This week: news and capsule reviews, including Amazing Spider-Man #574, Angel: After the Fall #13, Daredevil #112, Thunderbolts #125 and X-Factor #36.

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Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

In the late 90s, the quality black hole that had affected almost every comic released in the past decade was starting to lose its grip, not least due to the efforts of writers like Kurt Busiek, who was producing some top quality superheroics on both Avengers and Thunderbolts. In 1998, all of the Marvel Annuals took a “team-up” approach, and Busiek’s contribution (along with co-writers Karl and Barbera Kesel) was the “Captain America/Citizen V” team-up, which, with series regular Mark Bagley on art, was a Thunderbolts annual in all but name.

Bagley’s artwork was as strong then as it is now, delivering consistent, expressive superhero work that places him alongside the likes of John Romita Jr. In this issue, removed from the traditional urban superhero setting, Bagley gets the chance to render jungles and castles in a story that’s positively swashbuckling, as Citizen V and Captain America team up to fight Baron Zemo and Techno.

There are a few continuity-based oddities in the issue. At this point in history, for example, Captain America was using his bizarre photon-shield, The Fixer is in his “Techno” incarnation, and the current incarnation of Citizen V was pretending to be a man, which is a fairly major plot-point that gets addressed in this annual. Ten years later, it seems odd to see such things being treated as the status quo, but it’s also a constant reminder that any change, no matter how permanent it might seem, is usually just a story with an ending somewhere.

Indeed, even the traditional superheroic actions of Captain America seem far removed from the recent political intrigue of the character, both before and after his death. Busiek’s handle on him is actually remarkably effective, though, as he organises Zemo’s slaves against him and helps Citizen V assume her mantle, inspiring others through his actions. This issue (and ’98’s “Captain America / Iron Man” annual, also by Busiek) both suggest that Busiek’s Captain America might just be one of those great runs that never happened - understandably, given how much control Busiek already had over the Avengers franchise at the time, writing both Avengers, Iron Man and Thunderbolts (which had close ties to the property) but none of that makes it any less disappointing that a Busiek run on Cap never happened.

Taken in isolation, it’s a nice little story that treads some unfamiliar ground with some largely under-used characters who’ve fallen out of favour in recent years, though the issue really shines if taken as the chapter of Thunderbolts, slotting somewhere between #17 and #21. With Busiek’s writing and Bagley’s art, it was never going to be a mediocre turn, though, and it’s certainly worth picking up if you see it cheap.

There are some interesting parallels between the first two books we’ve looked at this week, with Thunderbolts also acquiring a new writer as it dives into a crossover. Unlike Fabian Nicieza, Christos N Gage enjoys the advantage of having a clearly apportioned segment of an overall story to tell, but chooses to save this element of the plot for the second half of this issue, opening instead with his characters going about their day-to-day business. There’s a brazen honesty to Gage’s approach, as he obviously structures the issue in three acts, each ticking off one of his objectives. We open with an introduction to the team, as Osborn demands a psychological evaluation of each of his charges. A short interlude of ongoing character development follows, before an expanded version of a scene from Secret Invasion issue one, with the Captain Marvel doppelganger attacking the team’s HQ. With the writer’s cards shown so openly in terms of plot, it’s up to his dialogue to maintain the reader’s interest. The result is largely a success, due in part to his having one of the Marvel universe’s most refreshing anti-heroes to play with. Norman Osborn was a central part of Warren Ellis’s previous run on the book, and Gage continues that focus, giving the Thunderbolts’ director some sparkling lines. Moonstone is used rather obviously as a straight woman for Osborn’s wit, but doing so allows the writer to provide a great deal of exposition for those less familiar with the ongoing character arcs begun by Ellis.

Fernando Blanco initially provides some extremely high quality art, although this deteriorates somewhat as the issue progresses. The absence of shading on later pages suggests that he was rushed by deadlines, although the results are never less than adequate. Blanco sensibly uses the energy manipulation shown in the issue’s second fight as a reason to tone down the detail in his work, compensating with the dynamism of his portrayals.

Marvel have obviously taken to heart the complaints about discrepancies between the Civil War core book and the ongoing series it crossed over with, and much dialogue delivered during the final act of the issue is taken directly from Brian Bendis’s work. It’s possible to feel faintly cheated by paying money to see another artist drawing previously shown panels, but the feeling is mitigated by the months that have passed since we first witnessed these events, and Osborn’s final comment still manages to steal the show, despite its familiarity. What really sells the issue is the pacing, with Gage impeccably judging when to move the story to a new setting or introduce a new plotline. Despite being spread across several locations, there’s almost a “day in the life” feel to the issue, as Osborn deals with the day-to-day annoyances of leading a collections of militarised super powered psychopaths. In a way, this issue sells the series more effectively than a leap into uncharted waters- if the writer can traipse through another’s story in such an entertaining fashion, it’s understandable to be curious as to what will happen when he moves into uncharted territory.

