Caged Angels, Part 4

Thunderbolts Mountain is under complete lockdown and its staff and crew have been slowly going insane. This is the work of four telepathic superhumans — Bluestreak, Caprice, Mindwave and Mirage — who were recently taken prisoner.[1] Bluestreak has just succeeded in driving Venom (Mac Gargan) into killing the guards. They also learn that Bullseye is undergoing surgery for his recent injuries.[2] Deciding he is the least threatening of the group, Caprice and the others begin focusing on the rest of the Thunderbolts team.

Upstairs, Songbird (Melissa Gold) and Radioactive Man (Chen Lu) enter Norman Osborns’ office to find out what’s going on. Norman is currently on the phone refusing the demands of the Swordsman (Andreas Von Strucker) who has locked himself in his quarters and has a number of the facility guards on his side. Among Andreas’ litany of demands is the return of his sister. While Osborn screams into the phone, Moonstone (Karla Sofen) explains to the others how Norman promised to clone Strucker’s sister after his tour with the Thunderbolts was over.[3] Apparently, Strucker has taken to calling himself Baron after his father and said he blew up the Zeus in the name of Hydra.[4] Eventually, Osborn gets fed up and smashes the phone, then orders the rest of the Thunderbolts to drag Strucker out of his room and execute him.

At that same time, Strucker — who has just shaved his head in imitation of his father — has finished spray painting the armor of his loyal soldiers so they match the colours of his Swordsman attire. He is certain that Osborn is sending down more guards to deal with them and orders his minions to go out and eliminate any resistance they run into. Outside his quarters, his minions run into some guards and exchange fire. Most of his troops are killed, annoying Strucker enough to take command of the situation. Channeling his mutants powers through his sword, the Swordsman then slaughters the security detail Osborn sent down to contain him. This latest series of kills is celebrated by the prisoners down below. However, Bluestreak asks for assistance to keep the Thunderbolts from remembering that the nanochain that keeps them all in line.[5] While back in Osborn’s office, Norman discovers that the Swordsman is heading into the part of the facility where Venom is on the loose. He decides to sit back and let them deal with each other, before sending a team down to take down whoever survives.

Meanwhile, Doctor Leonard Samson’s session with Penance (Robbie Baldwin) continues.[6] The two are watching a rugby game when Len suddenly detects someone probing his mind. Robbie, however, hasn’t been effected because his powers somehow prevent him from being manipulated telepathically.[7] This is the work of Mirage who was checking in on them. Samson is able to detect her presence and uses his pent up rage — a rage that all gamma powered beings have — and uses it to blast her out of his mind.[8] When she tells Caprice and the others what happened, they tell her to leave Samson and Penance alone and help them with Venom and Swordsman instead. While Samson and Baldwin make sense of the telepathic intrusion, Robbie tosses an empty beer can toward a nearby garbage pail. When it looks like its going to miss, Robbie instinctively fires an energy blast to correct its trajectory, much to his surprise. When Baldwin asks if they should alert Osborn to the intrusion, Leonard doesn’t want to end their session when they are making some progress, suggesting that Norman will deal with the situation on his own.

By this time, Norman Osborn decides that he can’t just sit by and wait for the situation to resolve itself. Instead, he decides to take matters into his own hands. As he storms out of the room, he puts Moonstone in charge while he’s gone. Karla, however, is more interested in playing games on her phone than leading. Seeing the pair acting so uncharacteristically makes Songbird admit to Chen that she is frightened.

At the same time, the Swordsman and Venom have just crossed paths and neither is willing to get out of the way of the other. Seeing that this is going to be a fight to the death, the Swordsman lunges at Venom. Unleashing a bioenergy blast from his sword, Andreas manages to melt his way through the Venom symbiote enough to expose Mac Gargan’s flesh. He then takes advantage of this vulnerability and impales Mac with his sword.

