Heroes Reward

The Thunderbolts have been called to New York City Hall to be celebrated for the work they have done for the city since the Onslaught crisis. While they wait for their big moment to shine, Atlas decides to tell Jolt a little about his past because the youth reminds him so much of his sister Lindy. She was the preverbal tomboy who always had high hopes for the future. However, she also always wanted to tag along with her brother. When he was seventeen, Erik and his buddies were going into the city and Lindy wanted to tag along. Erik wouldn’t let her, but the defiant girl tried to follow them into town on her bicycle anyway. When night began to fall a tragedy struck. While riding on a dark road, Lindy was struck by an oncoming car on a blind turn and was killed instantly.

After this tragedy, Erik ran away from home and joined the military. However, his life continued going from bad to worse. Now that he is a hero he has a hard time getting over the guilt he still feels about Lindy’s death and doesn’t believe that he deserves to be looked upon as a hero.

While Atlas is focusing on the past the rest of the team, particularly Mach-1, are looking to the future and are excited to be commended by the city. That’s when Techno finally arrives and tells Citizen V that everything is going like clock work. Moments later, Dallas Riordan, the Thunderbolts’ liaison with city hall, comes to tell them that they’re up in a few minutes.

At that moment, the mayor of New York City is holding a press conference. He tells the gathered press about the dark days that followed the Onslaught crisis and the apparent deaths of the Avengers and Fantastic Four. However, he is pleased to announce that reports are coming in that the heroes are still alive and have spent the last while in another dimension.[1] There are no reports coming in about the lost heroes appearing all over the world.[2] With this wonderful news, the mayor then announces the Thunderbolts who are being commended for stepping up and helping the city during the absence of its regular guardians. After being introduced, Citizen V takes questions from the press. Telling them that his team will remain together as an added boost to the superhero community.[3]

That’s when G.W. Bridge and a team of SHIELD agents arrive on the scene. They have just learned that the Thunderbolts are really the Masters of Evil in disguise and has come to arrest them. Citizen V then orders Techno to unleash an electromagnetic pulse to shut down SHIELD’s weapons. The Thunderbolts then make a hasty retreat from the press conference. Seeing her teammates fleeing is more than enough to convince Jolt — the newest member and the only one not secretly a villain — to realize the accusations are true. As she is trying to come to terms with this shocking revelation, Bridge tries to apprehend her. Snapping out of her state of shock, Jolt refuses to be arrested and takes off.

As the Thunderbolts split up to make their escape, Meteorite/Moonstone is ambushed by Hawkeye who was heading to city hall to re-establish his identity following his return to Earth. Realizing that the Avenger won’t let up, Karla quickly slips into an alley where she quickly changes out of her costume so she can better lose the archer in the crowd. Elsewhere, Mach-1 and Songbird are hiding out in an alley but are quickly found by a mob and are force to flee.

Elsewhere in the city, Jolt has covered up her costume and has been aimlessly wandering the city trying to figure out her next move. She happens to pass the window of an electronic store and catches the news coverage on the display TVs. Already, the mayor is denouncing the Thunderbolts and promises that those responsible for leading his staff astray will be held accountable. The media is also quick to pick up on incidents that blew the Thunderbolts’ cover in the past. Seeing all this evidence out in the open, Jolt can’t believe how she — who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Avengers foes — wasn’t able to see what was so plainly in front of her all this time.[4][5] However, she can’t bring herself to believe that everything about the Thunderbolts were a lie because some of her teammates were really sincere with her and decides to confront them about it.

Outside the Four Freedoms Plaza, the authorities and members of the hero community — including Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the New Warriors — are trying to close in on the Thunderbolt’s hideout. However, the building’s defenses are keeping them at bay. As Meteorite finds Atlas and yanks him inside, Jolt sneaks into the building from a secret underground access tunnel. Inside, the rest of the team has managed to regroup and they are all wondering who could have exposed them at such a critical juncture. Mach-1 and Songbird figures it must have been the Black Widow who has been onto them for months.[6] That’s when Baron Zemo — finally having abandoned the identity of Citizen V — enters the room. He tells his minions that he was the one who leaked the information to SHIELD because he has finally obtained everything he needs to take over the world.

Atlas is furious that Zemo didn’t warn them ahead of time as they could have been hurt or killed trying to escape. The Baron however though it was necessary to surprise his teammates because they were getting a little to cozy being superheroes and had to be snapped back to the reality that they are all criminals. Zemo then gives them an ultimatum: Join him in his coming victory or be left behind to face justice for their past crimes. With no other choice, the Thunderbolts agree to join Baron Zemo and they depart the Four Freedoms Plaza in his escape craft.[7] In order to cover their escape, Zemo detonates a bomb that blows up the Four Freedoms Plaza forcing the heroes waiting outside to protect bystanders on the street from the falling rubble.[8] As Zemo and the Thunderbolts head to their new hideout none are aware that Jolt has stowed away on board.

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Citizen V, Atlas, Meteorite, Mach-1, Songbird, Jolt), Dallas Riordan, SHIELD (G.W. Bridge), Hawkeye, New Warriors (Night Thrasher, Firestar, Nova, Turbo), Daredevil, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Franklin Richards, Captain America, Vision

Continuity Notes

1. The Avengers and Fantastic Four were believed to have died in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. In reality, they were transported to a pocket dimension where they lived reimagined versions of their past lives. They had just recently been found and brought back to their proper reality in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.

2. Of the heroes reported to have reappeared, Captain America is stated as having appeared in Japan. For more on this see Captain America (vol. 3) #1.

3. Here, Citizen V is asked if the Thunderbolts are going to stay in the Four Freedoms Plaza. The team convinced Franklin Richards to let them set up base in the old Fantastic Four headquarters in Thunderbolts #2. Here he states that he will return the headquarters if the FF so ask for it. As we’ve seen in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #½, the team decides to set up shop in a new headquarters called Pier 4 instead.

4. The news footage shown is a scene from the Thunderbolts’ televised battle against Arnim Zola where Techno accidentally called Moonstone by her true identity rather than Meteorite. This happened in Thunderbolts #4.

5. A reporter also states here that the Masters of Evil are best known for their siege on Avengers Mansion some time ago. He is referring to the events of Avengers #273-277.

6. The Black Widow has been suspicious about the Thunderbolts since they first appeared on the scene in Thunderbolts #1. Last issue she confronted Mach-1 and Songbird and told them to turn in their leader before she found definitive proof to nail them all.

7. When gloating over his final victory, Baron Zemo says that his father was right when he said that when you control people’s hope you control everything. Heinrich Zemo imparted this advice to his son in Thunderbolts #-1.

8. While the Four Freedoms Plaza is heavily damaged here, its ruins will remain standing in this location until the building is shunted to the moon in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #13 and ultimately dumped in the Negative Zone in issue #42 of that series. A recreation of the original Baxter Building is then built in its place in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #38.

Topical References

• The mayor of New York City is depicted as Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor from 1994 to 2001. His appearance here should be considered topical.

• The TVs in this story are all depicted as CRT models. This should be considered a topical reference as this is an obsolete technology.