of Astro City: a pudgy, scruffy recluse who’s lurked in a mountain base since X-Men #28, thru several changes of ownership, & now accepts T-bolts membership.
last issue: Thunderbolts #32
next issue: Thunderbolts #34
also indexed for Dec. ’99
Avengers #23
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
November 1999
***
An aristo-fascist conspiracy airs the ol’ gladiator trope. Like so much of this mag, both in writing & art, it’s well-crafted convention—but compare this melée of zaps & thunks to Kirby’s original (a killer roller-derby)! Thru it all, I’m still not a Bagley fan: his style is pretty, but he never surprises me.
last issue: Thunderbolts #31
next issue: Thunderbolts #33
also indexed for Nov. ’99
Avengers #22
Avengers Forever #11 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
October 1999
***
Encyclopedic Busiek goes all-out on the Roy Thomas Approach, tying a quasi-fascist conspiracy from Kirby’s ’70s Cap to Englehart’s Secret Empire. Like Bag’s art, the tale’s fun but generic, lacking the political conviction of those earlier writers; these are simply heavies trying to conquer America.
last issue: Thunderbolts #30
next issue: Thunderbolts #32
also indexed for Oct. ’99
Avengers #21
Avengers Forever #10 of #12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
September 1999
***
After Graviton falls into an alt dimension, he’s recruited by a hooded figure. From the new base’s labyrinth of corridors, another secretive shadow overhauls the T-bolts’ sky-jalopy. Then there’s the still-unknown IDs of Citizen V & Crimson C… This gambit rarely ends in a satisfying reveal.
last issue: Thunderbolts #29
next issue: Thunderbolts #31
also indexed for Sept. ’99
Avengers #20
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
August 1999
****
One flaw of T-bolts is its chirpy fan-girl sidekick, now joined by a 2nd superteen. W/ their teammates captured, it’s up to them to save the day. But one strength of T-bolts is its team dynamic, such that other scenes showcase more vivid characters—like Moonstone, sniggering at Graviton’s clichéd goals.
last issue: Thunderbolts #28
next issue: Thunderbolts #30
also indexed for Aug. ’99
Avengers #19
Avengers Forever #9 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
July 1999
***
Graviton returns, leading a floating island of flying pirates over San F! Busiek has an aptitude for megalomaniac plans! He & Bagley also have a great sense of pacing, staging tight scenes of clear motivation. And when they break the one-off issue rhythm w/ a cliffhanger, it helps show the stakes.
last issue: Thunderbolts #27
next issue: Thunderbolts #29
also indexed for Jul. ’99
Avengers #18
Avengers #0
Avengers Annual 1999
Avengers Forever #8 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
June 1999
***
This ish compares the title team to the West Coast Avengers & then the Champions (the ’70s poster kids for generic superteams). To underscore the tribute, ex-Champ Archangel guest-stars as a visitor to the new secret base in the Rockies. Subplots simmer as well, w/ each char getting a moment.
last issue: Thunderbolts #26
next issue: Thunderbolts #28
also indexed for Jun. ’99
Avengers #17
Avengers Forever #7 of 12
Kurt Busiek & Joe Casey // Mark Bagley & Leonardo Manco
May 1999
****
Having earned a rest, Busiek & Bagley hand the reins over to Casey & Manco for a doozy of a fill-in. #26 goes into a super-prison, where Mach-1 quells a riot. Its approach is an homage to Astro City, w/ a realistic, hard-boiled perspective & gloomy style augmented nicely by echoes of Windsor-Smith.
last issue: Thunderbolts #25
next issue: Thunderbolts #27
also indexed for May ’99
Avengers #16
Avengers Forever #6 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
April 1999
***
The second anniversary ish serves as climax to T-bolts‘ second act: a brawl w/ 25 super-goons! Moonstone has been the mag’s protag, & ever since her regicide, she’s provided it w/ plenty of character. #25 fills in her backstory (a childhood of class resentment & manipulation) as she weighs betraying her team to usurp the megalomaniac plan of Crimson Cowl, femme leader of the Masters of Evil.
last issue: Thunderbolts #25
next issue: Thunderbolts #26
also indexed for Apr. ’99
Avengers #15
Avengers Forever #5 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
March 1999
***
The T-bolts save Kansan bystanders from their turf war w/ the Masters of Evil, who possess a Kirbytech weather device. Busiek’s focus, however, is devising a détente w/ the new Citizen V, a sort of female Batman, who gets a stern lesson in heroics from Hawkeye after her earlier work w/ Captain A.
