Marvel Comics has issued a teaser for what appears to be the first book in a second wave of Marvel NOW! titles, though Marvel’s rollout of the rebooting initiative has been so diffuse and gradual that it is still difficult to see how major a reformation of the Marvel universe that Marvel NOW! will be. About the only thing that can be said definitively concerning the new teaser is that it involves a book that will be written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Steve Dillion.
The iconographic evidence in the new teaser, which was given to Newsarama as an "exclusive," consists of a single word "Lightning" over which a set of red gun sight crosshairs have been positioned. While lightning, the meteorological phenomenon, is off course associated with Thor (and with Storm, if you are talking X-Men), the consensus among the Marvel tea leaf-readers at ICv2 is that the word "lightning" is a reference to the Thunderbolts, everybody’s favorite group of reformed supervillains whose motto is "Justice, Like Lightning."
The situation with the crosshairs is a bit more problematic, especially since Marvel is reorganizing its superhero teams and shaking up the old patterns of membership in these elite organizations. Since Way has been writing Deadpool, the "Merc with a Mouth" is a definite possibility, though he is hardly the only denizen of the Marvel universe with considerable firearms skill. It is possible that The Punisher could be giving up his lone wolf status, and there are plenty of other candidates including Domino, Cable, and even the currently deceased Bullseye, who was once a member of the Thunderbolts. All will be clear eventually, at least by the time retailers have to order the December 12th shipping title, though the only thing evident right now is the Marvel is the biggest tease around since Tuesday Weld left her role as Thalia Menninger on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
