Purple Reign, Part One: Of Mice and Maze

Songbird (Melissa Gold) has been rescued from Zebadiah Killgrave (aka the Purple Man) by the new Swordsman. As they flee down the street, they are chased by an massive angry mob that are somehow under Killgrave’s power even though he was run through on a sword. Surrounded by the mob, Melissa strains to use her sonic powers to knock them out.[1]

The Swordsman then uses his grappling function on his sword and swings himself and Mel up to the nearby rooftop. It’s here that she asked what Swordsman’s part in all of this. However, they are interrupted by the arrival of NYPD’s Code: Blue arriving on the road below. Lieutenant Marcus Stone comes out of armored vehicle and orders both of them to surrender. Hearing to Stone referring to Killgrave as his master, they realize that there is a much bigger game at play here.

Indeed there is, as news crews report from the scene down at Empire State University. They issue an alert to the public after thirteen students were killed in a hypersonic attack. As it is publicly known that Songbird was attending classes at ESU, she has become the prime suspect in the murders. As it turns out, Purple Man is still alive and this is all going according to plan. As it turns out, he was the one who killed the students using a sonic disruptor device. He then thanks the three female students that he has been enslaving for letting him stay in their dorm room while he set off this scheme.

Back on the rooftop, Melissa and Swordsman high tail it when Code: Blue begins opening fire. However, on the other side of the roof, a wall of ice forms to block their path. This announces the arrival of the Thunderbolts — Mach-IV (Abner Jenkins), Atlas (Erik Josten), Blizzard (Donny Gill), Speed Demon (James Sanders), Joystick (Janice Yanizeski), Photon (Genis-Vell), and Radioactive Man (Chen Lu) — who announce to the mob that they have the entire situation under control. Abner understands that Mel left the Thunderbolts and is mad at him, but he asks her to surrender.[2]

Swordsman tries to explain that they are being framed by the Purple Man. However, Abner doesn’t buy it, pointing out that Killgrave’s powers require him to be in close proximity of his victims which is impossible here. That’s when Joystick lunges at the Swordsman, knocking them both off the building. They are caught by Atlas, but the Swordsman quickly slashes his body open. This causes him to stary bleeding out ionic energy. As he lands on the ground, the Swordsman’s path is blocked by the Radioactive Man. When the Swordsman tries to slash Chen, he catches the blade and threatens to melt it with his radiation. However, the Swordsman is able to channel energy through the blade that blasts his opponent.

Watching from the sidelines is Photon who finds the turn of events to be fascinating because the Swordsman is fighting so good, almost as though he knows what’s coming. Hearing this, Melissa points out that this should be impossible with Genis’ Cosmic Consciousness and suggests that they are all under Killgrave’s control, which would explain how Atlas could have attacked Genis previously without him knowning it was going to happen.[3] That’s when Melissa unleashes a powerful sonic scream that causes a psychedelics effect that knocks out both Mach-IV and Photon.[4] With his powers surging out of control, Atlas has Blizzard encase him with ice just before he reaches critical mass and explodes.[5] Speed Demon accuses Swordsman of killing Atlas, not realizing that an ionic being cannot be killed so easily.

Songbird then shouts out that they are all under Killgrave’s control. This causes everyone to stop fighting in utter confusion, especially Photon who has a hard time thinking. That’s when Killgrave appears and confirms that he is indeed controlling them all, even though he is somehow doing so beyond the range of his usual powers. Mach-IV suspects that it must have something to do with the local water supply and orders Speed Demon to go and check it out, since he was a chemist in his previous life before becoming a villain. The team is regrouping and keeping their distance from Killgrave in the meantime. However, that’s when the Swordsman stabs Mach-IV in the back from behind, then slits Photon’s throat wide open.

Suddenly, everything turns white as reality reorders itself. Genis-Vell finds himself flying over the city wearing the uniform of a private in the Kree army. His superiors hear him audibly gasp over the radio and ask him what’s wrong. Not realizing that he did such a thing, Genis apologizes and says that he has nothing to report and everything is as it should be.[6]

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Songbird, Mach-IV, Atlas, Photon, Speed Demon, Joystick, Radioactive Man), Swordsman, Code: Blue (Marcus Stone), Purple Man

Continuity Notes

1. Melissa is straining to use her powers here because she totally wrecked her throat trying to keep the UN Building from collapsing in New Thunderbolts #3.

2. Melissa quit the Thunderbolts in New Thunderbolts #7, in the previous issue she had learned that Abner was receiving money from Hydra to fund the new team since it was founded in New Thunderbolts #1.

3. On the New Thunderbolt’s first mission, Atlas tossed Genis into the ocean because he didn’t want him interfering with the team, as seen in New Thunderbolts #1. Although he was resurrected by issue #6, Genis did not remember what happened to him.

4. Atlas notes that all of Melissa’s powers are back. This is a bit of a deep cut. Melissa’s sonic powers were damaged prior to her joining the Thunderbolts, as told in Thunderbolts Annual 1997. This required her to use a sonic carapace to replace those powers. She has been slowly getting her original abilities since Thunderbolts #47, but it has been a slow process.

5. Ionic beings are notoriously hard to kill, Atlas has cheated death in the past. After exploding in Thunderbolts #47 and pulling himself together in issue #56.

6. What happened here is the reality warp created by the Scarlet Witch, as seen in House of M #1-8. This temporarily replaced Reality-616 with one where mutants were the dominant species on the planet. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5 this world has been designated Reality-58163.

Topical References

• When Marcus Stone refers to his “master”, Swordsman quips that he probably doesn’t mean Bloomberg. This is in reference to Michael Bloomberg, who was the Mayor of New York City at the time this comic was published. This should be considered a topical reference as Bloomberg ended his tenure in 2012.

• The TV in the dorm room where Killgrave is watching the news is depicted as a CRT model. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology. There is also a stereo with a cassette tape deck. This should also be considered topical for the same reasons.

• Purple Man grossly says he wishes he could stay for post-rape Bugle and diet soda. Bugles are a snack food. Its reference here should be considered topical as it is a real world product.

• When Melissa uses a sonic scream on the Thunderbolts, Purple Man quips that the hallucinations it caused would have made Timothy Leary a lifelong fan. Leary was a psychologist that advocated the use of psychedelics to treat mental disorders. He died in 1996. His reference here would not necessarily be considered topical as he is a notable expert in his field in a historical context.