last issue: Thunderbolts #23
next issue: Thunderbolts #25
also indexed for Mar. ’99
Avengers #14
Avengers Forever #4 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
February 1999
****
As Mach-1 turns himself in, an industrialist funds an armored team (& Bagley co-creation) to capture the T-bolts, led by a wannabe Cap. Since Hawkeye joined, this mag has found its swing! KB & MB juggle a huge cast using trad methods like 2×3 grids, bright 2D chars, & a constant shift in status quo.
last issue: Thunderbolts #22
next issue: Thunderbolts #24
see also Avengers #12
also indexed for Feb. ’99
Avengers #13
Avengers Forever #3 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
January 1999
***
The team faces a hit-squad of armored baddies, & bolster their bona fides. Though this non-sequential issue was done special for Wizard magazine, it fits cleanly btw T-bolts #22 and Avengers #12. It also demos what makes the mag appealing: a neo-classical sense of superheroics in art & in writing.
see also Thunderbolts #22
also indexed for Jan. ’99
Avengers #12
Avengers Forever #2 of 12
Captain America/Citizen V Annual ’98
Thunderbolts #22
Kurt Busiek, Karl Kesel, & Barbara Kesel // Mark Bagley
January 1999
***
Marvel’s ’98 annuals are team-ups: here it’s Captain A on a mission from the T-bolts mag. Backstory: in his plan for world domination, Baron Zemo had impersonated the grandkid of Citizen V, a WW2-era supersoldier. Now the true grandchild (& her back-up team) works w/ Cap to stop Baron Z from launching a super-rocket. Props to Bagley, who pencils a whole annual w/o stinting on style or setting!
continued from Thunderbolts #22
continued in Thunderbolts #23
see also Thunderbolts #0
also indexed for Jan. ’99
Avengers #12
Avengers Forever #2 of 12
Thunderbolts #22
Thunderbolts #0
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
January 1999
****
Finally addressing the cast’s criminal acts, #22 turns the cape-comics trick of making fisticuffs an allegory for internal conflicts. Mach-1, who once killed a man, considers jail as a gesture of good faith; meanwhile, Atlas trades blows w/ Hercules, who he’d incapacitated in a classic Avengers arc.
continued in Captain America/Citizen V Annual ’98
last issue: Thunderbolts #21
next issue: Thunderbolts #23
see also Thunderbolts #0
also indexed for Jan. ’99
Avengers #12
Avengers Forever #2 of 12
Captain America/Citizen V Annual ’98
Thunderbolts #0
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
December 1998
****
Hawkeye’s new role as the T-bolts’ captain lends legitimacy to the team, & also makes formal this mag’s position as the beta Avengers. It even reinvigorates the mag’s heel-face dynamic after a slow six months. And #21 spends time on Songbird’s motivations, filling her personality out nicely.
last issue: Thunderbolts #20
next issue: Thunderbolts #22
also indexed for Dec. ’98
Avengers #11
Avengers Forever #1 of 12
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
November 1998
***
A confrontation w/ the new, for-profit Masters of Evil ends in stalemate as Moonstone’s egotism interferes with victory. Mostly the ish is a knockabout melee btw two superteams—Busiek’s in his element, & Bagley does fine too—but the issue’s heart is a post-mortem debate about needing new leadership…
last issue: Thunderbolts #19
next issue: Thunderbolts #21
also indexed for nov. ’98
Avengers #10
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
October 1998
**
As the cover announces, #19 intros the winner of Wizard Mag’s “create-a-villain” contest. Maybe that’s why the ish feels like padding, as the T-bolts emancipate a mountain town from generic super-troopers. Of course, KB & MB provide solid craftsmanship, but they don’t move the plot forward from #18.
last issue: Thunderbolts #18
next issue: Thunderbolts #20
also indexed for Oct. ’98
Avengers #9
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
September 1998
***
With morale low, the T-bolts are bested by the poseur Masters of Evil, who then offer them a job (incl a pension!). The twists and moral jeopardies keep surprising me—it’s a clever iteration of Stan Lee’s trope of heroes accused. Also nice: Bagley has shed some of his more outmoded ’90s tics.
last issue: Thunderbolts #17
next issue: Thunderbolts #19
also indexed for Sept. ’98
Avengers #8
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
August 1998
****
A powerful Avengers foe is defeated when Moonstone convinces him to think through his vague plans for world domination. Meanwhile, Baron Z is bested by the “true” Citizen V! Busiek toys w/ & undercuts classic supervillainy, but he obv loves them, both in convention & (as w/ Moonstone) in the breach.
