Broken Frontier

Parker’s deft characterization makes this one of the best Fear Itself tie-ins to date.

The second part of this Fear Itself tie-in continues as the Thunderbolts do their best to fight off a load of sea men. I kid you not.

Civilians flee from the beach as countless four-legged monsters sprout from the water and make their way toward the city. The T-bolts offer up some impressive visuals as they attempt to stem the flow of ocean mutants, especially Songbird, whose efforts earn a (first ever?) compliment from Ghost. The action eventually spreads into the city and the B-team show up to join the fight, and aside from one confusingly sequenced series of panels involving Troll and Mr. Hyde, watching them unleash their super-powers is a lot of fun.

One attribute that Parker deserves highest praise for is his dialogue. Every character sounds distinct and fresh: Moonstone is brash and aggressive, Centurius is boastful and proud, and Shocker and Boomerang joke around like those two annoying guys sitting at the back of the class in high school. Satana relishing the use of her dark magic is especially entertaining, coming off as a mix between Goldeneye’s manic Xenia Onatopp and the Wicked Witch of the West. Good villains are usually the most interesting parts of a story and this book is chock-full of them; it’s Parker’s ability to bring out each character’s unique voice that makes this book shine.

With so many villains running around, loyalty is as easy to come by as ice cubes in a volcano, so during the city-wide battle with the sea monsters, a side plot that has been brewing for several issues comes to fruition. What occurs is hardly a twist, but Parker has created so many villains for the reader to be sympathetic to that some might feel genuinely disappointed with their actions the same way a family member might feel after sending their mother to rehab, only to catch her with a bottle of wine.

The art team does that rare thing where they make some absolutely horrible images look absolutely beautiful. The page-long shot of the creatures flying over the city in a horrific swarm makes for a stunning shot, not to mention the character that surprisingly gets Godzilla-fied, set on fire, and rampages through the city. The images complement the story perfectly, earning the writer and artists another check in the “awesome” column.