Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: June 2011
Cover Price: $2.99
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Derec Aucoin
This tale takes during Nicieza’s original run on the Thunderbolts, after Scourge’s identity was revealed to be Jack Monroe (aka Nomad). Utilizing his image inducer, Jack hits the road to learn about the past of some Thunderbolt members from their friends, families, neighbors, etc. As he progresses from town to town, he uncovers some interesting insight into the motivation and history of Songbird, Moonstone, Atlas and Mach-IV. Afterwards, he meets up with Rock Python (another villain-gone-straight) and he encourages him to stay on the straight and narrow path.
As a Thunderbolts fan, it was fun for me to see this “lost tale”. At first, it took me a while to get into the groove of things (after all, I hadn’t read this run in nearly 10 years!) but, once I did it was great to experience some unseen insight into these characters I had once followed. It also set up a new angle for Jack Monroe as a nomad wandering from town to town, helping villains redeem themselves. Unfortunately, this direction was never followed up on but, it’s a cool look into what might have been.
On Ebay: Thunderbolts | Fabian Nicieza | Derec Aucoin
On AtomicAvenue: Thunderbolts