Thunderbolts #123 — Nick Peron

Jul 5

Jul 5 Thunderbolts #123

Running the Asylum, Part 2

Secret Invasion continues from New Avengers #44…

Thunderbolts Mountain has just been attacked by Captain Marvel. After taking down the team -— consisting of Moonstone (Karla Sofen), Songbird (Melissa Gold), Radioactive Man (Chen Lu), Swordsman (Andreas Von Strucker), Venom (Mac Gargan), Bullseye, and Penance (Robbie Baldwin) — it becomes clear to Director Norman Osborn that they aren’t dealing with the real Mar-Vell.[1] Norman, knowing a thing or two about hearing voices in his head, invites “Mar-Vell” to sit down and have a drink with him.[2]

He gets this impostor to admit that he’s really a Skrull infiltrator who is part of a planned invasion of Earth.[3] He also tearfully explains that it was the Skrull empire who chose his cover identity, that of the Kree Captain Mar-Vell, one of Earth’s greatest defenders. Osborn, feigning sympathy, tells “Mar-Vell” that he is very sorry to hear it. This causes the fake Captain Marvel to fly off.[4] That’s when the guards finally make their way into Osborn’s office. They confirm what Norman already suspected, that all the Starktech on the facility has been compromised by the Skrull invaders.[5] Luckily, he has his own company’s technology on hand to fill the gap. He orders the guards to go out and recover Venom. When Penance asks what they are going to do next, Norman picks up a machine gun and tells the Thunderbolts that they are going to war.

After suiting up in battle armor, Norman joins the Thunderbolts aboard the Zeus. As they fly out to Washington, DC, he informs the team of the Skrull invasion of Earth. With all Starktech down, he considers their team the last line of defense. He warns the Thunderbolts that if they fail on this mission he will personally kill them. Accompanying them is an alleged clone of Andrea Von Strucker, sister to the Swordsman. Moonstone is worried about this, suspecting that the sudden appearance of this “clone” could be another Skrull spy in their midst.[6] However, Osborn needs to be more calculated about disposing of her due to Andreas’ tenuous grip on sanity. He orders Moonstone to keep an eye on her and at the first sign of treachery, kill Andrea, and use her psychological skills to direct the Swordsman’s anger toward the invaders. Norman then addresses the rest of the team, he tells them that they edge they have on other teams is that they never trusted each other. With that in mind, he tells the Thunderbolts that anyone who betrays the team should be killed immediately. However, the killer better have good reason otherwise they’ll be considered a Skrull and killed as well.

Soon, the Thunderbolts arrive in Washington, DC, which is under sieged by multiple Skrull warships. The Thunderbolts who can fly are deployed to attack the ships. Among them is Penance, who jacks up his powers when he sees innocent people fleeing for their lives. When the media arrives on the scene to record the battle, Norman Osborn uses the opportunity to make his team out to be heroes when this is all over. He orders the pilots aboard the Zeus to ram the ship into the side of a ship. The crash breaches the hull of the Skrull ship allowing Norman to lead the charge against the invaders inside. Before they enter the fray, Osborn tells Bullseye and Venom that they don’t have to hold back — an order both follow with glee. The Swordsman and his sister join the fight, but Andrea makes her distaste for the Thunderbolts know. Andreas tells his sister not to worry as he’ll won’t let anything get between them. Little do they know that Moonstone is phasing through the wall behind them waiting to strike.

Meanwhile, the Skrulls aboard the ship send a distress to their comrades. Realizing their “Captain Marvel” plan failed, their superiors send two Super-Skrulls with size changing powers. One of them attacks Songbird, while the other rips his way into the ship. He singles out Venom and hits him with enough force to send him smashing into the ground below. As a crowd of people surround him, Venom begins to panic as he can’t tell if any of the civilians are actually Skrulls in disguise.

Back aboard the ship, the Skrulls prepare to transmit the images of Venom attacking the crowd to discredit the heroes of Earth. However, they are interrupted by Swordsman and his sister. But, before they can stop the Skrulls, Andreas is blasted in the back by Moonstone. She then offers to betray humanity to the Skrulls in exchange for South America. Meanwhile, Bullseye is slaughtering Skrulls with glee, and using the opportunity to also murder any of the Thunderbolt soldiers that have been injured in battle. At the same time, Radioactive Man is hit with an energy blast that causes a chain reaction to start building up inside of him, threatening to make him hit critical mass and explode. When Penance tries to radio for help, the Skrulls around him take on the form over those who died in the Stamford Disaster to taunt him.[7]

Hearing Penance losing it, Osborn tells him to snap out of it. When Norman rounds the corner of the ship he walks into his own nightmare: a room filled with Spider-Men! As the group of Wall-Crawlers openly mock him, Osborn begins laughing like a madman.[8]

… Secret Invasion continues in Secret Invasion: Front Line #3.

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Norman Osborn, Songbird, Moonstone, Radioactive Man, Swordsman, Venom, Penance, Bullseye), “Captain Marvel”, Skrulls

Continuity Notes

Until this point, everyone believed that Captain Marvel cheated his death from Marvel Graphic Novel #1 by traveling to the future, as seen in Civil War: The Return #1. In reality, this is a Skrull subversive named Khn’nr as per Captain Marvel (vol. 6) #5. He was sent to attack Thunderbolts Mountain in Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? #1 and last issue. This story takes place during the Secret Invasion event, specifically around the time of Secret Invasion #5. For more on the reading order of this event, see below.
Osborn had become mentally unstable after being exposed to his own Goblin Formula, as explained way back in Amazing Spider-Man #40. Around the time of this story, Osborn was undergoing treatment for bi-polar disorder as seen in Thunderbolts #111.
For more on the Skrull plot to invade Earth, see Secret Invasion #1-8 or one of the many crossover issues, a full list of which is provided below.
To find out the fake Mar-Vell’s fate see Secret Invasion #5. It doesn’t end well for him.
Part of the Skrull invasion was to shut down all Starktech, which was being used to run SHIELD among other globaly security infrastructure, as seen in Secret Invasion #1.
Andreas Von Strucker’s twin sister Andrea was killed by Baron Zemo in Citizen V and the V-Battalion #3. Andreas remained with the Thunderbolts on the promise from Osborn to clone his sister, as seen in Thunderbolts #113. However, he grew impatient and handed over some of his sister’s DNA to Arnim Zola in Thunderbolts: International Incident #1. Zola delivered on his promise last issue, something that will be confirmed next issue.
When he was Speedball, Penance and his fellow New Warriors went after some villains who were hiding out in the town of Stamford. The battle lead to an explosion that killed hundreds, including children. This led to the passage of the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA). When Speedball turned up alive, he was dragged through the mud as a scapegoat. He later took on the Penance identity to atone for the loss of lives. See Civil War #1 and Civil War: Front Line #1-10.
Spider-Man and Norman Osborn have been rivals for years starting in Amazing Spider-Man #14. Here, the Skrulls posing as Spider-Man mention how the real web-slinger brought Osborn down. That happened in The Pulse #1-5. Here we see Skrulls appearing in various costumes Spider-Man has worn over the years. There is his classic red and blue costume that he has worn almost consistently since he first got his powers in Amazing Fantasy #15. We also have a version of his black and white costume first seen in Amazing Spider-Man #252. Lastly, we have a version of the Iron Spider armor that was built in Amazing Spider-Man #529.