The 2019 incarnation of Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, a five-issue miniseries written by Kieron Gillen with art by Caspar Wijngaard and published by Dynamite Entertainment, is both an homage to and a comprehensive Deconstruction of the classic comics series Watchmen — or rather, perhaps, of its legacy in the world of comics at large. It's also a functioning superhero comic in its own right, if rather an offbeat one.
Warning: The story of this comic is built on a series of reveals and switches of tone; it is impossible to discuss it in any detail without giving some of these away. Hence, multiple unmarked spoilers follow.
The story starts with a version of Peter Cannon who should be quite familiar to those who know the character; one of a small but significant number of superheroes in his world, a supreme martial arts expert who gains advanced mystical insights by consulting a collection of "Ancient Scrolls", living with his friend Tabu. His world comes under overwhelming attack by mysterious squid-like aliens, and Cannon is asked for help by other heroes. Despite an initial show of reluctance, explained by his disdain for western civilization (a characteristic drawn from the original '60s version of the character), Cannon consults the Ancient Scrolls, and comes up with an effective strategy that wipes out the aliens. The world, which had been teetering on the verge of nuclear war, comes together in a spirit of cooperation.
But Cannon is worried. He suspects that the aliens were fakes. After all, this whole "alien invasion to make the world come together" plot is an idea which he once considered himself, but rejected because, apart from the fact that it's unspeakably immoral, he doubts that it will do any good in the long term. Only one conclusion is possible; an alternate version of Peter Cannon, in an Alternate Universe, must be behind the whole thing. Meanwhile, readers who are familiar with the history of comics, and of characters inspired by the original Thunderbolt, have recognized that the there's some serious genre referencing going on here.
That's okay. It's all part of the plan.
Cannon knows that he's up against a far more powerful, perhaps omnipotent, version of himself, who is probably already watching him, but his counterpart has already shown a willingness to kill millions, and must be stopped. Fortunately, he can at least work out a way to travel to that other universe. So he and the heroes he works with set out to engage with the problem. It doesn't go well, and a fleeing Cannon ends up in another universe, where there are no superheroes and no apparent way to hold off the fake aliens who follow after him. But there is at least another Peter Cannon...
One obvious problem when talking about this series is that three characters share the same name, and two of them also share the same alias. The convention followed by the comic is to refer to the first-appearing character as "Cannon", the second-appearing as "Thunderbolt", and the third as "Peter". This convention is also followed here.
(See the character's overview page for tropes common to all versions of Peter Cannon.)
Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt (2019) provides examples of the following tropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The general concept is invoked by the text introducing Cannon's world; "It's 35 minutes into the future. Relations between nations spiral ever downward..."
- Above Good and Evil: Thunderbolt considers himself beyond conventional morality, or perhaps beyond the moral assumptions of any particular fictional genre; the possibility of saving countless billions across The Multiverse excuses the deaths of other billions along the way. However, his casual extreme violence, petty sadism, and temper tantrums when he is defied lead everyone else to regard him as just plain evil.
- Adaptational Heroism: The original folklore version of Baba Yaga is (usually) a scary cannibal witch. However, the character of that name in this comic, though still a witch, is a noble superhero — although she seems to be one of a long line of holders of the name, so perhaps previous incarnations were less likeable, or perhaps the coven who choose the bearer of the name just borrowed it from stories as a symbol of power.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Cannon is revealed to be in an on-and-off gay relationship with Tabu — not something seen in earlier versions of the characters.
- Alternate Universe: Cannon deduces that his world is being attacked by Thunderbolt from an alternate universe. As it turns out, there’s a multiverse, and he gets to visit a second alternate in the course of the story.
- And I Must Scream: Thunderbolt's version of Tabu attempted to escape from his fate as the only other inhabitant of a dead world, alongside the insane Thunderbolt himself, by suicide. Thunderbolt punished him by transforming him into a robot who cannot harm himself. It's a borderline instance of the trope, in that Tabu can speak — but the only person he gets to talk to is Thunderbolt. In the end, we see that version of Tabu only being able to finally sleep when he's reassured Thunderbolt is truly dead.
- Anti-Villain: Deconstructed: Thunderbolt sees himself as an anti-villain, doing whatever is necessary to save billions of people across The Multiverse from self-inflicted apocalypses. However, what he sees as necessary involves killing billions of others, and it’s unclear if he’ll ever achieve anything like his goal. At best, he is simply insane (and mass murder is hardly something one should settle on as a solution when faced with a problem like "world politics is filled with infighting"). At worst (and it's implied to be the case), he's a sadist and asshole who channels it into a "what I am doing is right" attitude like a forum moderator throwing a tantrum.
