Although Obama-mania has stricken the comics world over the last month or two, Thunderbolts might just be the one comic with a valid reason for the new Prez to actually appear. After all, the Marvel Universe US President is the same as the real world US President, so given that readers are saying “Would any President – especially Obama – allow Norman Osborn to run the shop?” it makes a fair amount of sense to do a story addressing that. Which is exactly what Diggle does in this story.

The appearance of a “new” Green Goblin was perhaps a little overplayed – it actually turns out to be the Headsman impersonating GG as part of Osborn’s ruse, rather than any new, ongoing identity for the character. It’s contrary to where the cliffhanger was leading, and while that’s a perfectly fine dramatic device, it’s perhaps a little mis-judged to tease a story so much more immediately engaging than the one you end up telling. Even so, Headsman is a character with plenty of history with the Goblin, so continuity buffs will find an extra level in the relationship between him and Osborn, at least.

The indication that Diggle has plans for Songbird is an encouraging one – after the events of the previous few issues, it appeared that the character was written out entirely, and with her the last direct connection to the original Thunderbolts run, but clearly there’s more planned there.

So far, Diggle has presented readers with a pair of 2-part stories, both of which are primarily motivated by a desire to assemble the new team and perform a bit of continuity house-clearing. The flavour of the book is already starting to develop, but it still feels as though we’ve yet to see Diggle really stretch his limbs with the series.