Thunderbolts #3 is written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing with Geraldo Borges as penciler and Terry Dodson on cover art.
First world problems do exist in the world of comic books. Marvel’s Thunderbolts #3 dropped on February 14 and while it’s an excellent issue, there is a first world problem with it — it’s an extremely quick read. Now, there’s a whole month to wait to find out the next adventure of Bucky Barnes’ team of antiheroes in their quest to stop the influences and evil of The Red Skull and his minions.
This is the problem when you put together such a fun and engrossing action-adventure series.
Thunderbolts #3 takes readers to Hong Kong where Shang Chi — who has joined the Thunderbolts (sadly, no backstory on this one) — is confronting/attempting to recruit John Walker aka U.S. Agent in a bar while Bucky attempts to recruit Walker’s partner Todd Ziller aka The American Kaiju.
Things do not go The Thunderbolts way, naturally. Shang Chi’s not exactly the gregarious and friendly character Simu Liu portrays on screen, so he and Walker immediately butt heads and throw fists. At the same time (and it’s not really a spoiler since it’s on the cover of the issue) things go sideways with Ziller and he goes all kaiju and causes havoc on the city of Hong Kong.
Outside of the aforementioned quickness of the read, one of the gripes with this issue is we don’t really see how Shang Chi has come to join Thunderbolts. It’s again, a minor issue, but this version feels so different from the cinematic version of The Master of Kung Fu, that a smidge of backstory would’ve worked. Otherwise, the change in Shang Chi’s attitude works perfectly with the antihero vibe of this incarnation of Thunderbolts.
One concern heading into this issue was in fact the American Kaiju character. His name is Todd Ziller and when he turns into a kaiju he has an American flag tattoo on his throat and chest. In theory, this is quite possibly the corniest thing ever. However, the way Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing lean into Ziller’s kaiju as something that literally scares him to death as its an uncontrollable beast living in him makes for such an incredibly sympathetic character. Ziller begging for Walker to help him, even while he’s destroying Hong Kong, is very moving and is way more interesting than another misunderstood rage beast smashing stuff.
Thunderbolts #3 is a great, fun, quick read filled that’ll scratch the need for more kaiju content in between Godzilla Minus One and Godzilla x Kong. It also sets the team (which should be complete now) for a full-fledged mission into the heart of one of Marvel’s most iconic villains’ home turf while searching out another iconic villain. The upside for this series is huge, so get on board!
