Avengers Vs. Thunderbolts #5

For months, readers have been anticipating an all-out brawl between the Avengers and Thunderbolts, and the creative team definitely delivers in this week's issue of AVENGERS VS. THUNDERBOLTS: "Truth and Consequences" by Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, and Tom Grummett. Severe physical and psychological damage ensues as both the Avengers and Thunderbolts try to save the world from a power-mad Moonstone.

Yet, beyond this high-energy battle is a tragic exploration of the Thunderbolts' deepest psychological insecurities. Really, these would-be-heroes are just losers, trying so hard to finally become winners. And this raw hope, mixed with frustration and desperation, is what makes the Thunderbolts such an intriguing, sympathetic team. Thus, in this issue readers are taken on an emotional whirlwind where the desire to see the Thunderbolts physically defeated by the Avengers is tempered with the desire to see the Thunderbolts finally prove that they are, really, just as heroic as the Avengers.

The characters' inner chaos is brilliantly captured by Grummett, particularly as he draws Moonstone in a constantly changing costume; she can't decide what moral incarnation she wants to take until at the very end she loses her choice and becomes vulnerably naked. Grummet's fight scenes are also impressive with highly imaginative portrayal of powers-for example, when Songbird transforms her opponent's screams of pain into solidified sound, all the way down to the opponent's lungs. Gruesome! Grummett's art captures the pain almost too good here.