Dynamite Entertainment 2015
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Eman Casallos
Coloured by Adriano Augusto
Welcome to the story Peter Cannon Thunderbolt! It’s a stormy night off the coast of New York Harbor and on a boat full of smugglers we see Peter in action once again. Eman and Adriano do a magnificent job on the interiors here because the storm and the action and the lighting all combine to make this such a great chapter of the story. Even better than when this crazy behemoth of a man who seems to be superhuman himself enters the fray. Yeah this guy needs to be seen again sometime in the not too distant future because even facing Peter’s new helper the Black Bat he doesn’t go down.
With both Peter and this Black Bat in play puts this in our time period. It’s also a very nice welcome back for Peter since the world thinks him dead and honestly I love Dynamites version of this character and his last run really was amazing and i’m happy to see him back in use again. Hopefully it won’t take long before we see him again in his own limited series. But back to this issue as Peter has to find his way again without letting the world know he’s back. Seedy motels that don’t ask too many questions and questionable taste in attire to blend in as it were.
Despite his best efforts though one of the homeless gentlemen has himself a smart phone and a plan, you don’t panhandle for nothing after all, so picture proof that he’s back is all over the net now. Ah and the news picks up that story as Peter finds himself in his new digs where he just wants to get some sleep. Tabu may be only visible to him but he’s a hell of a character and his witty repartee is music for the ears.
Yeah with the Black Bat knowing he’s in town and the news story it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Spider, Green Lama and Lady Satan pay an unexpected visit. They give him an invitation to the party and when he shows up yeah that’s when things really get wild. For the last couple issues we’ve seen different versions of the characters being recruited by now it’s time they were all gathered in one place at the same time. Oh yeah this what we live for when dealing with the original and updated/legacy characters bearing their names visages.
Big shocker was the last page and who claims to have brought them all together. His speech however is good and the reasoning solid as we’ve seen since the Masquerade Ball has played prominently in each issue thus far. Cullen is gearing up for the big fight with the Red Death and in doing so he’s managed to really give these characters personalities time to shine. I love seeing the new and the original, god forbid we call them old (cough), side by side having to deal with that on top of the looming threat. Cullen’s writing a really nice cross/generational epic story that knows no time boundaries and he’s managed to do with originality, excitement and joie de vivre so that I can’t seem to get enough.