Decisions Part 1: Turning Point

After running the Imperial Forces of America out of the town of Burton Canyon, the Thunderbolts were robbed of their victory by the Masters of Evil who prevented them from apprehending the supervillain known as Charcoal. This was all due to the fact that the Masters have recently given the team an ultimatum: join the Masters or perish. Although they gave the Thunderbolts time to think it over, they also didn’t want the heroes to continue working on improving their public image. Having had enough, their leader Moonstone has decided that it’s time for the Thunderbolts to push back.[1]

During their encounter with the Masters, Man-Eater let slip that the villains were going to target a mint. This has prompted the Thunderbolts to head to the Western Currency Facility outside of Fort Worth, Texas. As they approach the facility, each member of the team is deep in thought. Moonstone is concerned that her hold over the team is weakening given how Atlas and Mach-1 took the initiative over their last mission. Atlas is reminding himself not to screw up as he vowed to stop running from his problems and become more dependable to his team.[2] Jolt is happy that the Thunderbolts are fighting back against the Masters of Evil and rejecting their offer. However, she is concerned that they are doing this out of revenge rather than justice. Mach-1 is worried about his effectiveness in battle as his armor has taken a lot of damage recently and he doesn’t have the skill to make proper repairs.[3] Lastly, Songbird is still fuming over the Masters interfering with their last mission, allowing Charcoal to get away. Leaning into her Screaming Mimi persona, she vows to teach them a lesson.[4]

Sure enough, Moonstone’s deduction proves correct and they catch the Crimson Cowl and the Masters of Evil in the act of robbing the facility of its money and paper plates and ink. When the group is confronted, the Crimson Cowl decides that retreating is more cost effective than a drawn out battle with the Thunderbolts. However, before she can activate the teleportation equipment built into her cowl, Jolt ambushes her and shorts the device out with her bio-electic powers. Furious at having their easiest means of escape ruined, the Crimson Cowl orders the Masters of Evil to kill the Thunderbolts. Soon a battle breaks out between the two teams.[5] As the two sides brawl with one another a mysterious armored being arrives on the scene astride of an atomic steed. In the middle of it all, Moonstone notices that Jolt is being too timid in battle and encourages her to vent her pent up anger in a fight. When Jolt complies, Moonstone is pleased as she is starting to be able to lead the youth into doing her bidding.

That’s when Klaw ambushes Songbird from behind. Angry that she stole his solid-sound technology he tries to drain all the sonic energy from her body. Unwilling to just let this happen, Melissa unleashes a powerful sonic scream. Seeing her fight with complete abandon makes Mach-1 concerned as Songbird has been leaning into her Screaming Mimi persona more and more frequently in battle. Although she starts breaking Klaw apart, he manages to knock her out with a sonic blast. He then unleashes a full power blast that take out the rest of the Thunderbolts as well. When the team wakes up they find themselves restrained with solid sound restraints. The Crimson Cowl intends to torture the Thunderbolts, but the Masters of Evil are then ambushed by the mystery man who has been watching the fight. This turns out to be the villain known as Dreadknight who has come to the rescue. That’s when police sirens can be heard off in the distance, prompting the Crimson Cowl to order a full retreat. As the Thunderbolts get free and question why Dreadknight came to their rescue, their savior suggests that they depart as he can explain himself along the way.

The incident at the Western Currency Facility makes the evening news and is picked up by reporter Gayle Rogers. Rogers has been specifically following the Thunderbolts as her network chases ratings. Given the conflicting reports on the Thunderbolts reforming or not, she has invited Dennis Schoolcraft — the writer of a book titled “Shadows: The Dark Side of the Marvels” — onto her show to commentate on the situation. He notes that while villains have reformed in the past, he points out that it was due to special circumstances.[6] In the case of the Thunderbolts, he states that they are all sociopaths with no redeeming qualities and he doesn’t buy that they are trying to reform.