A small week because Seb’s still on holiday, but there’s still plenty inside, including Russian Sitcoms, Thunderbolts, Neil Gaimen on Batman, the Watchmen trailer AND a Paul Cornell interview!

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Ellis’ run on Thunderbolts has had a relatively slow, menacing burn throughout its pages, even when all hell was breaking loose in Thunderbolts Mountain. With his final issue, he really blows the lid off of all of his building subplots, making the 12-issue run a nicely complete piece of writing, with every character tension finally bubbling to the surface, with particular fanboy glee at seeing the Doc Samson Vs Moonstone “battle of the psychiatrists.”

Even so, the book’s standout moment has to be seeing Osborn back in the Goblin costume and running riot. It was utterly brilliant comics, and it’s hard to imagine the character now without thinking of Ellis’ pill-popping, brilliantly intelligent take as being the definitive one. That said, the idea of this version of Osborn fighting Spider-Man is utterly laughable, if only because Osborn would probably have him torn in half before he had a chance to say “my spidey-sense is tingling!” Ellis is clearly having fun writing Osborn’s dialogue, with constant poor-taste references to his murdering of Gwen Stacy, and as a result he’s clearly the breakout character for the title.

That’s not to say that Ellis doesn’t get the rest of the cast - after all, Bullseye’s unexpected return was a great twist, and even Penance gets his moment. There’s not been a neglected member in the cast for the duration of his run.

Putting Songbird “in charge” of the team is a welcome development for all long-time Thunderbolts fans, and suggests that in future, the book will move slightly more in the direction of the standard superheroics that typified its run - not that the bleak, oppressive governmental version hasn’t been fun, but it’ll be nice to see a change of pace if Ellis can’t be the one writing it. Osborn’s ability to sleaze his way out of culpability for his rampage is almost too neat, as he gets away with everything American Psycho-style. Even so, this leaves incoming writer Christos Gage with some good opportunities - after all, is Osborn got away with it once…

It’s been a good run. Even with Ellis at the helm, Thunderbolts was never going to be seen as a top tier Marvel book, but for the last 12 issues, it’s definitely been one of the best reads. The one distracting thing is Deodato’s penchant for drawing the characters as recognisable celebrities. This week: Ed Norton as Penance is added to the “cast”. Can we please stop this?

Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue at random, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

Now this is an odd beast that you don’t see a lot of nowadays - a fill-in issue. For those of you who started reading comics after the year 2000, a fill-in issue is one that is run in a comic when the regular art and writing team are unable to meet their deadlines. Sounds bizarre, I know - couldn’t they just delay the comic for a few months? Haha. That’s just a little satire for you. Still, in this case, regular team of Bagley and Busiek do contribute a framing device, and it’s likely any delay was built-in to allow then to get ahead on the extra-sized Thunderbolts #12, so we won’t be too hard on them.

At this point in time the Thunderbolts were operating under their original gimmick - Villains masquerading as Heroes in the wake of the Onslaught disaster that “killed” most non-mutant heroes - though actually sent them into a bizarre pocket universe of gritted teeth, unusual postures and tiny little lines (good lord, take that Image! I’m on fire today!) In this issue, a suspicious Black Widow - one of the surviving Avengers - confronts MACH-1 (the Beetle) and Songbird (Screaming Mimi) and tells a story (written by Roger Stern and illustrated by Ron Frenz) about the early days of the original “new” Avengers, comprised largely of former villains (Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch) and their difficult path to acceptance as heroes. As an interesting footnote, the Avengers fight Radioactive Man, who later joins the Thunderbolts himself.

The issue ends with the Widow cautioning the other two - she doesn’t have the evidence she needs to take them down - yet. Despite being a fill-in, it’s an important beat in the redemptive arc of the Thunderbolts as they consider the Widow’s words, and it’s just a pity that the Heroes Reborn story/business arrangement with Image was ending as this issue was released, thereby truncating the Thunderbolts’ deception. In fact, the heavy rain depicted throughout the issue is actually a reference to the Heroes Return limited series (which brought the Heroes Reborn lot back into the regular MU) that was incorporated into almost all Marvel Comics that month. Now that’s the kind of detail that makes the Marvel Universe worth loving.

Anyway, in issue 10 the Thunderbolts are revealed to the public as the Masters of Evil after achieving their goal of getting the security levels they needed, in issue 11 they take over the planet (er…really) and in issue 12 they fight the newly returned Avengers/Fantastic Four. As a result, #9 ends up feeling too much like a fill-in, as the events of the issue don’t really have any time to cement in before the jig is up. Had the Image/Heroes Reborn deal not ended so soon, you can be sure it would’ve had more importance.

As it is, Thunderbolts #9 is a nice little issue, though it’s fair to say that the absence of the regular team is felt - Busiek and Bagley were doing stellar work this first year of Thunderbolts, so an issue of what amounts to a piece of Avengers history isn’t the best use of the pagetime - but it’s certainly not a bad one.