Thunderbolts #8
Songbird: Alone!
Credits[1]
The Elements of Doom have set up a citadel in the middle of Central Park. This is the staging ground of their planned invasion of Earth which will see everyone transformed into sentient elements. With the Thunderbolt’s captured and trapped inside, it is up to New York City’s other superheroes to fight back the invaders.[2]
Among those who have answered the call are Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Heroes for Hire (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and White Tiger), the New Warriors (Night Thrasher, Firestar, Justice, Nova, Rage, and Darkhawk), as well as the former Avengers known as Swordsman and Magdalene. The entire scene is brought to live television by reporter Megan MacLaren.[3]
While the other Thunderbolts are trapped inside, their leader Citizen V, has been pressuring the mayor’s office and SHIELD to release the Avengers files. This is under the pretense that the data will give him clues on how to defeat the Elementals of Doom. What people don’t realize is that most of the Thunderbolts are secretly members of the Masters of Evil and their leader, Baron Zemo, really wants the data as part of a scheme to conquer the world.[4] After hours of pressure, SHIELD operative G.W. Bridge finally agrees to hand over the sensitive files but doesn’t know how they will be of any use.
Meanwhile, inside the Elements’ citadel, most of the Thunderbolts were helpless as Iron snapped the neck of their teammate Techno while he was trying to escape. Iron notices that Songbird got loose while they weren’t looking but promises her friends that the Elements will track her down and eliminate her as well. Songbird, who was trying to find the Elements’ creator Vassily Khandruvitch was being guided by Techno before his radio transmission abruptly cut off.[5] She is soon ambushed by Gold and Silver who begin wrapping themselves around her in an effort to suffocate the human. Giving in to blind panic, Melissa forces them off with a massive bubble of solid sound and then pummels them death. In the aftermath of the life-or-death struggle Songbird is surprised that she was able to defend herself on her own.
At that same time, Iron dumps Techno’s body in the scrap heap. Moments later, the inventor’s techpac springs to life and begins interfacing with the mechanical parts. Seeing how callously the Elements disposed of her teammate’s body, Songbird then fights her way into the chamber where Vassily is being kept since his creations turned against him. As she convinces him to help her free the Thunderbolts, a digital image of Techno appears on a nearby computer screen. He tells Melissa that he cheated death by having a copy of his brain engrams copied into his techpac. Now in control of the citadel, Techno uses it to build himself a brand new robotic body which he uses to free the rest of the Thunderbolts.[6] As the team is getting freed, Vassily tells them that the easiest way to destroy the Elements is to use their chemical compositions against their opposite numbers, this will disrupt the crystalline matrixes that give them sentience and revert them back into an inert state.
The Thunderbolts make short work of the Elements inside and break free from the citadel. They arrive just as the heroes outside are trying to figure out what to do about the final Elements, all of which are highly radioactive isotopes. Techno is able to form a disruptor cannon out of his arm and blast the radioactive Elements into a puddle of toxic waste which is then temporarily contained with a good helping of lead that will hold until clean-up crews can get on the scene. In the aftermath of the battle, Citizen V arrives on the scene and commends his team on a job well done. The Thunderbolts are also congratulated by and spend time getting to know the other heroes who had answered the call to action.[7] Speaking to the media, Citizen V claims that the Thunderbolts’ victory came thanks to the city finally giving his team access to the Avengers database.
Once the team gets back to the Four Freedoms Plaza, Zemo has a private meeting with the team without Jolt present. He chastises them for disobeying his orders and tells them that the only reason he is being lenient with them this time is that their unauthorized action allowed Zemo to gain access to the Avengers files. He commends them for a job well done as this incident has brought them one step closer to world domination. When Songbird asks why they have to execute their master plan so quickly, Zemo points out that they weren’t going to be playing hero forever.
Recurring Characters
Thunderbolts (Citizen V, Atlas, Meteorite, Mach-1, Songbird, Techno, Jolt), Vassily Khandruvitch, Elements of Doom (Cadmium, Cesium, Iron, Europium, Beryllium, Hafnium, Plutonium), Spider-Man, Daredevil, Swordsman, Magdalene, New Warriors (Night Thrasher, Firestar, Justice, Nova, Speedball, Rage, Darkhawk), Heroes for Hire (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, White Tiger), Megan MacLaren
Continuity Notes
This cover pays homage to Uncanny X-Men #168.
There are a few statements here about how the characters wish the Fantastic Four and Avengers could be here to help. At the time of this story, everyone believes they died in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. In reality, they were transported to a pocket dimension where they are living reimagined versions of their past lives. They will be found and brought back to their native reality in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4.
All of the Thunderbolts save Jolt were revealed to be members of the Masters of Evil in Thunderbolts #1. Their secret won’t be revealed to the general public until issue #10.
The narration states here that Songbird was one a member of the Gapplers and partner to Angar the Screamer, all of whom abandoned her.
As Screaming Mimi, Songbird was a member of the Grapplers an all female team of wrestlers that were part of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. They also moonlighted as supervillains for hire starting in Marvel Two-In-One #54. The group fell apart when their leader, Titania was murdered by Scourge in Thing #33.
Mimi teamed up with Angar the Screamer when the both busted out of the Vault during the Acts of Vengeance storyline, starting in Avengers Spotlight #28. More recently, Angar seemingly died catching a bullet during a brazen bank robbery in Thunderbolts Annual 1997. He will be resurrected as a being of pure sonic energy in Thunderbolts #49.
While everyone is led to believe that Techno transferred his mind into the techpac and lives on in this robotic body, in reality this is merely a copy of his mind. The real Techno will be resurrected and turns up alive again in Thunderbolts #49.
Here, Meteorite tells Iron Fist that her powers were the result of a “harmonic convergence”, which he doesn’t really buy. This was a made up backstory created by Citizen V/Baron Zemo to explain how Moonstone/Meteorite got her powers to obfuscate her true identity. See Thunderbolts Annual 1997.
