I hadn't really read them much before. I think I bought the Avengers cross-over issues 7-8 years ago.

But I'm generally a fan of villain-centric books. I'll argue the merits of Super-Villain Team-Up for HOURS. And the single issue of "Sinestro: Boy Fiend" from Charlton rates as one of my fave comics ever.

Thunderbolts isn't as good as super-villain team-up. Needs more Henry Kissenger.

But it IS better than Villains United.

Then again, I really, really hated Villains United. Ach. Pooey. Having your newly established characters captured and not able to DO anything for, like, three issues makes for a crappy story, nomadahowya slice it.

And, y'know, I appreciate the satirical elements. And I did quite like Deodato on the Hulk, and he's doin' OK here.

But... still.. I dunno. Smells like another Warren Ellis book that ain't as good as Transmet, and I don't feel that's something I wanna support.

(Weirdly enough, I ended up buying Batman because of your comments, but I haven't read it yet.)

And accurate, as it turned out.

What a pile of suck.

At any rate, Joe is dead on with the Van Vleet art dying on the page -- the big splash reveal of the Joker looking like a mannequin should have worked a lot better, but everyone else looked like a mannequin already. But really, I said it below, and I'll say it again here -- Morrison stretched for a writing style here that would be for prose what exaggerated superhero art is to realistic representation, and demonstrated exactly why superhero art works despite itself while superheroic prose usually doesn't.