Meanwhile, the Thunderbolts are fleeing from the National Guard who deployed helicopters to try and stop them. As they are shaking their tail, Jolt rides with Dreadknight and asks him why he came to help the team. Dreadknight recounts that he was once a scientist who worked for Doctor Doom until the day he thought to rebel. As punishment, Doom fused an iron mask to his face and exiled him from Latveria. He became the Dreadknight after that and became a criminal.[7] That’s when Jolt points out that Dreadknight is riding an atomic steed instead of his usual winged horse. Dreadknight explains that the Black Knight once stole his horse so he decided to return the favor by stealing an atomic steed from Wundagore Mountain.[8] This all checks out with Jolt, but she isn’t entirely sure if she can trust him yet.

Meanwhile, Baron Zemo and Techno have fled to Central America, after Zemo’s Mexican castle was destroyed by a brand new Citizen V.[9] As they make their way through the jungle, Techno relays reports about the Thunderbolts. Zemo gets annoyed and tells Techno to turn it off, he is furious that enemies have grown in number since he renounced his plans for revenge against Captain America.[10] While Techno is eager to get back to his lab and his experiments, Zemo asks him to be patient as he needs him for his latest scheme which will bring terror down upon all his foes.[11]

By this time, the Thunderbolts have brought Dreadknight back to their cabin hideout. There, a team meeting is called so they can discuss inviting him onto the team. The subject of who the team leader should be also comes up in this discussion. As it turns out, the only one with interest in leading the team is Moonstone. However, Mach-1 points out that Karla’s leadership style needs some work as she seems to go for the easiest solution in battle rather than the right one, mentioning their recent battle with Graviton. However, he doesn’t mention how Moonstone murdered the ruler of Kosmos to get the team back home when they were stranded in that dimension, much to Moonstone’s relief.[12]

That’s when Dreadknight tosses his mask across the room, surprising everyone. When they turn to face their visitor they discover that he wasn’t Dreadknight at all, but the Avenger known as Hawkeye. He tells them that he has a solution to their leadership problem if they’re willing to hear him out.[13]

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Moonstone, Atlas, Mach-1, Songbird, Jolt), “Dreadknight”, Masters of Evil (Crimson Cowl, Cyclone, Flying Tiger, Klaw, Man-Killer, Tiger Shark), Baron Zemo, Techno, Gayle Rogers, Dennis Schoolcroft

Continuity Notes

1. The Thunderbolts have been trying, since issue #15, to convince the world that they have reformed after being outed as former members of the Masters of Evil in issue #10. The latest incarnation of the Masters, led by the Crimson Cowl, propositioned the Thunderbolts to join her team in Thunderbolts #18. The Masters interfered with their attempt to collar Charcoal last issue.

2. Erik Josten’s devotion to the team comes from the discovery that his entire family was torn apart when he ran away from home following the death of his younger sister and his becoming a super-villain. See Thunderbolts #10 and 16 for all the heartbreaking details.

3. Abner Jenkins designed his Mach-1 armor with the help of Techno/the Fixer in Thunderbolts Annual 1997. The suit was damaged during the Thunderbolts’ battle with a robotic Hulk and Graviton in Thunderbolts #16-17. He has been trying to repair his armor since issue #18, but he lacks the skill to completely repair it.

4. Songbird’s rough and tumble demeanor is due to a willful change in her personality as a means of protection. Her change in personality is a complex situation. The details:

   • Melissa got her start as a criminal called Screaming Mimi and was a member of the Grapplers, a group of all female wrestlers in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation who also moonlighted as mercenaries for hire starting in Marvel Two-In-One #54. The group later drifted apart when their leader, Titania, was murdered by Scourge in Thing #33. At the time she was ruthless and amoral.

   • Mimi later started working with Angar the Screamer starting in Avengers Spotlight #28 until Angar was seemingly killed in Thunderbolts Annual 1997 (he’ll be back in issue #49). Angar’s death shook Mimi to the core, making her meek and defenseless.

