Thunderbolt: Reason in Madness #1
Reason in Madness
The Thunderbolts — Moonstone (Karla Sofen), Songbird (Melissa Gold), Radioactive Man (Chen Lu), Swordsman (Andreas Von Strucker), Venom (Mac Gargan), and Penance — have been dispatched to stop Biohazard, who is on the rampage in Topeka, Kansas.[1] Since Penance was the only one to have fought this foe before, the team relies on his experience for assistance.[2][3] However, Biohazard is more powerful and unstable than before. When Venom offers to deal with the crowd, none of his teammates want him to do so, fearing he might try and eat some of them.[4] This annoys Gargan, because his teammates can’t let his past acts of cannibalism go.
That’s when Biohazard strikes Venom with enough force to send him flying. He crashes on a nearby rooftop where he is confronted by Whirlwind (David Cannon). The villain is forming a new Masters of Evil team and wants Venom to join up with them.[5] Mac says he can’t just leave the Thunderbolts thanks to a nanochain that keeps him in line. That’s when Cannon offers him a syringe that can shut down those nanites for two hours, long enough to hear what Whirlwind can offer him, including a way of shutting them off for good. This piques Venom’s interest and he is told to meet with the new Masters of Evil later that evening in a closed down bar in Denver.
At first, Mac doesn’t think he’s going to make the rendezvous until he returns to the scene of the battle. By this time, the rest of the Thunderbolts have contained Biohazard. When Swordsman begins complaining about how useless Venom is, Mac hits him in the head and changes his mind.
That evening, Venom injects himself with the needle that Whirlwind had given him and is impressed to see that it works. Leaving Thunderbolts Mountain on his own, Mac heads to the bar to see Whirlwind. There he is introduced to the rest of the new team which includes Mister Hyde (Calvin Zabo), Boomerang (Fred Myers), and Tiger Shark (Todd Arliss). When they offer Mac a beer — something he hasn’t been allowed to drink since being with the Thunderbolts — he tells them that they have five minutes to make their pitch. They offer him a chance to shut off the nanites permanently.[6] In order to twist his arm, they have dug up some dirt on Mac from back when he was a private investigator.[7] Turns out, he took a job from Obadiah Stane to steal robotics plans from Oscorp that landed a lucrative government contract. This seemingly convinces Gargan to join up and asks what they want him to do.
When Venom returns to Thunderbolts Mountain, he demands a private meeting with Osborn.[7] When Norman shuts down all of the monitoring devices, he tells Mac to say his piece. Venom figures that the reason why Norman Osborn isn’t rotting in a cell for his past crimes is because he has dirt on powerful people.[9] Mac figures one could always use more and has a line on a US Congressman that is involved in some shady dealings. His source wants to sell this information and Mac wants a week’s vacation. Osborn is curious and decides that he will meet with Mac’s informant to discuss a deal. As Venom is about to walk out of the room, Norman asks if there is anything else he wants to talk about.
That evening, Venom takes Norman down to the bar where the Masters of Evil are waiting. Thinking they have Osborn at their mercy, Whirlwind demands that Osborn hand over information that they can hold over him later. Cannon demands that Osborn protect them from arrest and in the event they do, make sure that they never see the inside of a jail cell. Surprisingly, Norman is very compliant and hands over a portable device that will allow them to pull the needed information off any computer.
However, when Boomerang plugs it into his laptop, it blows up in his face. While Venom attacks Tiger Shark, Osborn withstands several slashes from Whirlwind’s bladed gauntlets. Norman laughs at this attempt, pointing out the fact that he has survived being impaled before.[10] He then breaks Whirlwind’s leg before being attacked by Mister Hyde. Although Zabo is much stronger than Osborn, Norman is more ruthless. Pulling out a handful of storage devices, he manages to toss them into Hyde’s mouth where they explode. With this new Masters of Evil defeated in a matter of moments, Osborn tells them that they will now work for him from now on. If they fail to comply, Osborn will murder everyone they care about and have them tortured to boot. He then lets them go to spread the word that nobody messes with Norman Osborn.
As they leave the bar, Venom asks Norman why he wasn’t punished for screwing Osborn years earlier. Norman says that it is water under the bridge, saying that being pushed out of robotics changed his focus into biological enhancements, making him the man he is today. In turn, Mac says he didn’t betray Osborn because his gig with the Thunderbolts seems more lucrative despite the limitations imposed on him. Osborn is pleased to hear that and decides to grant him his week’s vacation, effective immediately. He turns the nanites off and tells Venom to have fun, but not kill anyone who will be missed.
Recurring Characters
Thunderbolts (Norman Osborn, Songbird, Moonstone, Radioactive Man, Swordsman, Venom, Penance), Biohazard, Boomerang, Mister Hyde, Tiger Shark, Whirlwind
Continuity Notes
This story takes place following the events of Civil War #1, wherein the Super Human Registration Act is passed requiring all superhumans to work for the government. Since Thunderbolts #110, the team has been tasked with hunting down outlaws who have not registered.
Penance previously fought Biohazard back when he was Speedball in New Warriors (vol. 2) #5.
Swordsman laments that he misses it when Penance used to only speak less. See, Speedball was the seemingly only survivor of the Stamford Incident that led to the passage of the SHRA in Civil War #1. He was made a scapegoat and was dragged through the system as punishment. Discovering his powers were only activated by pain, Robbie reinvented himself as Penance, as seen in Civil War: Front Line #1-10. More recently, Robbie underwent a therapy session with Doc Samson that made him more like his older self, see Thunderbolts #116-121.
Since being bonded to the Venom symbiote in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #10, Mac Gargan has had an issue with eating people. The Thunderbolts saw this first hand in Thunderbolts #115 and again in issues #118-119.
It is mentioned here that Mac was previously known as the Scorpion, an identity he assumed in Amazing Spider-Man #20 until he was bonded to the Venom symbiote. He was also previously a member of the Masters of Evil alongside Whirlwind in Avengers #222.
It is stated here that Mister Hyde was able to create a means of shutting them down after digging up the Jester’s corpse. They are referring to Jody Putt, the second modern age Jester. He was conscripted by Iron Man to hunt down and bring in Spider-Man when he defected during the Civil War. He ended up getting murdered by the Punisher, as seen in Civil War #5. As of this writing (November, 2023) Putt is still considered among the deceased.
Mac Gargan started as a private investigator, we first saw him in the employ of J. Jonah Jameson, trying to figure out how Peter Parker got his exclusive photos of Spider-Man. See Amazing Spider-Man #19.
Gargan mentions how he and Osborn go back to when they both wore green. While Mac was previously the Scorpion, Osborn has been the Green Goblin since Amazing Spider-Man #14. The two actually didn’t work together until relatively recently, as seen in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #1-4 and 9-12.
Gargan mentions how Norman Osborn had recently murdered a Daily Bugle reporter. That happened in The Pulse #1-5, and led to a very public reveal that Osborn was the Green Goblin.
The Green Goblin was famously impaled on his own Goblin Glider in Amazing Spider-Man #122. He survived thanks to the healing properties of the Goblin Formula that gave him his powers, as explained in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journals #1.
Topical References
The information on the US Congressman is said to be worth half a million dollars. Adjusting for inflation this would be worth over 700k in 2023.
Norman Osborn is depicted using USB drives in this story. While these are still commonly used today, they will eventually become obsolete.