Thunderbolts #5
Growing Pains
Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker meets with the other leadership in Hydra. He is annoyed that their New York operations are being interfered with by the new superhero team known as the Thunderbolts.[1] He goes over the group’s recent victories and meteoric rise in popularity following the apparent death of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.[2][3] Strucker impresses upon them that a new team of heroes cannot be allowed to gain the same level of notoriety as those that died during Onslaught. He decides that a counterstrike is in order and demands that they deploy weapon X-F3.
At that moment the Thunderbolts — who are all secretly members of the Masters of Evil pretending to be heroes as part of a scheme to take over the world — are spending some downtime in their civilian identities to enjoy a nice sunny day in New York City.[4] The first one to break off from the main group is Techno who tells them that he has some things to do. Once he is out of sight, he deactivates his facial disguise that he wears when active with the Thunderbolts. Atlas also heads off to meet up with Dallas Riordan, the Thunderbolt’s liaison at city hall, for lunch. Mach-1 and Songbird also decide to head off on their own to go sight seeing together. Meteorite takes the opportunity to be alone with Jolt in order to get closer to their new teammate. Karla points out how cheerful Hallie is being even after Onslaught, the death of her parents, and being experimented upon by Arnim Zola.[5] This upsets Hallie who admits that she is keeping it bottled up and is afraid if she doesn’t let it out soon she’ll explode. She then involuntarily discharges her powers, blowing up some newspaper boxes.
This is noticed by the bystanders all around them who instantly recognize her as Jolt from the Thunderbolts and begin crowding her to get an autograph. Karla shifts into her Meteorite costume and helps create a distraction so Hallie can change into her costume before people can get a good look at her face.
Meanwhile, Atlas arrives at the spot where he is to meet up with Dallas Riordan. Seeing her waiting for him, Erik realizes that because of the dualistic nature of the Thunderbolts there is not a lot he can tell her about himself personally. This makes him feel bad because he is lying by omission and hates how that makes him feel. He is thinking of standing her up when Dallas turns around and sees him. Once he looks her in the eye, Josten realizes he is sunk. By this time, Jolt is in her costume and is signing autographs with Meteorite on the street. This is all playing into Karla’s hands as she views becoming a maternal figure to the orphaned girl something she can exploit to her benefit.
At that same moment, a Hydra ship appears above the city and unleashes weapon X-F3. This turns out to be one of Kang the Conqueror’s Growing Men. Upon its activation, the android is confused and wonders why it has been deployed. Unable to see its master anywhere, the Growing Man then goes on a rampage. This is witnessed by Meteorite and Jolt who rush to stop the creature. Jolt — who has an encyclopedic knowledge on superheroes and villains — instantly recognizes the Growing Man from his past battles with the Avengers.[6] She is too late to warn Meteorite that force used against the android will only cause it to grow in size.
The battle is spotted by Mach-1 and Songbird who are at the observation deck at the World Trade Center. They quickly find a private spot to change into costume and race in to assist their comrades. When they arrive on the scene, Meteorite warns them about Growing Man’s powers. Seeing that they’ll need some technical knowhow to deal with this threat, Mach-1 sends a distress call to Techno. At that moment, Techno — in his Fixer identity — has just finished cleaning out a bunch of crooks in a private poker game. When the alert comes, the Fixer decides to leave but does so quickly enough that he accidentally drops some of his winnings on the ground. When one of the other poker players picks it up and follows the Fixer outside to give it back. He is only doing so since he thinks getting on the Fixer’s good side will get him some work. When the thug gets outside he is confused when he sees a man with an entirely different face in the Fixer’s clothing exiting the alleyway.
Meanwhile, Atlas is on his date with Dallas and she is telling him how her family — all police officers — were disappointed when she chose to work for the mayor’s office before becoming a cop.[7] Dallas then realizes that she has spent the entire outing talking about herself, but understands that Atlas has a secret identity to keep. Erik is about to tell her that knowing him isn’t worth her time when he also receives the distress call from the rest of the team and heads off to join the fight against the Growing Man. Unfortunately, the addition of Techno and Atlas to the fight aren’t enough to bring down the Growing Man.[8] Dallas radios Citizen V at the Four Freedoms Plaza for additional assistance. Citizen V notes that Growing Man is an Avengers foe and that his team can get a better idea on how to defeat him if they are given access to their database. Dallas tells Citizen V that she’ll see what she can do.