- Apocalypse How: Thunderbolt's conflict with his world's Nucleon apparently caused a Planetary Species Extinction, equivalent to a worst-case nuclear war. Then, attempting to save humanity from its own self-destructive tendencies, Thunderbolt caused comparable apocalyptic events on multiple worlds across The Multiverse, as he tested and sought to improve his techniques.
- Artificial Human: The Test is the product of some kind of ongoing technological program. Unfortunately, each such product only has a lifespan of a couple of weeks or so.
- Art-Style Clash: When Cannon desperately jumps into a universe unlike his or Thunderbolt's, he enters a charmingly lo-fi Slice of Life indie comic. Everyone is drawn like a realistic sketch, and even the speech bubbles are affected; whereas Cannon remains a relatively modern superhero with standard speech bubbles, Peter's dialogue and that universe's narration is represented as just words and lines on the screen. This is also part of what kills Thunderbolt in the end: whereas Cannon can adapt, Thunderbolt tries to force himself uncompromisingly into different worlds with different art styles and themes that can't be deconstructed by the superhero genre (or Watchmen), only for those universes to rip him apart.
- Attack Drone: Pyrophorus uses small remote-controlled drones as a weapon system.
- Badass Cape: Played with: Thunderbolt flaunts his power and disdain for mere practicality by wearing an over-complex costume including a flamboyant cape.
- Captain Geographic: Supreme Justice is the "walking magical embodiment" of the USA — basically, Captain America with a magical back-story and a less charming personality.
- Containment Clothing: Nucleon, a superhero with nuclear powers, usually wears something resembling a Hazmat Suit, but sheds it to unleash her powers. Presumably, she suffers from low-level Power Incontinence, and hence emits enough radiation to make long-term exposure dangerous for normal humans.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Happens at least twice:
- Once Cannon has brought his enhanced perceptions to bear to define a tactical plan, the fight between the superheroes and the aliens is quite straightforward for the former. (They just have to identify and take down the enemy leaders.)
- The superheroes simply have no chance against Thunderbolt, who is functionally a god on his home territory.
- The only fight that has the appearance of being equal (though it happens off-screen) is the final confrontation between Cannon and Thunderbolt — and even that may be mostly a matter of Cannon letting things play out as they must. Thunderbolt thinks that everything obeys the rules he understands, and so cannot win when the rules are different.
- Deconstruction: The comic deconstructs Watchmen, albeit ultimately respectfully; Gillen appears to feel that the problem is the repetitive habits displayed by comics which are too heavily influenced by the older comic, demonstrated by Thunderbolt believing his way of showing violent apes (in superhero uniforms or otherwise) the errors of their violent ways is by repeating Veidt's plannote en masse and ad infinitum with no regard for the worlds he now controls. In fact, it's what ultimately defeats Thunderbolt: a violent anti-hero obsessed with spreading his brand of "realism" even to worlds that either really are idealistic or where its tropes and concepts can't apply is literally torn apart when he attempts to enter these other universes.Cannon: See, Tabu... the dangers of unrelenting deconstruction.
- Deconstructor Fleet: The comic deconstructs a bunch of superhero tropes, such as Captain Patriotic (in the form of Supreme Justice, who is naturally a nationalistic, violent thug) or the '90s Anti-Hero (in the form of The Test), while on its way to deconstruct deconstruction by showing how repetitive, unimaginative, and plain mean-spirited it can get: if you're deconstructing something without making a point, repeating old cliches instead of finding new innovations, or just out of spite, are you actually deconstructing it?
- Decon-Recon Switch: Befitting a homage and subversion of Watchmen, the comic sets up old hoary deconstructionist takes on heroes, then plays them straight:
- The Justice League/Watchmen equivalent are depicted as aloof and clinical at best (Baba Yaga and Cannon himself), at worst as Jerk Jock nationalists like unflattering depictions of Superman or Captain America (Supreme Justice) or edgy wacky '90s Anti-Hero meta jokers (The Test). However, Baba Yaga and Cannon are rational and still willing to do the right thing, and Supreme Justice is understandably not happy about things like misanthropic elitist "stipulations" coming out of Cannon's mouth while playing Devil's Advocate for a multiverse wide genocide. In the end, even though they know they are sorely outmatched and will die horrible deaths, they decide to go down fighting in the hopes they can make a dent against Thunderbolt.
