"Thought balloons are too old-school", "thought balloons are annoying", "there's no need to tell what they're thinking when you can see it in their actions", well, thought balloons were demonized beyond belief, and guess what? They're back!
As I was reading All-New X-Men 18, I ran into this page where everyone was having just so many thoughts. Many, as in an overwhelming amount of thoughts. At first I didn't notice since I usually read as many old books as I do new ones, but then it hit me. Apparently the ban for thought balloons had been either lifted at Marvel, or someone just decided to bend the rules. Either way, I was happy.
Removing thought balloons from comic book storytelling was an odd move. They were a tool and they weren't good or bad per se, everything depended on the storytelling; it's as if someone told you that you can no longer write down question marks. Maybe someone realized that they were needed, or that the "old" X-Men coming back to present time, would be the perfect excuse to play with the old tools.
