New Thunderbolts #18
The Whole Hole
The Thunderbolts — Songbird (Melissa Gold), Atlas (Erik Josten), Radioactive Man (Chen Lu), Joystick (Janice Yanizeski), Photon (Genis-Vell), and Nighthawk (Kyle Richmond) — are training at their new temporary headquarters, the Richmond Riding Academy.[1]
After a training session, Songbird realizes that Photon isn’t doing anything. When Melissa asks Chen what’s happening, he explains that Genis has been having trouble aligning his Cosmic Consciousness. He is trying to differentiate between the past, present, and future, as he exists in all three simultaneously.[2] Suddenly, Genis cries out that he doesn’t want to die and portals open up all around him. One of these portals swallows up Songbird. As the other Thunderbolts try to avoid these portals it becomes clear that these portals are to different points in time and space.[3]
Songbird ends up in a place where she witnesses Baron (Helmut) Zemo shaking hands with Iron Man (Tony Stark) in Washington, DC. She and Atlas — who was fighting alongside his brother someplace — are brought back when Chen tosses Joystick up at Photon to knock him out.[4]
As Melissa tells the others what she saw, Baron Zemo is observing the Thunderbolts through one of his Moon Stones. He is pleased to see that Songbird is manipulating her team into trusting her.[5] However, he remains a few steps ahead of his former teammates, especially now that he has recovered Blackout from the Darkforce Dimension.[6] With his two Moon Stones, Zemo opens a doorway from his castle to the hideout of his confederates in Manhattan. He appears in the lab of the Fixer (Norbert Ebersol), who has been working with Mach-IV (Abner Jenkins) and the Blizzard (Donny Gill) on Zemo’s latest scheme. The group has just recently recruited Man-Killer (Katerina Van Horn).[7]
Unaware that the new Swordsman (Andreas Von Strucker) is spying on them, Zemo allays the fears of the others. He understands that they have little reason to fully trust him, as he has never been fully trustworthy. However, he insists that the Moon Stones have given him a glimpse of the future that they are doing everything that needs to be done. With that, Zemo opens a containment unit and unleashes a woman who is glowing radiantly with energy. When she leaves the hideout, Von Strucker catches a glimpse of this woman and is surprised to see who it is, as he did not expect this.
Back at the Richmond Riding Academy, Songbird is checking in on Photon who is still unconscious after Joystick knocked him out. Chen Lu has finished his examination of Genis and has determined that he hasn’t woken up because he doesn’t want to be awake. Chen explains that Genis’ powers have expanded to the point where he can see the past, present, and all possible futures, and this has been incredibly distracting to the point that he doesn’t know what has or hasn’t happened yet to the point that he can’t see what’s going on right in front of him. Melissa is shocked to hear this and believes that nobody should have this level of power. This is all part of Genis-Vell’s photonic powers, but Chen’s ability to understand these powers are limited but it could have very grave repercussions for all existence since photons are one of the building blocks of reality.
Songbird can’t help but feel sorry for Genis, when she instinctively touches his face to comfort him, she is suddenly connected with his Cosmic Consciousness. She is then shown the past as Genis shows her how he underwent this change. She sees Genis back when he was still Captain Marvel and helping the newly reformed Thunderbolts fight the Fathom Five. At the time, Genis believed himself sane and wanted to rebuild his reputation on Earth. However, his Cosmic Consciousness was clouded by the Purple Man (Zebadiah Killgrave), so he weouldn’t see it when Atlas attacked him. She seees how Genis was beaten to a bloody pulp and tossed into the Hudson River where he died.[8] Instead of death, some unknown power reached out to him and sealed Genis in a cocoon which began using photons to heal his broken body. In doing so, Genis became part of the structure of reality itself and became aware of the fact that he would be responsible for destroying all existence in the not-too-distant future.
