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[Punchy]

Whilst I’ve been enjoying the two-timeline structure this series has been using for the last few issues, the adventures of the Thunderbolts and the Dark Avengers have felt a little bit disconnected. Not so anymore, as Parker reveals that the Judge Dreddesque dystopian future the Tbolts are in came about because of something the Dark Avengers get involved with in Sharzhad. This is very clever writing, as in one fell swoop, everything is now connected, and we’re given a reason to still be following the Thunderbolts even after the name change. One aspect I felt this issue did suffer a bit in was the art, as Declan Shalvey is replaced by Gabriel Hernandez Walta in the Dark Avengers segments. Walta is not a bad artist, but his style is a bit too similar to Walker’s which means the contrast between the two eras is not as stark and interesting. But I’m sure I’ll get used to it. I continue to be impressed by how well Jeff Parker is developing his huge cast, and how each character has had a nice little moment, I was particularly interested in what’s going on with Ragnarok here, he was hallucinating, which is worrying, an evil clone of Thor is one thing, but an evil insane clone of Thor is even worse! Also interesting was seeing Skaar’s human form, I’d almost forgotten he had one! Oops.