   • Since joining up with the Thunderbolts, Melissa has been both insecure and frightened on missions. This moment is the start of a regression for her as she drifts back into her more aggressive Screaming Mimi persona. This started in Thunderbolts #8 and carry on until Thunderbolts #21.

5. Mentions are made of the last time the two teams fought in Thunderbolts #3. Cyclone also mentions the time he held his own against the entire Thunderbolts team. That happened in issue #18.

6. Schoolcraft mentions three superhumans that reformed. They are:

   • Hawkeye: Clint Barton was tricked into helping the Black Widow, who was a Russian spy at the time, when he first appeared in Tales of Suspense #57. Wanting to reform he was given a chance when Iron Man nominated him as a member of the Avengers in Avengers #16.

   • The Scarlet Witch: Also got her start as a villain when she and her brother Quicksilver were pressured into joining Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in X-Men #4. They too reformed by joining up with the Avengers at the same time as Hawkeye.

   • The Sub-Mariner: Namor has had a complicated history as either an antagonist or an ally of the surface world dating back to his first appearance in Marvel Comics #1. In the Modern Age he has had a tumultuous relationship with the surface. Starting as an antagonist in Fantastic Four #4. In more recent times, he has become a hero defending both worlds starting in Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner #1-4.

7. Dreadknight’s origins were originally told in Iron Man #101-102.

8. The story about Dreadknight’s horse is incorrect. The horse ridden by the real Dreadknight and the one ridden by the Black Knight were two entirely different stallions. Since this is Hawkeye in disguise, one could assume that Clint just got his facts wrong. The details:

   • The horse ridden by Dreadknight was actually named Elendil and was created by Nathan Garrett, the criminal Black Knight. It was first seen in Tales to Astonish #52. After the death of Garrett in Tales of Suspense #73, Elendil went wild. It was later captured by Victoria Frankenstein who tried to tame the animal but mutated it further. It was then stolen by Dreadknight in Iron Man #101-102 the horse was renamed Hellhorse. Dreadknight has ridden the beast ever since. At no point was it ever taken by Garrett’s successor the heroic Black Knight, Dane Whitman. At least not at this point in time.

   • Hawkeye is confusing Elendil with Valinor another black horse with wings. Valinor was previously owned by the 12th century sorcerer Hassan ibn Sabbah, and later taken into possession by Dane Whitman, as seen in Avengers #226. Whitman rode it on and off for years until it was taken by his former squire Sean Dolan when he became Bloodwraith in Avengers Annual #22. The horse was last seen in Avengers Unplugged #6 in Dolan’s possession. As of this writing (December, 2022), Valinor has not been seen since.

   • While we’re on the subject: The atomic steed is indeed an invention of the High Evolutionary, who created the flying machines for his Knights of Wundagore starting in Thor #134. The one seen here is likely the one recovered by the Beast in Avengers #187.

9. Baron Zemo and Techno have been hiding out in Zemo’s Mexican castle since his plan for world domination fell through in Thunderbolts #12. This base of operations was later destroyed during a fight with the new Citizen V in issues #15-17.

10. Since Captain America #168, Zemo has sought to avenge his father’s death when he died in a battle against Captain America way back in Avengers #15. More recently, when Cap was seemingly killed in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1, Zemo changed gears and formed the Thunderbolts in Thunderbolts #1, as a means of tricking the world into thinking they were heroes as part of his world domination plan. Cap later turned up alive in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4, and when Zemo finally re-encountered him in Thunderbolts #12, he decided to move on from his desire for revenge, deciding that he wanted to move beyond resolving his father’s unfinished business.

11. Zemo’s current scheme will be revealed in Captain America Annual 1998.

12. The Thunderbolts were kidnapped to Kosmos in Thunderbolts #13-14, and only got home when Moonstone brokered a deal with the Vizier to the king, which involved murdering their ruler so the vizier could take over. The battle with Graviton took place in Thunderbolts #17.

13. Hawkeye had decided to take the Thunderbolts under his wing, leaving the Avengers in Avengers (vol. 3) #10.