Not many writers do the solo antihero at Marvel Comics better than Daniel Way. And now he's got a whole team of them.

The writer is taking characters he's written in past Marvel comics — namely Deadpool, Venom and the Punisher — and putting them together with the female ninja Elektra and Red Hulk for a deadly squad in the relaunched Thunderbolts, debuting Wednesday as part of the "Marvel NOW!" initiative that teams him again with artist Steve Dillon.

When Way was putting his pitch together for the Marvel brain trust earlier in the year, Osama bin Laden had just been captured and killed, and the real world proved to be the inspiration for "this secret strike force going out into the darkness to find the bad things that hide in the shadows," Way says. "You're not really aware of them, you don't really want t be aware of them – you just want them to be there when you need them.