- Cannon is introduced as playing Devil's Advocate and being snotty about civilisation as a whole, but it's clear he's tired of the constant stream of superpower squabbling. However, he knows it's better to not have a maniac sic aliens on people for world peace.
- Thunderbolt might be right in that it'd take a miracle to avert a world war, but it's also clear that mass destruction is a wee bit like fighting fire with fire, and that any person not an asshole would definitely not come to the conclusion of mass genocide and would definitely not keep perpetuating it. As much as he disdains superheroics, he's taken down in a manner befitting the Golden or Silver Age of comics: given exactly what he wants and subsequently destroyed in a Guile Hero maneuver.
- Deliberately Monochrome: In a miniseries which makes a lot of references to the works of writer Alan Moore, and which is mostly a full-color superhero story, issue 4, set almost entirely in a quasi-realistic world in which superheroes do not exist, is executed in low-key monochrome, in a pastiche of the style of sometime Moore collaborator Eddie Campbell.
- Enlightenment Superpowers: While other versions of Peter Cannon have sometimes demonstrated exotic powers thanks to their access to the Ancient Scrolls, this story makes heavy use of the idea. Cannon develops dimension-shifting abilities from first principles and generally understands the cliches of a certain story, while Thunderbolt is functionally a god on his home ground (far surpassing even a Doctor Manhattan expy).
- Expy:
- Thunderbolt is both a version of the established character and an expy of Watchmen's Ozymandias, who was himself a Captain Ersatz of the original Thunderbolt, making him... a recursive bifurcating expy?
- The other superheroes from Cannon’s world might be identified as very loose expies or Captain Ersatz figures for well-known Marvel or DC supers, but Nucleon in particular has a little in common with Watchmen's Doctor Manhattan. Then, when she arrives in Thunderbolt’s world, her powers shift to make her more like him — because that world's (deceased) Nucleon was clearly more of a Manhattan expy.
- Some of the regulars in the pub on the black-and-white non-supers world share first names and a few personal characteristics with the main cast of Watchmen, making them perhaps as near to expies as you can get in a pub on a world without superheroes.
- Cocky, handsome, bearded Pyrophorus is a dead ringer for MCU-era Tony Stark: employing advanced technology and flying through the air in Powered Armor.
- Eye Scream: When Pyrophorus attacks Thunderbolt, the latter reacts by creating a swarm of vicious insects inside the former's powered armor, at least one of which promptly burrows into his eye.
- Face Death with Dignity: Cannon and Nucleon have repeatedly made it clear that Thunderbolt is an effectively unbeatable opponent, if the way he disintegrated The Test with a gesture wasn't proof enough — and yet, the other heroes decide that there is no choice but to fight him. When Cannon tries to restrain her, Baba Yaga calmly makes the point clear:Baba Yaga: What can we do but be heroes?
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Cannon wears a modernised version of the character’s asymmetric costume design. Symbolically, Thunderbolt has a similar costume buried under his extravagant armor-style garb.
- Faux Affably Evil: While Thunderbolt isn't so much affable as calm and insufferably smug, he maintains a facade of politeness, rationality, and good humor that quickly disappears whenever anything regarding his worldview is challenged, to be replaced with brutal, horrifying murders.
- Fingore: Thunderbolt reacts to Supreme Justice's attack by breaking his fingers one by one. This is a clear reference to Rorschach's notorious method of extracting information from criminals, showing that, although Thunderbolt is an expy of Watchmen's Ozymandias, he has also acquired Rorschach's casual brutality (and Dr Manhattan's emotional detachment, which all makes him a symbol of post-Watchmen superhero comics).
- Genghis Gambit: Thunderbolt seeks to use fake aliens created by himself to wipe out a location and force the rest of humanity to unite (akin to Ozymandias's plan in Watchmen); he repeats this idea endlessly on every world he can find. Thunderbolt insists his plan should work, but it never does, and he merely ends up repeatedly causing mass destruction.
- Genre Savvy: The powers granted by the Ancient Scrolls appear to involve a degree of genre awareness and even Medium Awareness, sometimes leading to a bit of Leaning on the Fourth Wall. Both Cannon and Thunderbolt acknowledge the cliches of the superhero genre, and Thunderbolt quickly kills The Test because the latter is mocking him, which could just be vanity, but he claims it is because "This is a serious story." Later, when Cannon (accurately) accuses him of petty sadism, his response is "I have transcended your genre. It doesn't matter what I do." Even Baba Yaga, who is unable to break the fourth wall, points out that she and the others have no choice but to fight Thunderbolt, however outmatched they are, because that's what superheroes do.
