Made Prefect

The Thunderbolts — Songbird (Melissa Gold), Atlas (Erik Josten), Photon (Genis-Vell), Speed Demon (James Sanders), and Radioactive Man (Chen Lu) — have been asked by the Commission on Superhuman Activities to fight the New Avengers — Iron Man (Tony Stark), Captain America (Steve Rogers), Luke Cage, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds). They lured the Avengers to the beaches of Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

As each Thunderbolt pairs off against an Avenger, Captain America asks Songbird why they are doing this. Meanwhile, Photon teleports the Sentry to another galaxy.[1] When Spider-Man tries to use Atlas to web-sling off of, he anticipates the move. Shrinking down in size causes the wall-crawler to fall flat on his ass, leaving him open to Speed Demon’s attack. Radioactive Man keeps Iron Man distracted, until Atlas has an opening to stomp on the armored hero.[2]

With his team taking a pounding, Captain America predictably orders everyone to swap opponents. That’s when Photon returns and teleports Cap away just like he did with the Sentry. This leaves Spider-Man and Iron Man all alone against the entire team of Thunderbolts. As they lower the boom, Atlas wonders how Joystick (Janice Yanizeski) is doing.

Joystick was tasked with breaking into Avengers Tower, where she found Spider Woman (Jessica Drew) on guard duty.[3] As the two fight, Spider-Woman is unaware that Joystick is releasing microbe size surveillance devices that were created by Hank Pym on behalf of the CSA.[4] The longer the fight carries on, the closer Avengers Tower gets close to total saturation. For her part, Joystick starts seeing the challenge of fighting Spider-Woman and becomes determined to win this brawl.[5]

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, Abner Jenkins (Mach-IV) and Norbert Ebersol (Fixer) go looking for Donny Gill, aka the Blizzard. They find him drinking his sorrows away at a strip club called the Big Apple. He has been hanging out there ever since he was fired from the Thunderbolts. They find him at the bar drinking beer and asks Donny if Blizzard wants to help save the world.[6]

At that same moment, both the Sentry and Captain America find themselves trapped in the Microverse with Photon. However, when Genis sees that Cap is in serious danger he sends him back to Earth, as the Thunderbolts don’t want to kill anyone. Cap ends up back on the beach in Sandy Hook and right in the path of one of Iron Man’s repulsor blasts. Although he is staggered from the blow, Steve Rogers shrugs it off and once again tries to plead with Songbird to stop fighting to talk. In fact, Steve has come to believe that perhaps the Thunderbolts are being blackmailed by somebody.[7] That’s when Iron Man realizes that the Thunderbolts are being blackmailed by the government.

That’s when Photon and Sentry return from the Microverse. Before the Sentry can recover, Genis teleports him back to the Microverse in such a way that he’ll reappear in in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, allowing them to get away before he comes back. By this point, all of the New Avengers have been defeated and humiliated. When Luke Cage swims back up to shore, he is ready for a fight. Songbird tells him that the battle is over, but warns him that the Thunderbolts will trounce the Avengers the next time they are ordered to do so. With that, Photon teleports himself and his teammates away.

Back at Avengers Tower, Joystick continues trying to fight even though she has been badly beaten and both of her eyes are swollen shut. Spider-Woman orders her to surrender before she gets seriously hurt. Jessica then charges up another venom blast, but relents. Knowing that she called Spider-Woman’s bluff, Joystick laughs then leaps off the rooftop of the tower and flees into the night, declaring herself the winner of the fight.

Back at the offices of the CSA, they confirm that Avengers Tower has been completely bugged. They have also bugged Thunderbolts HQ and the Baxter Building, headquarters to the Fantastic Four. They aren’t entirely sure if they should trust their benefactor, Baron Zemo. Zemo had come to them warning of a dire threat and assures them that when it rears its ugly head, their decision to activate the Guardian Protocols will have been vindicated.[8] Henry Gyrich warns Zemo that if it isn’t he will pay. The Baron assures them that they are preparing the destruction of the world!

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Songbird, Atlas, Photon, Speed Demon, Joystick, Radioactive Man), New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, “Spider-Woman”, Sentry, Luke Cage), Warbird, Henry Gyrich, Val Cooper, Dallas Riordan, “Hank Pym”, Baron Zemo, Blizzard, Mach-IV, Fixer

Continuity Notes

1. The Sentry states that he has met Photon’s father, Captain Mar-Vell, to which Photon quips “that makes one of us”. Mar-Vell died of cancer in Marvel Graphic Novel #1. Years later, Genis was spawned using artificial insemination, as explained in Silver Surfer Annual #6. The details of Sentry’s encounter with Mar-Vell, as of this writing (October, 2023), remains untold.

2. It is noted that Speed Demon seems faster than normal. That’s because his powers are being boosted by the Wellspring of Power. See Thunderbolts #101-109.

3. Joystick states here that Spider-Woman got her powers from Hydra. This statement is actually quite complicated without Joystick getting more specific.

   • One version of Spider-Woman’s origins (Spider-Woman: Origin #1-5) shows that Jessica’s parents were Hydra agents. This is contradicted in other tellings, such as Spider-Woman #1 (among others).

   • Joystick could also be referring to the events of Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1, that saw Jessica Drew going to Hydra to have her powers revitalized.

   • In any event, its a moot point since this is not the real Jessica Drew. At the time of this story, Spider-Woman had been replaced by a Skrull named Veranke (in the aforementioned Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1). We’ll learn this truth in Secret Invasion #1-8.

4. This isn’t the real Hank Pym either, he was replaced by a Skrull named Criti Noll prior to the events of House of M #1, as will be explained in Mighty Avengers #15.

5. Spider-Woman asks if Joystick has broken in on some kind of revenge scheme against Spider-Man. Joystick did get her start as a Spider-Man rogue, as first seen in Amazing Scarlet Spider #2.

6. Donny was fired from the Thunderbolts last issue. They are being recruited by Baron Zemo to save the world. This is a two part mission, the first is to stop Photon from destroying the universe as seen in Thunderbolts #100, and later to prevent the Grandmaster from stealing the power from the Wellspring of Power, as seen in Thunderbolts #101-109.

7. Captain America asks if they are being manipulated by Purple Man again. The team ran afoul of Zebadiah Killgrave in New Thunderbolts #10-12.

8. The Guardian Protocols are an alien pact that would bring destruction on any world that threatened the existence of the universe. See Thunderbolts #106 for all the details.

Topical References

• When Spider-Man asks Iron Man if he has the Hulk hiding in his armor, Tony quips that the only thing he has is his Amex Platinum Card. This should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world product.