Burning Down the House, Part 1

Earth’s heroes have just saved the planet from invasion from the Skrull empire, with the Thunderbolts becoming the most celebrated heroes after the final battle.[1]

In the aftermath of the battle, the Swordsman (Anderas Von Strucker) is holding a private funeral for his dead sister, Andrea. He has opted for a funeral pyre outside of Thunderbolts Mountain because burying a cloned body with the original seems obscene to him somehow.[2] Songbird (Melissa Gold) is the only other member of the Thunderbolts to go with him and pay her respects. While Andreas wanted to do this alone, he eventually appreciates the fact that Melissa is there. After lighting the funeral pyre, Strucker is asked he plans on doing next. He tells Mel that he intends to serve out the rest of his sentence with the Thunderbolts, once that is done he vows to make Osborn die by his sword. Melissa reminds him that the nanochain in his body will prevent him from harming Norman, but Swordsman is willing to bide his time. Particularly since Osborn has been sucking up to government administration in Washington since the end of the Skrull invasion.

At that very moment, Osborn is answering to a hearing called by the Commission on Superhuman Activities (CSA) regarding his performance as director of the Thunderbolts. Dallas Riordan is forced to admit that while appointing Norman was controversial, has has vindicated himself.[3] This amuses Norman who (playing for the media in the room) accuses the CSA of trying to take credit for his accomplishments. He also takes the opportunity to reiterate how SHIELD was totally compromised during the invasion and Iron Man turned tail and ran in the final battle.[4] He says that his team was the only one not compromised by the Skrull invaders. He even accuses the CSA of having Skrull collaborators within their ranks. He then suggests that an independent agency — one that is answerable only to the President themselves — needs to be formed to root out any such traitors from the government. When Dallas questions if Osborn is suggesting he be the one to fill that role, Osborn dismisses the idea saying that whoever would head such an organization is for “wiser councils” other than him.

Having said his piece, Norman then gets up to leave. When the head of the CSA orders him to sit back down and continue answering questions, Osborn says that he has lost all confidence in the organization. He then announces his resignation and that the Thunderbolts are being disbanded before leaving for a meeting with the President. When Osborn steps outside of the Capitol Building there is a massive crowd of people cheering him on.

Back at Thunderbolts Mountain, Penance (Robbie Baldwin) is called into a psychological assessment with Moonstone (Karla Sofen). Robbie doesn’t understand why he isn’t being assessed by Doc Samson, and Karla has to remind him that she is the team psychologist.[5][6] Karla wants to know how he felt when he attacked her recently and he instantly feels bad about it. Sofen then points out that everyone hates him, not just because he was blamed for the Stamford Disaster, but all of the self-pitying self-mutilation he has been doing to himself ever since. This comes as a shock to Robbie who asks why she is being so mean to him. Karla explains that she is just needling him to see if he can handle the pressure, as she needs to determine if he can keep a cool head in the field. Robbie swears that it seems like she means it, but she tells him to calm down and drink some water. He does and she shows him his new costume. When Baldwin says he doesn’t need a new one, Karla holds up a straitjacket.
That’s when Robbie collapses to the ground realizing that his water was drugged. Karla then tells him that he’s to be sent to a maximum security mental institution, a particularly nasty one. When Baldwin finally passes out, Karla places a call to Norman Osborn to confirm the job has been done.[7] She then goes down to the hall to meet with Mac Gargan to tell him that Songbird and Radioactive Man (Chen Lu) are now in play. Happy to hear it, Gargan transforms into Venom.

By this time, Songbird has returned to her private quarters to pack her things up. She pauses when she comes across an old photo of the original Thunderbolts.[8] She is then visited by Chen who is surprised to see her packing. Melissa says that she decided to pack her things up because she figures they’ll be moving after all the incidents that have happened at Thunderbolts Mountain recently.[9] Melissa tries to reminisce about old times, but Chen interrupts her to say that his visa has been revoked and he is being ordered back to China. Melissa walks with him to the hanger, but can’t understand why he is being called back because she thought his country didn’t want him.[10] Chen says that things have changed since the Skrull invasion of Earth. Before getting onto the ship, Chen laments leaving her behind saying she was a good friend but wished they would become more over time. When Songbird doesn’t immediately respond to this, Lu fears that he has offender her. Suddenly, Melissa gets mean and tells Chen to get on the chopper and go. He complies and departs saying it was an honor working for her.

However, Songbird wasn’t being mean because of what Chen had said, she was trying to get him to go for his own safety. As soon as the helicopter is out of sight, the reason comes out of the shadows: Bullseye. He has been sent to deal with her, something he will enjoy after she previously tricked him into getting zapped by his nanochain while on a mission.[11] However, he doesn’t want to just kill her, he wants to make her suffer first. When he presses a punch dagger into her lower spine she tries to threaten to make the video footage of Norman as the Green Goblin to go public.[12] Bullseye informs her that Osborn no longer cares about that. He has bigger plans for the Thunderbolts and they do not involve her. However, Bullseye wants her to do something for him: Beg for death.

