I have to begin by saying that this comic was so much better than I originally thought it would be. Without Ellis and Deodato, I had a feeling this one would fall somewhere along with the other one-shot Thunderbolts: Desperate Measures which was, in my opinion, one of the worst comics I’d ever read. Fortunately, Paul Jenkins was nowhere near this one which made for a much better read than expected. Break it down!

Christos Gage, who I had never read anything by before this comic, surprised me with his writing. There were a couple minor situations that I felt were really awkward and hardly needed to be included such as Venom hitting on a news reporter, Venom mentioning that the team usually tracks down unregistered superheroes and Venom explaining what his symbiote is all about but other than that, the comic flowed rather nicely. The reason I feel like those things didn’t deserve mention was simply because most people who haven’t been following Thunderbolts aren’t going to be picking up International Incident and, if you’ve been following T-bolts, you know most of the details already. As for the reporter thing, It just didn’t seem like something Venom would do. Unlike the Ellis/Deodato comic, the team actually seemed to be getting along for the most part. I’m really not sure if this is a good change or a bad change but a change nonetheless. Overall, Gage keeps with the trend of the main series fairly successfully and manages to tell a decent story along the way.

Ben Oliver, who’s done some work on Marvel’s Ultimate X-Men title, helps Gage’s story move along at a solid pace and keeps the action coming with his great work on pens. Oliver’s work is a nice change from Deodato’s dark, violent work that most of the regular readers are used to. Not to say that Deodato’s artwork isn’t good, but I suppose sometimes you need to have one issue where someone isn’t being ripped to shreds or having their arm bitten off…I guess. Oliver brings a much friendlier look to the team that’s a welcome change from the usual dark setting. I’ll tell you right now though, I’m looking forward to seeing Deodato back for Thunderbolts #119 later this month.

While this issue was nowhere near the quality of the Warren Ellis/Mike Deodato Thunderbolts that appear every month, it was a pretty solid read. If you’re a fan of Thunderbolts and are open to a different take on the team, International Incident probably won’t disappoint. If you’re a T-bolts fanatic, you might want to skip this one. It’ll probably be a little bit too watered down compared to what you’re used to.

Thunderbolts: International Incident

7.4/10 (How’d you get that?)

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