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.

Seems as I went on and on about Thunderbolts in that last entry, now seems like a good time to actually review this week’d Thunderbolts comic.

Thunderbolts is one of those rare, long-running titles that I’ve been with since the very beginning. It’s had its ups and downs, but generally it’s been pretty good. At the moment, for whatever reason, Ellis and Deodato don’t put it out on a monthly schedule, so every few months we get these fill-in specials. Fine by me, because as far as I’m concerned, the more Thunderbolts the better.

This month’s special puts under the lens the remaining two cast members from the original isues - Moonstone, an amoral, self-serving psychiatrist with an eye to wresting control of the Thunderbolts, and Songbird, one of the few genuine villains-turned-hero that remains in the team. The friction between the two characters has been a staple of the series, almost since the start, and it’s good to see a definite turning point in their relationship as Moonstone ultimately finds that her plan to break Melissa has backfired in a fairly big way.

Gage’s writing works well, showing these characters firmly as part of the Ellis-era Thunderbolts despite their ties to the history of the team. The manipulation, scheming and backstabbing that Ellis favours fits these characters well. There’s an amusing reference to the whole Mary Jane Statue matter which plays off the idea of licensing the team for toys and such. It’s hard to follow Ellis, but Gage manages to fit the tone without turning Ellis-Lite. Brian Denham on art seems to have taken his style in a slightly more Deodato-esque direction, but there’s nothing to complain about even if it’s not his best work (though the opening splash page of Brother Nature might well be.)

Even though it’s not crucial to Thunderbolts’ ongoing arc, Breaking Point is a great story and certainly one that any fans of old-school Thunderbolts should consider picking up if they’re not convinced by Ellis’ take.