Thunderbolts Doomstrike #3: Universal Ideas

Universality in storytelling can be a trap. In trying to speak to everything, there’s a risk of saying nothing at all. At the same time, too much specificity, especially in allegory, can lead to a story borrowing excessively from the real world and losing track of broader meaning. This conflict was a key limiting factor in Thunderbolts Doomstrike’s first two issues. But with Thunderbolts Doomstrike #3, the story has found a better balance. 

Following on the revelation that Doom has access to vibranium, Bucky’s Thunderbolts team up with two of Wakanda’s Midnight Angels (who don’t support the Doom aligned government) and set out to disable Wakanda’s largest vibranium mine. Unfortunately, Doom’s team arrives shortly thereafter. Thunderbolts Doomstrike #3 quickly turns into a massive fight for the right to control the vibranium.

Thunderbolts Doomstrike #3 is the series’ cleanest issue in the sense that it dispenses with buzzwords and an arguably inappropriate historical comparison in favor of a more human story within a larger ideological framework.

The best example of this is with the character Mach Doom, the Infinite Weapons Platform. Abner Jenkins was presumed dead, and indeed in Thunderbolts Doomstrike #3 there is merely a construct beneath the Infinite Weapons Platform’s mask. Doom’s Thunderbolts argue that Doom used his magic to imbue the construct with Abner’s mind and soul. Songbird counters that he lied to get their obedience.

In a similar vein, though not quite as evocative, is a dialogue exchange during a fight between Bucky and Valentina. Bucky doesn’t “believe in the idea of better men…There are just people who fight for truth and people who live in lies.”

Are people siding with Doom because they truly believe in what he says, or because going along with his lies is the easier path? And what does that say about them? Further, for all of Doom’s power, is he truly better than anyone else?

These exchanges make the almost issue-filling fight sequence at the heart of Thunderbolts Doomstrike #3 more compelling than it might otherwise be. The characters involved do have a history, but within this series, only Bucky has been fleshed out in a meaningful way. Fortunately these impassioned arguments about One World Under Doom’s core philosophical ideas very effectively fill in for pure character conflict.

One long fight sequence takes up almost all of Thunderbolts Doomstrike #3. The artistic focus is entirely on the characters. Indeed, not only does Bianchi add virtually no background details during the fight, but the one wide panel that establishes the setting throws almost everything into shadow. This lack of background details, combined with the fact that the team battle turns into several one-on-one fights depicted in isolation, steals some of the fight sequence’s tension and urgency. The individual encounters as depicted feel almost abstract rather than small pieces making up a large conflict within a big space.

Bianchi does bring good detail work to characters, though. Features like cheekbones, clenched jaws, and squinting eyes are frequently achieved with lighter lines. This can be seen in greater detail on Atlas’s larger face. Heavier lines and darker shading turn up more often on characters when they have extreme reactions, as seen multiple times on Songbird during her fight with who she thinks is her husband.

Nitro’s coloring steals the show frequently during the long fight sequence. A lot of that owes to the aforementioned lack of background details. Regular character coloring already stands out against the void behind them (even if that void has some kind of color). But as soon as Nitro makes more vivid choices, the color pops off the page and robs Bianchi’s art of some of its power.

This is a somewhat text-lite issue. Even so, the fight sequence is often depicted in small or otherwise uneven panels. Sabino does a good job keeping the dialogue well organized in such instances as well as tying sound effects to the movements that make them without obscuring art.