last issue: Thunderbolts #16
next issue: Thunderbolts #18
also indexed for Aug. ’98
Avengers #7
Quicksilver #10
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
July 1998
**
The T-bolts easily defeat a team of D-listers, the Great Lakes Avengers—a lost opportunity to balance the book’s soapy adventure with real comedy. For the first time, the mag actually feels rote, even as it gets usurped by Busiek’s Avengers as the core of the Marvel Rebirth, post-Image & -bankruptcy.
last issue: Thunderbolts #15
next issue: Thunderbolts #17
also indexed for Jul. ’98
Avengers #6
Avengers/Squadron Supreme Annual 1998
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
June 1998
***
After a top-notch pair of arcs, a new status quo for this morally ambiguous superteam. The T-bolts hide out west, on the run from SHIELD while they try to clear their reps. Busiek focuses again on Moonstone (AKA Meteorite), whose ego-driven schemes provide the strongest engine for conflict & fun.
last issue: Thunderbolts #14
next issue: Thunderbolts #16
also indexed for Jun. ’98
Avengers #5
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
May 1998
****
Some time-kinked plotting links an alien planet (of barbarian bug-men!) to a future invasion by Kang the Conqueror & to the proportionate powers of Hank Pym & other growing men. The upshot is, to return her team to Earth, Moonstone commits regicide! Slippery moral qualms point the mag forward.
last issue: Thunderbolts #13
next issue: Thunderbolts #15
also indexed for May ’98
Avengers #4
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
April 1998
****
Bagley finally wins me over (for the moment, at least) w/ his strong environments—from NYC to a space station to, here, an alien world out of a pulp novel. The T-bolts get zapped to a planet ruled by barbarian bug-people! The alt dimension’s linked to Atlas’ growth powers via long-term continuity.
last issue: Thunderbolts #12
next issue: Thunderbolts #14
also indexed for Apr. ’98
Avengers #3
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
March 1998
****
This mag executes its climax perfectly, albeit predictably. Via mind-ray & modem, Zemo rules the world from his sentient orbital satellite (AKA T-bolt Techno). But his onetime team helps Iron Man stage a coup (the old Marvel heroes v. heroes), then surrenders to face trial! MB’s late-’90s art still isn’t my taste, but it complements KB’s massive cast & retro superheroism perfectly.
last issue: Thunderbolts #11
next issue: Thunderbolts #13
also indexed for Mar. ’98
Avengers #2
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
February 1998
***
The team finally fractures as their leader takes over the world via mind-rays from an orbital satellite—classic comic-book stuff, but none of it hinges on their false IDs. Still, Busiek shows a clear aptitude for the megalomaniac character, & Bagley is fashionable yet bright & energetic in tone.
last issue: Thunderbolts #10
next issue: Thunderbolts #12
also indexed for Feb. ’98
Avengers #1
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
January 1998
****
The team’s true IDs are exposed, earlier than readers or characters expected—’cept for Baron Z, who outs them as an abusive ploy. How evil! The plot devo coincides w/ the true Avs’ return (from a mid-’90s Image-y continuity reboot). It signals a true climax to a long plot, rare in comics.
last issue: Thunderbolts #9
next issue: Thunderbolts #11
Roger Stern with Kurt Busiek // Ron Frenz with Mark Bagley
December 1997
*****
On fill-in duty, Stern & Frenz execute a pitch-perfect pastiche of the Lee/Heck Avengers—down to 2×3 grid—showing how that team’s second wave were heroic despite public mistrust. It’s framed (by Black Widow) as a tale of redemption, & draws a canny comparison btw the T-bolts & the underdog Avs.
last issue: Thunderbolts #8
next issue: Thunderbolts #10
Kurt Busiek & Roger Stern // Mark Bagley
November 1997
****
The first T-bolts story to last more than one ish ends w/ the mag’s best since #1. The team fends off a set of monsters menacing NYC, winning adulation & SHIELD access. But what’s esp great is how it delves into the psyche of Songbird, codependent & unconfident till now, when she must act alone.
last issue: Thunderbolts #7
next issue: Thunderbolts #9
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
September 1997
***
Embracing their role as Avengers surrogates, the T-bolts perform the archetypal super-feat of rescuing a crashing plane (Bag’s best sequence so far). Readers wondering how long the mag’s conceit can sustain itself will enjoy Baron Z’s petulant refusal to protect NYC until he gets SHIELD clearance.
last issue: Thunderbolts #5
next issue: Thunderbolts #7
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
August 1997
***
An iteration of the trope—more FF than Avengers—where the team, minding their own business in NYC, gets attacked by supervillains. As conventional as this mag is, its style’s of a piece: a sunny throwback, w/ just enough reminders of the heroes’ latent villainy to point superteam mags forward.
