Thunderbolts, Volume 1: Faith in Monsters

So this is about the darkest thing published by Marvel I've ever seen. The Thunderbolts are a sanctioned group of former (or not) super villains, and when Warren Ellis took over the book post-Civil War they were assigned to round up unregistered heroes and bring them in. Norman Osborn is the director, generally able to keep his composure but prone to a fanatical vendetta against Spider-Man. His team is a mix of villains both familiar and strange, although the book does a good job of giving you background on all of them. The manipulative Moonstone and psychotic Bullseye stand out in this volume, though they all have opportunities to be crazy and dangerous. Faith in Monsters covers a couple different attempted missions which generally don't go so well, as Moonstone is more concerned with making things look good for the camera than having solid team tactics and more damage gets done than good. I wasn't really familiar with any of the heroes they went after, but again, time is spent making sure everything's in context and makes sense. There's some pretty solid writing and dialogue throughout, and the art is nice and fits the book's dark tone. Ellis would only be on for one more volume, but he made good use of his time with the title.