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Norman Osborn, Songbird, Moonstone, Radioactive Man, Swordsman, Venom, Penance, Bullseye), Dallas Riordan, Arthur Woodman, Andrea Von Strucker (corpse)

Continuity Notes

1. The Skrull invasion of Earth was primarily told in Secret Invasion #1-8. The Thunderbolts part in it was also covered in Thunderbolts #122-125. The team successfully repelled invaders from Washington, DC. In the final battle, Norman Osborn killed the Skrull queen as well. This has led to Osborn becoming the new director of SHIELD, as seen in Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1.

2. To be clear, this wasn’t Andreas Von Strucker’s twin sister, but a clone. The original 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 in Thunderbolts #122. She was actually killed by Bullseye in issue #124, but Osborn tricked the Swordsman into thinking the Skrulls killed her. Another clone of Andreas sister will be created and appears in Illuminati #2. Unlike a certain crowdsourced website that claims this is somehow the original Andrea Von Strucker, that she is a clone is identified in Generation X (vol. 2) #7. She has a copy of the original’s mind, she is not the original.

3. Norman Osborn was put in charge of the Thunderbolts in Thunderbolts #110. The reason why this was controversial is because Norman had very recently and very publicly outed as the Green Goblin in The Pulse #1-5.

4. Indeed, SHIELD’s ability to defend the Earth from Skrull invasion was compromised thanks to the Skrulls using a virus to debilitate all the world’s Starktech, as seen in Secret Invasion #1. Tony Stark did leave the battle as seen in Secret Invasion #8/Thunderbolts #125, because his armor was heavily damaged in the final battle. We also saw that a number of Skrull sleeper agents had infiltrated many superhero groups and government agencies.

5. Penance was previously evaluated by Doc Samson in Thunderbolts #116-121. It is also mentioned how Penance attacked Moonstone during this period and that her phasing powers hadn’t returned. That happened in Thunderbolts #121, and the reason why she attacked and why her phasing powers were on the blink is because they were all being manipulated to a group of telepaths.

6. 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.

7. Baldwin doesn’t actually get sent off to a mental health facility. Instead, he becomes part of the Shadow Initiative at Camp Hammond, as seen in Avengers: The Initiative #25-35.

8. Melissa tells Chen about how the Thunderbolts originally operated out of an old pizza place. This was the case waaaay back in Thunderbolts #1. They moved on from that dump in issue #3 and have had many other headquarters in between stints of being on the run.

9. Melissa mentions the four telepaths who infiltrated the base and Norman going crazy in Thunderbolts #116-121, and when the base was attacked by “Captain Marvel” (a Skrull spy) in issue #122.

10. Radioactive Man has been on loan to the Thunderbolts from the Chinese government since New Thunderbolts #4. Everyone believed that this was to ease Chinese/American relations. However it was later revealed in Thunderbolts: International Incident #1 that his government actually feared the effects his ambient radiation would cause to the country.

11. When the Thunderbolts were sent to capture the Steel Spider, Melissa tricked Bullseye into thinking the nanochain that keep him in line was turned off. This led to him getting his neck broken by American Eagle on top of being zapped by his nano chain, as seen in Thunderbolts #112-115. This left him in a catatonic state until issue #121.

12. Norman was pushed into dressing up as the Green Goblin in Thunderbolts #120-121. Melissa then had the security footage smuggled out by Doc Samson. Melissa has used this to blackmail Osborn, but the reason why he no longer cares will be revealed in issue #128-129: He has the Headsman pose as the Green Goblin to discredit the footage, thereby making it useless.

Topical References

• Songbird refers to the government as the “new administration”, this comic book was published following the 2008 Presidential Election, which saw Barack Obama elected. Since Obama’s administration came to an end in 2017, the context to this reference should be considered a topical. That there is a new administration in power could be considered topical as well, it depends on how the Presidential elections would stack compared to the Sliding Timescale.

• When Osborn is accusing everyone of taking some credit for his victory over the Skrulls, he sarcastically includes PETA in the list of agencies trying to avoid blame for their failures. PETA is not a government agency but an animal rights group called the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. If their name isn’t obvious, they advocate for animal rights. They believe in total animal liberation including the abolition of owning pets or using animal or animal byproducts for any human needs. There is a heap of hypocrisy and shadiness with the organization which I won’t address here (Google it) but their reference here should be considered topical as they are a real world organization.

• Karla states that Penance is coming to the end of his 12 month duty with the Thunderbolts. Penance joined in Thunderbolts #110, published in March 2007, while this issue was published in January, 2009. Per the Sliding Timescale, the length of time between these two issues would have been a little over 5 and a half months. As such, the measurement of time here should be considered topical.

• Karla is depicted using an old flip-phone style cell phone, which were common when this story was originally published in 2009. While these devices are still available, they have fallen out of common use thanks to the advent of the smart phone. As flip-phones are on their way to obsolescence its depiction here should be considered topical.