When Melissa is shown the future — where Genis causes the destruction of Eternity itself — her connection with Genis is severed. This is when the others enter the room and ask what’s going on. Songbird tells them what she has seen and that they are going to have to keep Genis sedated until they can figure out what to do with him. When Erik suggests that they kill Genis, Melissa angrily lashes out at him. This is because when she saw the past, she learned the truth about Erik’s attack on Genis and how it wasn’t the work of the Killgrave.[9] She decides that the best thing to do is to contact the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and get their assistance as this is something too big for them to deal with. When Joystick reminds everyone that they just fought the Avengers, it raises questions on if they can trust them to do the right thing.[10]
That’s when Genis sits upright and cries out, telling the Thunderbolts to stop the holes that are cutting away at him. Seconds later, something crashes into the side of the building, prompting the Thunderbolts to go out and check. They are surprised to see that it is a Hydra skimmer craft. Inside, they find the Swordsman who has come to warn them that something is coming. He tells them that Baron Zemo has been responsible for everything. Seconds later, they are attacked by the glowing woman that Andreas saw earlier. It turns out to be the Thunderbolts’ former teammate, Moonstone (Karla Sofen), and upon her arrival she seemingly annihilates the entire team!
Recurring Characters
Thunderbolts (Songbird’s team: Atlas, Photon, Radioactive Man, Joystick, Nighthawk), Thunderbolts (Baron Zemo’s team: Mach-IV, Fixer, Blizzard, Blackout, Man-Killer), Moonstone
Continuity Notes
The Thunderbolts’ previous headquarters in Brooklyn was trashed by the Squadron Sinister in New Thunderbolts #15-16. Nighthawk offered his riding academy as a temporary headquarters last issue. Yes, this is the same Richmond Riding Academy that the Defenders previously used as a headquarters. It was first seen in Defenders #17.
Melissa doesn’t understand how Genis is having troubles after he got his life back together. She is referring to how he was recently “blinded” to the future by Purple Man, as seen in New Thunderboltts #1 through 12.
Of the images on display we see:
Genis-Vell’s father Captain Mar-Vell, who died in Marvel Graphic Novel #1.
Genis in a Kree soldier’s uniform which he wore from Captain Marvel (vol. 5) #3-18.
Captain America standing over the body of Heinrich Zemo during World War II. When this happened is unspecified.
We have a scene of Helmut Zemo fighting Photon, which will happen Thunderbolts #100.
Lastly, we see Baron Zemo shaking hands with Iron Man which will happen during the Civil War event, specifically in Thunderbolts #103.
At the time of this story, everyone believes that Atlas’ brother, the Smuggler, died in a battle against Graviton in Thunderbolts #56. In reality, he ended up getting trapped in the Darkforce Dimension and will be freed in Thunderbolts #100.
When Man-Killer is introduced in this issue, Fixer and Mach-IV are putting in some final touches on something. They are equipping her with Pym Particles that will allow her to change her size, as we’ll learn next issue.
It’s later revealed in Thunderbolts #101 that Zemo and Songbird have actually been working together this whole time.
Blackout was believed to have died in Avengers #277. However, he had been trapped in the Darkforce Dimension this entire time and was only recently freed last issue.
So a couple of things here:
Genis got the shit kicked out of him in New Thunderbolts #1. His time in a healing cocoon lasted until he was reborn in his current form in issue #6.
Melissa mentions that the Avengers were disbanded at the time. The events of New Thunderbolts #1 took place shortly after the events of Avengers #500-503, since then a new team had been formed as seen in New Avengers #1-5.
There are four possible futures/alternate realities where Photon destroys the universe. These will be averted in Thunderbolts #100. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #4, these realities have been numbered Reality-19000 through 19003
Following the Thunderbolts’ battle with Killgrave in New Thunderbolts #10-12, everyone was led to believe that the Purple Man used his powers to force Atlas to attack Genis. However, we learned that Zebadiah’s powers don’t work on ionic beings. Photon has known the truth but has kept it a secret this entire time.
Joystick points out that they beat up the Avengers recently, that was in New Thunderbolts #13-14.