- Genre Shift: A key part of the plot, ultimately being weaponized. Cannon knows he'll have to locate a universe unlike his own or Thunderbolt's to find anything resembling a solution, and does so by more-or-less breaking into a non-genre literary indie comic book. There are no aliens, there are no superheroes, and the appearance of such understandably bewilders its inhabitants. (When the "aliens" finally arrive, Cannon's call to government contacts has them literally screaming in terror.) Even the drawing style shifts to a rough-hewn sketch, much like many indie comics. Besides the fact that he realises he'd been lacking a more human (and realistic) touch, Cannon sees how he can defeat Thunderbolt; by letting him try to take every comic universe and impose his medium, cliches, and ideas. Entering worlds where superheroes don't exist and/or the laws of physics simply wouldn't allow a reality-warping Ubermensch to exist slices him apart.
- Heroic BSoD: When Cannon is transporting himself and the other heroes to Thunderbolt's world, they pass through a number of others, each of which is some kind of post-apocalyptic landscape and/or a bizarro universe unlike their own. Surprisingly, although all of the heroes are naturally concerned by this, it is Supreme Justice who is most shocked, ending up in a Troubled Fetal Position. It is clear that, for all his violent tendencies, his concern for other human beings is entirely genuine.
- Homage: The art in Peter's non-genre comics world is a tribute to the style of Eddie Campbell, best known for From Hell with Alan Moore and his own solo series Alec (slightly-fictionalised autobiography) and Bacchus (about diminished Greek gods in the present day).
- Hypocrite: Thunderbolt constantly disdains superheroics, its cliches, and its violent antics... while looking like Superman, insisting on wearing a cape, showing a total inability to solve problems with anything beyond violence and death, and being all too happy to personally kill people in a matter befitting a supervillain. By extension, the comic implies that mean-spirited authors who use Darker and Edgier plots or employ Deconstruction to sound mature, while still inherently writing something about men in tights fighting each other, are guilty of similar hypocrisy.
- Jerkass: The comic is post-Watchmen-ish enough to acknowledge that merely being a hero doesn't guarantee that anyone will be a nice person.
- Supreme Justice is habitually violent and given to bluntly calling people out even before they provoke him enough that he throws a punch.
- The superhuman insight and perceptiveness granted by the Ancient Scrolls has evidently given both Cannon and Thunderbolt an annoying superiority complex. Ironically, it's Supreme Justice who flatly points this out behind his back:Supreme Justice: Your master's a prick, Tabu.
Tabu: He is not my master. He is my friend. But your assessment of his character is not inaccurate.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Supreme Justice is something of a thug, given to thinking with his fists, but he makes an effective point when he tells Cannon that the problem with being the smartest guy in the room is that there's always another room.
- Lit Fic: In desperation to find a universe which might provide an idea to defeat Thunderbolt, Cannon leaps into a non-genre comic book in the vein of American Splendor or any number of indie graphic novels where the biggest threat prior to Thunderbolt's aliens showing up is existential dread, lingering feelings about exes, and trying to keep a dream alive in the the face of reality. It's here that Cannon realises that he needs a more down-to-earth approach with Thunderbolt.
- Medium Awareness: Baba Yaga describes the powers displayed by Cannon and Thunderbolt as "Formalism", which usually means analyzing an artwork in terms of its medium and format rather than its plot or content — and indeed, both of them do seem to be quite Genre Savvy, at the very least. In fact, while Thunderbolt has effectively absolute power within his personal fortress, because he is a Reality Warper there, Cannon seems to be more medium-aware, transporting himself and the other five heroes to Thunderbolt's home by placing them on six panels of the nine-panel page layout that the comic uses by default (another Watchmen reference). He eventually weaponizes this awareness, defeating Thunderbolt by manipulating the medium to first travel into non-superhero worlds and then to "allow" Thunderbolt to try and travel there himself. Whereas Cannon adapts, though, Thunderbolt insists on being a supervillain in universes where super-beings don't exist, and is reduced to a pile of gore as a result.
