Marvel Comics have announced a new, ongoing “Thunderbolts” series starting in December, written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing with art by Geraldo Borges (“Storm,” “No/One”). Picking up from the writers’ “Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty” run, the comic will see Bucky Barnes — now armed with the secrets of the Outer Circle — team up with Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to reform the Thunderbolts. Their new targets: the establishment itself, particularly high-profile villains like the Red Skull, Kingpin, and Doctor Doom himself. The line-up will consist of Black Widow, Destroyer (Sharon Carter), White Widow, Red Guardian, U.S. Agent, and Shang-Chi.
Kelly and Lanzing said they were excited to continue Bucky’s trajectory, “while also starting anew with a dangerous and unpredictable cast from across the Marvel Universe. The call has gone out to all those who call the shadows their home; every spy, assassin, and renegade has a part to play in Bucky Barnes’s all-encompassing and uncompromising hit on the singular, monstrous living symbol of fascism: the Red Skull. Alongside our old friend Geraldo Borges, we’re taking this opportunity to tell a very different kind of team book. This is a whole new era for the Thunderbolts and it starts with a four-part espionage epic, an ever-shifting cast and a single overarching goal: to tear down a century of Nazi evil with justice like lightning.”
The initial line-up is reminiscent of the upcoming Thunderbolts movie, due out December 20, 2024, which will also star Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), and John Walker (Wyatt Russell), as well as Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, and Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster. However, the comic affords the writers the opportunity to reunite Bucky and Yelena with Natasha Romanoff, who was Barnes’s longtime lover in the 616 universe. Bucky previously led the Thunderbolts during Jim Zub’s 2016 run, while Yelena and Walker have also been part of the group. Tangentially, the Contessa’s presence suggests a redemption waiting in the wings for the character, who was revealed to have been a HYDRA mole since her debut during Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli’s 2009-2011 series “Secret Warriors.”
The new “Thunderbolts” #1 will be released in December, with a main cover that will be revealed at next week’s San Diego Comic-Con, and a promo variant cover by Mahmud Asrar (pictured). Kelly, Lanzing and Carmen Carnero’s “Captain America” run will conclude in the meantime with “Captain America Finale” next month, while Yelena will star in a four-part “White Widow” series by Sarah Gailey and Alessandro Miracolo, starting November 1.