continued from Thunderbolts Annual ’97
last issue: Thunderbolts #4
next issue: Thunderbolts #6
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley, Gene Colan, Tom Grummett, Chris Marrinan, Bob McLeod, George Pérez, Ron Randall, & Darick Robertson
July 1997
**
Cashing in on a hit, Marvel requests an annual after 5 issues! Busiek recounts the Baron’s recruitment drive, a backstage approach (a la Astro City) to the usual teambuilding formula. Not as strong as the similar #-1 issue—the circumstances add little texture. The exception’s Songbird, whose super-Bonnie & Clyde scenario has a small-time scope & genuine emo. DD fans will enjoy Colan’s pages.
continued from Thunderbolts #4
continued in Thunderbolts #5
next issue: Captain America/Citizen V Annual ’98
also indexed for Jul. ’97
Thunderbolts #-1
Thunderbolts #4
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
July 1997
***
Moonstone, a shrink & the most duplicitous of the rogues, schemes by encouraging her captain to adopt a team mascot (an orphan mutated by a Kirby mad scientist). The superteam dynamic recalls Squadron Supreme, channeling a fondness for genre tropes into a playful but earnest deconstruction.
continued in Thunderbolts Annual ’97
last issue: Thunderbolts #-1
next issue: Thunderbolts #5
also indexed for Jul. ’97
Thunderbolts #5
Thunderbolts Annual ’97
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
June 1997
***
KB pits the title team—the true Masters of Evil—against a pretender to the name. Fortunately, one of KB’s strengths is his skill w/ team dynamics. MB’s springy dynamism & doll-like bodies synthesizes manga’s mannered physiques w/ Image’s baroque brawn, a mid-’90s style done better by Joes Q & M.
continued from Spider-Man Team-Up #7
last issue: Thunderbolts #2
next issue: Thunderbolts #-1
also indexed for Jun. ’97
Spider-Man Team-Up #7
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
May 1997
****
Baron Zemo’s clever plan to insinuate his two-faced team into the Avengers’ vacant slot is already working; his deputy wonders if they’ll prefer honest celebrity to criminal success. Busiek fills out the personalities a bit (& starts adding soap), which’ll help sustain this premise in the medium term.
last issue: Thunderbolts #1
next issue: Thunderbolts #3
Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
April 1997
*****
Lives up to its rep as a key issue of ’90s superheroics. W/ the “daylight” heroes dead & NYC in ruins after an inane X-Men/Avengers crossover, a new team of unknown superheroes become media darlings for their earnest, old-school approach to do-goodery. But their secret is, they’re really neferious villains! The brill twist on the superteam trope clarifies yet ironizes the era’s antihero morality.
next issue: Thunderbolts #2
Fabian Nicieza // Mark Bagley
November 2000
***
Most of #44 exposits on the Avengers crossover (Count Nefaria has a classically baroque supervillain plan), while moving its various hammy subplots forward incrimentally. Fortunately, Bagley’s art looks better than ever due to new inker Adams, who emphasizes the ’90s manga-like physiques.
continued from Avengers #33
continued in Avengers #34
last issue: Thunderbolts #43
next issue: Thunderbolts #45
also indexed for Nov. ’00
Avengers #34
Maximum Security #1 of 3
Fabian Nicieza // Mark Bagley
October 2000
***
The Black Widow drags the T-bolts into a crossover involving organized crime, Atlas, & the Avengers. It’s rather confusing, while the mag’s secrets—Fixer-as-Ogre, Scourge a’lurking, & general self-doubt—muddle the issue even more. But new inker Greg Adams augments Bagley’s cartoon impulses nicely.
continued from Avengers #32
continued in Avengers #33
last issue: Thunderbolts #42
next issue: Thunderbolts #44
also indexed for Oct. ’00
Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet #1 of 1
Avengers #33
Fabian Nicieza // Mark Bagley
September 2000
**
Nicieza inches each plot forward a notch while pitching Atlas into an Avengers crossover. But his focus remains the soaping up of his cast: a rejected second chance for a butch-dyke supervillain; an internal monologue, midbrawl, for Dallas; & teasing secret IDs for Crimson Cowl & the Scourge.
continued in Avengers #32
last issue: Thunderbolts #41
next issue: Thunderbolts #43
also indexed for Sept. ’00
Avengers #32
Brian Michael Bendis // Mark Bagley
November 2004
***
Osborne gets arrested, yet the big moment feels anticlimactic. Maybe it’s the obvious violation of due process when Luke Cage attacks him in broad daylight? Maybe it’s how a super-tussle violates the book’s fragile realism? Maybe it’s that Jess’ scene, a pregnancy anxiety, rings a rare hollow note?