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Norman Osborn, Songbird, Moonstone, Radioactive Man, Swordsman, Venom, Penance, Bullseye), Caged Angels (Mindwave, Mirage, Caprice, Bluestreak), Doc Samson

Continuity Notes

1. Got ourself a parade of obscure characters with names shared by other characters in the Marvel Universe. They were all captured over the course of Thunderbolts #116 and 117. Lets break it down:

   • Caprice was once a trainer for the Scourge of the Underworld program, as seen in US Agent #1-4.

   • This Bluestreak should not be confused with Don Thomas, the original Bluestreak. At the time of this story, Thomas had been dead for years after being killed by Scourge back in Captain America #318.

   • Mindwave is a new character who first appeared last issue as well. He shouldn’t be confused with Mind-Wave (with a hyphen) who was a Scourge victim who died in Captain America #319.

   • Mirage is also a new individual and should not be confused with Desmond Charne, the man who also called himself Mirage. Like Bluestreak before him, he was killed by Scourge in Captain America #320.

   • It is unclear why Caprice’s co-conspirators all named themselves after past Scourge victims, it’s kind of a weird flex but whatever. Oh, in case anyone is interested the dead namsakes of Caprice’s allies will all later be resurrected in Punisher (vol. 8) #5.

2. Bullseye was recently left incapacitated both physically and mentally in Thunderbolts #115. The telepath’s decision to not deal with him now will come back to haunt them in issue #121.

3. Recently, the Swordsman’s twin sister, Andrea was killed by Baron Zemo, as seen in Citizen V and the V-Battalion #3. Osborn secured Swordsman’s loyalty by promising to clone his sister in Thunderbolts #113. However, Osborn said that producing an adult clone of his sister would take some time to produce That is until he tanned a piece of her skin and wrapped it around his sword, as explained in New Thunderbolts #17. While his sister will remain among the deceased, a clone of her will turn up in Thunderbolts #122.

4. As explained in Uncanny X-Men #200, Andreas is the son of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, a Nazi war criminal who survived World War II. Here, Karla mentions how Wolfgang founded the terrorist organization known as Hydra. Strucker is identified as the founder of Hydra, having apparently founded the group in 1941 as seen in Wolverine: Origins #17. In reality, Hydra has existed for far longer in one form or another. Its actual origins are extraterrestrial in nature and date back to pre-history, as vaguely detailed in S.H.I.E.L.D. #4.

5. When Norman Osborn took over the Thunderbolts, he had most of the team injected with nanotech that he could use to incapacitate them from getting out of line. The only two members who aren’t saddled with this kill switch are Radioactive Man and Penance. See Thunderbolts #110.

6. Penance was once the carefree hero known as Speedball. That was until he and his fellow New Warriors were responsible for the explosion in Stamford, Connecticut, the inciting incident that led to the passage of the SHRA in Civil War #1. Apparently the lone survivor, Robbie was used as a scape goat and dragged through the legal system. After a series of near death experiences and beatings, Robbie discovered that his powers now only activated when he was in pain. He reinvented himself as Penance, with armor that had spikes on the inside to atone for the lives he was responsible for. See Civil War: Front Line #1-10.

7. It was first revealed that Speedball was immune to telepathy in New Warriors #46.

8. The commonalities (particularly with rage) among those mutated by gamma rays has to do with the radiation’s connection to the Below-Place, the domain of the One Below All. For more on this check out the entire run of Immortal Hulk.

Topical References

• Norman Osborn says he has the authority to sell Swordsman to the Indians. He is referring to Native Americans using a dated term that is considered a pejorative term. It stems from early American settlers believing that they had landed in India, because they were all fucking stupid. Currently, the acceptable term is to refer to them as Native American, or indigenous, or by their tribal affiliation.

• Moonstone’s cell phone is depicted as a flip phone with physical buttons. While these types of phones still exist, they have fallen out of common use thanks to the advent of smart phones and are on their way to obsolescence. As such, its depiction here should be considered topical.