Issue(s): Thunderstrike #11
Cover Date: Aug 94
Title: "Battle lines!"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco - Script
Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz - Plot
Keith Pollard - Layouts
Sandu Florea - Finishes
Matt Idelson - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue has fill-in art from Keith Pollard and Sandu Florea and that brings up a few things about the credits that i probably should have noted in an earlier review. Beginning with issue #2 of this series, Ron Frenz and Tom Defalco have been credited together for "Pencils, Plot, and Script". And Al Milgrom has been credited with "Finishes". I've therefore been assuming that Frenz is co-plotting but not scripting, and that he's only doing layouts and not full pencils. But for all i know Frenz has been helping with the scripting, or has been fully plotting, or has been doing full pencils (although it doesn't look like it). Anyway, the credits for this issue give DeFalco & Frenz credit for "Story", Pollard for "Pencils" and Florea for "Finishes".

Beyond the guest art, this issue is notable for featuring the return of the break-out character of the 1993 annuals: Wildstreak.

For a second there i thought that guy getting kicked in the face was impressed with Wildstreak's kick, but no, she gets one word balloon and two thought bubbles in the same panel.

This is also a Very Special issue which is unfortunately still very much topical. It deals with guns in school.

That's Thunderstrike's kid Kevin Masterson. He's fine - the bullet missed him - but his friend has been remanded to family court for having a gun. And Thunderstrike decides to get involved, so he goes to a miscolored Marcus Stone of Code Blue.

Wildstreak's father is also miscolored. But her big news is that she was fighting the gang of gun runners and one of them turned out to be someone she knew named Carl.

As Stone said, there is also a Code Blue candidate named Julia Concepcion who has a personal stake in this since she lost her own child.

Heck, Bloodaxe gets involved!

Eric gets a note from Bloodaxe with a clue, and it leads him to a Misunderstanding Fight with Wildstreak.

And holy crap, Sangre watches the fight!

This issue has everyone! (And yet no one you care about.)

Eventually a whole bunch of gangsters get kicked in the head...

...and that ended the threat of guns in our school forever. Hooray!

Ok, actually, Wildstreak tries to appeal to Carl, but he's unreachable. So Sangre snipes him, and she's secretly observed by Bloodaxe. Thunderstrike later learns that Carl was responsible for supplying guns resulting in the deaths of at least seven kids. But now that Sangre (a "good guy with a gun"?) shot him, the kids should be safe. Right? RIGHT?!

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A