last issue: The Pulse #4
next issue: The Pulse #6
also indexed for Nov. ’04
Astonishing X-Men #5
Brian Michael Bendis // Mark Bagley
September 2004
****
Ben Urich, the shabby newsman from Miller’s Daredevil (& this writer’s too), pins a murder on the Green Goblin & confirms the villain’s secret ID—& incidentally, Spider-Man’s too. It’s incredibly solid work, although Bagley’s wide-eyed ‘toonish style doesn’t match the gritty, realistic tone.
last issue: The Pulse #3
next issue: The Pulse #5
also indexed for Sept. ’04
Astonishing X-Men #3
Thanos #12
Brian Michael Bendis // Mark Bagley
July 2004
***
Despite an intimate scene w/ a hormonal Jess Jones, this mag is less Alias redux than a Daily Bugle bi-monthly. Like Astro City, it’s a look at civilian life in a superhero city. Basing it around a newspaper gives Bendis access to every level of urban life, w/ arc #1 focused on a reporter’s murder.
last issue: The Pulse #2
next issue: The Pulse #4
also indexed for Jul. ’04
Astonishing X-Men #1
Daredevil #60
Fantastic Four #513
Fantastic Four #514
Secret War #2 of 5
Thanos #10
Brian Michael Bendis // Mark Bagley
May 2004
**
Last issue’s corpse gets a backstory—and it’s humdrum. A Bugle reporter, nosing into a missing-persons case, gets killed by the Green Goblin. The complete lack of a hook to the character is atypical for Bendis. The only clever note is that she’s a Lois Lane manque: Terri Kidder (= Hatcher & Margot).
last issue: The Pulse #1
next issue: The Pulse #3
also indexed for May ’04
New X-Men #154
Thanos #7
Thanos #8
Brian Michael Bendis // Mark Bagley
April 2004
****
A reboot of the superlative ’00s comic Alias, w/ Bagley’s pencils signaling a lighter tone. It’s low on action (same as Alias) but the char work & real-world touches (like the death of print) make it up. Jonah Jameson offers protag Jessica Jones, pregnant ex-superheroine, a gig at the Daily Bugle.
continued from Alias #28
next issue: The Pulse #2
also indexed for Apr. ’04
New X-Men #153
Secret War #1 of 5
Brian Michael Bendis // Michael Gaydos, Mark Bagley & Rick Mays
November 2003
****
By filling his heroine’s traumatic past in, Bendis writes an emo climax that measures up to the rest of the book. He’s also got a new angle on the standard Marvel hero v. heroes fight that has substance & weight. And the use of secondary artists is smart. Next issue: Jess faces her archenemy.
last issue: Alias #25
next issue: Alias #27
also indexed for Nov. ’03
JLA/Avengers #3 of 4
New X-Men #146
New X-Men #147
Brian Michael Bendis // Michael Gaydos & Mark Bagley
October 2003
*****
Covered by the MAX imprint, Alias pushes the comics taboo of heroine humiliation. Jones reveals her secret wound: she was once enslaved by a mind-control sicko. A metaphor for abusive love? Impossible to read it objectively or critically. For an extra jolt, flashbacks are in Bagley’s trad style.
last issue: Alias #24
next issue: Alias #26
also indexed in Oct. ’03
Avengers/JLA #2 of 4
New X-Men #145
Brian Michael Bendis // Michael Gaydos & Mark Bagley
June 2003
****
Bendis’ trafficking arc (kinda partners to his Owl arc in DD) wraps up w/ a burst of action—Speedball bubbles!—& Kid Spider-Woman’s rescue. It also teases at Jones’ traumatic history by alluding to a similar victimization & a dream-fight w/ the Defenders. Gaydos gets trad w/ a 3×3 grid on 1 page!
[last issue: Alias #20]
[next issue: Alias #22]
Brian Michael Bendis // Michael Gaydos, David Mack & Mark Bagley
September 2002
*****
A wealth of diverse art adds depth, as Bagley pencils a flashback to Jess Jones’ uncynical youth & Mack uses cut-up montage to bring the missing teen to life. Contrast Bendis’ take on Claremont’s mutant racism w/ contempo Morrison: soft bigotry & casual ignorance v. urban/glam progressivism.
last issue: Alias #11
next issue: Alias #13
also indexed for Sept. ’02
Alias #11
Avengers #56
New X-Men #129
Index Indigo 