Doomed to Repeat Them?

It was announced last Friday after a few weeks of speculation that Thunderbolts will be receiving a major makeover early next year courtesy of Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato. Essentially spinning off of the team of Thunderbolts seen on the last page of Civil War #4, the new Thunderbolts will ditch the continuity that has kept current T-Bolts fans pleased as punch in favor of what is being described as a Suicide Squad rip-off. My question to Marvel: don’t you remember what happened last time?

A few years ago, due to a gradual drop in sales that’s almost inevitable for all comics these days, Thunderbolts was drastically overhauled for the first time. Gone were the Thunderbolts fans had read for 75 issues (who had only recently reunited under the leadership of Baron Zemo) in favor of what was always referred to as a superhero version of Fight Club. The series kept the existing numbering and title, despite never mentioning the word “Thunderbolts” in the actual story. Six issues later, the relaunch was deemed a bonafide flop and the series was promptly cancelled.

Now Marvel seems poised to make the same mistake they made back then by replacing what Thunderbolts fan love about the series with what they think Thunderbolts fans love about the series.

To Marvel, it seems, Thunderbolts is first and foremost a book about supervillains. I distinctly remember those words being used the first time the series was revamped, and it certainly seems to be the case this time around. How could a team that’s led by the Green Goblin and includes Bullseye and Venom be seen as anything other than a team of supervillains? Those characters don’t have a single heroic bone in their body.

But to us fans, Thunderbolts had always been a book about superheroes. Yes, most of them are reformed villains. Yes, many of the characters don’t have the noblest of intentions for performing heroic deeds. But the underlying thread of the book has always been a band of hard-luck heroes trying desperately to do good things despite their own inexperience, insecurities and villainous pasts. Thunderbolts is a book about redemption, and Marvel just doesn’t seem to get that.

Although t seems Marvel has learned a thing or two this time around. Warren Ellis’ name power alone will give the title a boost right off the bat, something missing from the original relaunch. Ellis hasn’t ditched all the characters we Thunderbolts fans know and love, retaining Songbird, Swordsman and Radioactive Man from the current line-up as well as bringing back Moonstone (who’s been comatose throughout the current T-Bolts run) from the original team. Perhaps most importantly, Marvel isn’t giving up on the story Fabian Nicienza has been crafting since Thunderbolts started up again in the wake of Avengers: Disassembled, instead moving the story over to a mini-series starring Baron Zemo.

Of course, that begs the question: if Marvel has enough faith in Thunderbolts to continue the story, why relaunch the title at all? While it sells enough to sustain itself, Thunderbolts is by no means enough of a brand name to sell comics on name recognition alone (unlike X-Men or Avengers). There’s no reason to assume Warren Ellis taking over Thunderbolts would sell any better than Warren Ellis launching a brand new title would. In fact, considering Thunderbolts is retaining it’s numbering (#110 will be Ellis’ first issue), a new title with a new #1 would probably sell better than a relaunch of Thunderbolts would.

What would be the downside of Warren Ellis launching his concept under a new title and Fabian Nicienza continuing on Thunderbolts as is? Sales for Ellis’ title would be just as high, and then there would be the added sales that Thunderbolts would continue to bring in. Perhaps more importantly, Marvel wouldn’t run the risk of alienating their readers yet again by pulling the rug out from beneath them on a title they’ve become emotionally invested in.

Looks like that whole “putting the story before the sales” thing that the Civil War delay was supposedly about didn’t last very long after all.