Report: Red Hulk to lead Thunderbolts in Marvel NOW relaunch

Newsarama shares details of Marvel’s Thunderbolts relaunch that will be part of the “Marvel NOW” initiative.  The new team will be led by Red Hulk, aka Thunderbolt Ross, and will feature Deadpool, Venom, Punisher and Elektra.  The creative team will be Daniel Way (“Deadpool”) and Steve Dillon (“Preacher,” “Punisher”).

Series editor Jordan D. White talked to Newsarama about the change:

Unlike the most recent Thunderbolts, this group is not working for any government program — this is Red Hulk’s team, to do with as he sees fit. In case you forgot, big red’s secret ID is that of General “Thunderbolt” Ross, a well-respected military official who the world thinks was KIA. Well, just because he can’t be part of the American Armed Forces doesn’t mean he can’t put together an armed force of his own (in fact, as a side note, I’d considered suggesting we call the book “Thunderbolt’s” with a possessive, but decided I would be laughed out of editorial if I mentioned it). And again, if you look at the crew ol’ T-Bolt has put together, you can get a sense of the kind of things he might be looking to do with them. They’re a team of loners, but all highly trained and highly skilled as either mercenaries or soldiers. This is a black ops dream team… or perhaps red ops, as the case may be. They’re all characters with their own very particular morality, who do the things they do because they believe in them. They believe they are doing right, even if the world around them might not. Now that they’re working together, they can set their sights even higher… and the world had better look out, because they won’t take no for an answer.

This to me seems to be a similar style reboot to the 2008 “X-Force” reboot – take a name and concept that has been popular and infuse it with new characters. Now, this team doesn’t appear to have any ties to the historic Thunderbolts, but these characters have all been popular individually at different times.

Check out Newsarama for the full interview.

UPDATED:

Here’s how Marvel describes the book, coming out in December, in a news release:

Red Hulk, Venom, Elektra, Deadpool, the Punisher. Forget the courts, the jails, the system — this team of Thunderbolts fights fire with fire, targeting the most dangerous and lethal players in the Marvel Universe with extreme prejudice. Led by General “Thunderbolt” Ross, AKA the Red Hulk, this hand-picked team of like-minded operatives is going to make the world a better place…by all means necessary.