REVIEW

Company: Marvel

Well, it was bound to happen eventually: someone was going to take one of those smart-assed, “I know everything there is to know” teenagers with 437 pierced body-parts and a seriously inflated sense of themselves, and they were going to create a comic book character out of him. (But even I will admit, the fact that they actually based his powers around the concept of “cutting” is inspired, and something I just never saw coming.) But, seriously — Robby Baldwin? Speedball? That’s our emo poster-boy? Wow.

And here’s the most surprising part: I actually like the book.

If you have a passing familiarity with the Civil War, you know most of the background already: the New Warriors were involved in the Stamford tragedy; Baldwin was one of the few to survive; in a fit of depression/guilt/serious mental imbalance, has re-christened himself “Penance”; and now wears a full-body outfit lined with spikes that cause enough pain every time he moves to activate his powers. (The powers themselves aren’t terribly well-defined, but then, they never have been, dating back to his introduction to the New Warriors in the early 90’s and even before.) He’s joined the Thunderbolts, a group of ex-super-villains currently doing the government’s bidding (and considered completely expendable by said government, of course). And if you don’t think it’s a good idea to put a mentally unstable super-powered teenager with raging paranoid delusions around guys like Venom and Radioactive Man — well, then you obviously aren’t Tony Stark (or, for that matter, a Marvel editor).

Apparently, he’s thought better of the situation too, since he’s gone AWOL. (Well technically, he’s a “free citizen”, though he’s on 24 hour suveillence, and wears an ankle bracelet, and lives in the Thunderbolts compound. But other than that – yup, free as a bird!) We find out he’s headed for the new “Witness Protection” provided home of Mendel Stromm, aka The Robot Master (who is such a minor character, I have no recollection of him whatsoever). Why this guy? Hey, buy the book and find out – I don’t do spoilers. (It’s in my contract.)

The book so far through these first two issues has been somewhat even-keeled so far, with just enough mysteries to keep me anxious for the next book. Paul Jenkins, the writer, is having a lot of fun dealing with the post-Civil War situation, especially in interactions between Tony Stark and Norman Osborn, the Thunderbolts Director. The dialogue is crisp and in-character (Baldwin himself says very little in these first two outside of spouting off a series of random numbers (one of the mysteries), but what he does say is effective), and does an excellent job balancing between exposition and story progression. I don’t want to use “they’re not insulting my intelligence” as a back-handed compliment, but the creative team is handling a very complex and sensitive situation in a medium that isn’t always known for doing so in an adult manner. Kudos to them.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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