'Thunderbolts: Doomstrike' Issue One Review: The nuclear accident

I know that recently Marvel released a film called Thunderbolts, though I have no idea what that exactly is or what it entails. It was the first I had heard of them to be honest. I'm not all that engaged in the film and television realm of superhero stuff, but I do read comics quite frequently. And coincidentally a Thunderbolts comic had just released with its first issue. Though the main reason I chose to start reading it was not out of curiosity over the Thunderbolts alongside the film release, but more that it had some greater world-building inside it alongside the recent One World Under Doom that I have been reading and rather enjoying. I don't like crossover stuff all that much, I don't really like when comics have a ton of tie-ins that require reading numerous different stories at once. Though I did want to see what it had to offer regarding One World Under Doom's main narrative. Especially since I have been reading Doom's Division showing how a group of heroes end up fighting on the side of Doom.

This ended up being the opposite of that. It's not about a group trying to find their place in the newly established world under Doom. But more a group of people also trying to defy his rule. A few references to previous Thunderbolts stories in the past that I've not read and most likely won't read. But for the most part this is grounded within the current events of One World Under Doom, showing how yet another group is trying to find their way to defeat him and bring back their idea of the status quo, where supervillains aren't making and enforcing the rules of the world. I liked that there wasn't much agenda on their end within this first issue, it wasn't trying to say anything in particular should be in control, but was more about the already present conflict between the two forces. And that outcome is as always Doom being one step ahead of everyone, bending their actions into his personal gain. And we see this mostly in the end of the issue as their plan falls completely flat.

For much of this issue, it's about setting the state. Showing how Doom was initially trying to operate on a more diplomatic level: convince the opposition to simply join him and they too shall witness additional power. To serve under Doom as a secret police that'll perform almost as they do now, and with this comes the deception that this offer is initially welcomed. It isn't. The Thunderbolts attempt to take over a nuclear facility that belongs to Doom, only to realise it has its missiles pointed at Earth. With one firing off into the United States, causing massive amounts of destruction. And of course this frames Doom in a good way, having been able to place the entirety of the blame on terrorism. As is the case within much of these stories, Doom is always ahead, always has a backup plan up his sleeve to convince the population that he's the saviour and that anything done in attempt to stop him ends up causing harm to others.

I quite liked this story, the art was pretty cool and looked quite traditional in its inking. I didn't expect anything of it going into it, but I think I'll still continue reading this to see where it goes. So far I don't mind the light crossover stuff, though I'm curious as to how long it'll stick around for before starting a different arc.