Eventually, Techno comes up with a solution, he tells Atlas and the others to lay it on the Growing Man to make him grow as large as possible. This is so Techno can burrow into the back of the android’s neck and have enough room to work on shutting it down internally. As they work on this, Dallas contacts SHIELD to get access to the Growing Man files but she is denied because that information is still regarded as classified. At that same moment, Atlas needs to grow larger to continue fighting the Growing Man. However, he is afraid of pushing beyond his current limits as he has dissipated in the past. Meteorite points out that he pushed beyond that limit during their fight with the Wrecking Crew and eggs on his anger to push him to grow larger still.[9]
The Growing Man receives a drubbing from the extra large Atlas, giving Techno the room he needs to work. After disconnecting a circuit inside the Growing Man, Techno causes the behemoth to suddenly discharge a bolt of energy into space causing the android to revert back to its dormant capsule mode in a matter of seconds.[10] This is just as Dallas is reporting back to Citizen V that she couldn’t get SHIELD to release the Avengers files. This annoys Citizen V — who is secretly Baron Zemo — because he was so close to getting access to the information vital for his conquest of the world. However, he gets his temper in check, reminding himself that patience will win out in the end.
Later, Citizen V uses an encrypted channel to contact Baron Strucker at his hideout in Hong Kong. Strucker is surprised that the hero was able to reach him. Citizen V knows all about Hydra’s acquisition of the Growing Man six years prior. He also knows this attack was in retaliation for the Thunderbolts interference in their arms deal. He warns Strucker against targeting his team in the future as retaliation will be swift. After the call is terminated Strucker is in shock by how easily Citizen V was able to contact him but notes that there was something familiar about him.
Recurring Characters
Thunderbolts (Citizen V, Atlas, Meteorite, Mach-1, Songbird, Jolt), Growing Man, Baron Strucker, Dallas Riordan, SHIELD
Continuity Notes
At the time of this story Hydra had allied themselves with an aging mobster named Vincente Fortunato to take control of the New York City underworld. One of their arms deals was interfered with by the Thunderbolts. See Thunderbolts #3 as well as Spider-Man #70-74, 78-79 and Amazing Spider-Man #422 and 432-436.
Mention is made of the Thunderbolts most recent battles with the Hulk (Incredible Hulk #449), the Rat Pack and Wrecking Crew (Thunderbolts #1), Anim Zola (Thunderbolts #4), the Mad Thinker and the Circus of Crime (Thunderbolts #2), and the new Masters of Evil (Thunderbolts #4, again).
At the time of this story the Avengers and Fantastic Four were believed to have died during the final battle against Onslaught in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. In reality, they were transported to a pocket dimension where they are currently living reimagined versions of their past lives. They will eventually be found and returned to their proper reality in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.
With the exception of Jolt all of the members of the Thunderbolts are secretly members of the Masters of Evil, as revealed in Thunderbolts #1. This will remain a secret until Thunderbolts #10.
Hallie was kidnapped by Arnim Zola in Thunderbolts #1, escaped in issue #3 and brought the Thunderbolts to bring him down in issue #4. It was during this period we learn that her parents died during the Onslaught crisis. Hallie was invited on the team in issue #4.
Jolt warns Meteorite that the Growing Man has fought Thor, Iron Man, as well as the entire Avengers in the past. Thor first fought it in Thor #140, Iron Man in Iron Man #108, and the Avengers in Avengers #69, 268, and 300.
For more on Dallas Riordan’s family background and their ties to the NYPD, see Thunderbolts #42.
During the fight, Techno states that Kang likely didn’t create the Growing Man as he has a tendency to co-opt technology for his uses. This assessment turns out to be correct as we’ll learn in Thunderbolts #13-14, Kang will — at some point in the future — force the Kosmosians to build the Growing Men for him.
During his career as the criminal known as Goliath, Josten pushed his powers to the limit and ended up causing his body to dissipate in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #25. This proved temporary as he was able to reform himself by the time he appeared next in Marvel Comics Presents #137. Atlas pushed himself beyond these limits in Thunderbolts #1 when he almost drowned at Liberty Island. Next issue we’ll learn that Atlas is able to push beyond his usual limits due to having the Pym Particles flushed from his system in Thunderbolts Annual 1997 making his growing abilities powered by his pre-existing ionic abilities.
This is a warning signal to tell the people of Kosmos that a Growing Man had been activated on Earth. See Thunderbolts #13-14, again.
Topical References
In this story, Mach-1 and Songbird are depicted visiting the top of South Tower of the original twin towers of the World Trade Center. This should be considered a topical reference as these buildings were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Modern readers could assume that they are actually visiting the observation deck of the Freedom Tower which was built in the place of the twin towers and opened to the public in 2014.
When talking about their budding relationship, Dallas suggests they call each other Steve and Slim after a Humphry Bogart movie. She is referring to the 1944 film romance To Have and Have Not, which was loosely adapted from an Ernest Hemmingway story of the same name. The film focuses on a romance between Harry “Steve” Morgan (played by Bogart) and Marie “Slim” Browning (played by Lauren Bacall). This could be considered a topical reference unless you want to think that Dallas is a fan of classic cinema.
Citizen V states that Hydra recovered their Growing Man about six years prior. Based on the Sliding Timescale this would have been around the time the Avengers fought the Growing Man the first time. This measurement of time should be considered factual.