- A Million Is a Statistic: In-setting, this has become Thunderbolt's attitude. He has triggered multiple planetary-level apocalypses, supposedly while seeking to perfect ways to bring peace to subsequent worlds he discovers. His attitude is that killing millions is permissible if he can save yet millions more thereby, whereas if he stops now, he will just be a mass murderer, and thus a villain.
- The Multiverse: It turns out that there is a multiverse with multiple Earths with different numbers and power levels of superheroes, at varying present-day dates. Thunderbolt discovered this and promptly started meddling with it; Cannon is apparently the first person to develop a means of cross-timeline travel. In some timelines, nuclear deterrence fails and war ensues, and Thunderbolt uses this as an excuse for his sadistic crusade, although an infinite multiverse must include lots of universes where nuclear deterrence doesn't exist, isn't necessary, or is effective. It later turns out that Thunderbolt and Cannon can really only break into superhero-friendly worlds, and Thunderbolt wants a way to dominate the rest of the multiverse. Cannon "allows" Thunderbolt to try and take them, but there's a reason they normally can't enter non-superhero universes: the rules of physics in those worlds are implied to be immutable, and a superhero powered by physics-defying "physics" trying to enter is akin to sticking your arm outside a car and having it torn off by a passing sign.
- Nice Guy: Cannon comes to realize that Peter, his non-powered counterpart, is very simply a good person, with friends he values and a willingness to do the right thing on a small, personal scale simply because it's right — something that Cannon has lost, let alone Thunderbolt.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Doctor K, the amiable psychotherapist friend of Peter’s, bears a definite resemblance Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen. And they’re both citizens of the British town of Northampton.
- Not Afraid to Die: The Test is some kind of Artificial Human with a lifespan of just a couple of weeks or so. (When he fails and dies, he'll be recreated, but there doesn't seem to be any continuity of consciousness involved.) Hence, as he accepts this, he has no fear of death.
- Off with His Head!: Thunderbolt rips off Supreme Justice's head with his bare hands, as a crowning act of gratuitous extreme violence.
- Outside-Context Problem: In a story concerned with levels of reality, significant problems more or less by definition come from out of context:
- When the (fake) aliens arrive on the black-and-white, superhero-free, quasi-realistic world, the threat understandably reduces even government agents to screaming, uncomprehending panic.
- Cannon ultimately defeats Thunderbolt by moving outside his context, showing that his power comes from a narrow understanding of reality that only works in his genre. He does so by instead leaping into the aforementioned world where superheroes don't exist, and by realising that other universes where the deconstruction of superheroes doesn't mean anything one way or another (because they run on plain realism, or superheroes just don't exist except as fictions) are key to defeating Thunderbolt.
- Powered Armor: Pyrophorus is an insect-themed armored superhero, and befitting the motif, has an exoskeleton that allows him to fly. Thunderbolt exploits this by reality-warping insects inside the armor... and inside Pyrophorus himself.
- Reality Warper: Thunderbolt has absolute control of reality within his fortress, best demonstrated when he easily wipes out Cannon's world's best superheroes in a matter of a few pages. However, he can't travel to other timelines, because he's trapped himself in his own reality.Nucleon: Past and future and present are all part of the design. But it is his design. That is his power.
- Refusal of the Call: Past versions of the character have often been slow to act as a hero because of their disdain for western civilization, but Cannon initially acts as if he’s unwilling to help save the world from a genocidal alien invasion, just to make a rhetorical point to the other heroes. Unsurprisingly, they regard him as a bit of a jerkass.
- Robot Buddy: Thunderbolt has transformed “his” Tabu into a robot, or perhaps just a full-body Cyborg, partially as a "reward" to his friend and partially so that Tabu doesn't try to kill himself again after witnessing the horrors of Thunderbolt's rampages. As Cannon points out, Tabu is hardly Thunderbolt’s friend after this — more a grotesque parody of the trope — but Thunderbolt is insane.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Mostly averted; Cannon and his associates are relatively modern, practical superheroes who would probably find capes cumbersome. The two exceptions are Baba Yaga, the one magical adept in the group, who wears a short, practical, hooded cape, suiting her status as a traditional sort of character (very loosely based on a figure from folklore) from a cold part of the world, and Thunderbolt, who flaunts his status as a grossly powerful character above concerns of mere practicality by wearing an over-complex costume including a Badass Cape.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Using the Ancient Scrolls to attain localised godlike powers, Thunderbolt has gone completely off the deep end, and occasionally slips towards A God Am I rants.
