How is Justice Best Served?

The Thunderbolts — Hawkeye (Clint Barton, Moonstone (Karla Sofen), Songbird (Melissa Gold), Atlas (Erik Josten), and Charcoal Charlie Burlingham) — have tracked down the new Beetle to determine if it is their teammate, Abe Jenkins.[1] This has led them to the hideout of Justin Hammer in Vancouver, Canada.[2] They have interrupted the Beetle just after he defeated Hammer’s bodyguards — Blizzard, Whiplash, Hydro-Man and Speed Demon — and handed over a stolen sample of Omega 32. When the Beetle begins attacking the Thunderbolts, a drone pop’s out of the T-Bird to observe the conflict. As his hired men begin recovering from the Beetle’s earlier attack, Justin Hammer orders them to deal with the Thunderbolts before fleeing the scene.

The battle is being observed by Techno at the Thunderbolt’s headquarters. For some time now, he has been posing as the team’s resident technical genus, the Ogre.[3] He has his drone begin scanning the Beetle’s armor in order to determine if it has any weaknesses he can exploit. Contacting Hawkeye in the field, the “Ogre” informs him that the armor interfaces with the user in the same way as the Mach-1 armor that Abe used to wear and it operates by voice command. He tells Clint to get the Beetle to talk and he can replicate his voice and shut the armor down. Barton tells him that they will try their best. Techno then ends the call and resumes his true form.[4] He then goes into another part of his secret lab to check on three bodies that are being kept in stasis: One that was there when he took over, the other containing the real Ogre, and the last which he added recently.[5]

Meanwhile, just outside the city of Burton Canyon, Colorado, police come to the scene of an accident. The vehicle involved is a news truck that skidded off the road and crashed through a barrier into a ravine below. Looking for survivors in the wreckage, they discover the dead body of reporter Gayle Rogers.[6]

Back in Vancouver, the battle isn’t going very well. The Thunderbolts are too distracted because of their concern that they might be fighting a former teammate and — in Melissa’s case — her lover. Hawkeye notices the team lacks cohesion and realizes he hasn’t done a very good job about teamwork. However, he notices something else, the Beetle seems to be able to use counter measures against the T-Bolts that only Abe would know, and it looks more like he’s using this battle to damage Justin Hammer’s base of operations.

Monitoring the situation are Val Cooper and Henry Gyrich. Val is paying close attention to Hawkeye and believes that he is onto them and suggests that they order Beetle to retreat before any of the Thunderbolts get hurt, or else they’ll lose control of him. Gyrich has no choice but to agree, and the Beetle is ordered to return to base. Beetle then orders all the other villains to reatreat, leading to a prompt exit. Hawkeye decides to split up the team and decides that he, and Charcoal will go after the Beetle. However, Songbird objects and insists that she go after him instead. When Clint tries to convince her that she is too emotional over this, she points out that he would have insisted on going if it had been his late wife, Mockingbird, or Moonstone who was in that armor.[7] Realizing he can’t argue with that, Hawkeye allows Songbird to go with them, while Moonstone and Atlas go after the others.

Elsewhere, in the forests of Symkaria, Citizen V is on the run after refusing to assassinate a target for the V-Battalion.[8] Her former handlers have now sent a team to bring her back in or eliminate her, something that she will not allow to happen. She manages to get the drop on one of her trainers, Piers, and steal their V-wing to escape. As she flees, Piers warns her that by escaping she has signed her death warrant.

Back in America, Hawkeye uses the tracking devices in the T-Bird to track the Beetle’s energy signature. However, their quarry ambushes the ship, forcing Charcoal to break pursuit to save Clint. Songbird however flies after the Beetle and pleads with him to stop, telling him how much she loves him and how much she misses him. This causes the Beetle to pause for a moment but its not to confirm or deny his identity. Instead he uses his onboard weapons to smash Melissa’s solid sound wings, causing her to fall from the sky. By this point, Charcoal and Hawkeye have caught up. While Charlie goes after Mel, Clint manages to tag the Beetle with a scrambler arrow. This causes the hulking suit of armor to deactivate and crash into the Burton Canyon Bank. However, when the Thunderbolts arrive and remove the Beetle’s helmet, they are shocked to discover that there is nobody inside. Equally shocked are his handlers — Val Coopy and Henry Gyrich — who have no idea how Jenkins pulled this disappearing act.[9]

While at the Roxxon Energy Research Lab outside of Denver, a man who appears to be Sam Higgins — the creator of Omega 32 — approaches an employee named Bobbi Haggert. He reveals that he knows she gave documents about Omega 32 to a reporter Gayle Rodgers. When Bobbie tries to deny it, “Sam” fires a projectile from an invisible launcher on his wrist. This fatally hits Haggert in the neck, killing her instantly. That’s when the image of Sam Higgins briefly distorts before correcting itself. As he walks out the room he is confident that the information leak has been resolved and proclaims that justice has been served.[10]

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Hawkeye, Moonstone, Atlas, Songbird, Charcoal, “Ogre”), Beetle, Henry Gyrich, Val Cooper, Justin Hammer, Whiplash, Blizzard, Hydro-Man, Speed Demon, Humus Sapien (unidentified), V-Battalion (Citizen V) “Sam Higgens”, Bobbi Haggert

Continuity Notes

1. The situation with the Beetle is quite complicated.

   • Abe Jenkins had reinvented himself as a hero known as Mach-1 in Thunderbolts #1 and had been trying to redeem himself for his criminal past. After Hawkeye joined the team in issue #21, he convinced Abe to surrender to the authorities for a past murder conviction.

   • Jenkins did just that in Thunderbolts #23. The murder in question was committed back when he was still the Beetle in Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #3.

   • While in prison, Jenkins was recruited by Henry Gyrich and Val Cooper of the Commission on Superhuman Activities in Thunderbolts #26. His first mission was to try and take down Justin Hammer from the inside. Part of this plan involved the Beetle stealing Omega 32, a compound that Hammer was seeking to illegally obtain from the Roxxon energy company. See the last two issues issues for all the deets.

2. The narrative here states that the team is still recovering from their failed attempt at capturing the Hulk and the recent death of their teammate Jolt. These events also happened over the last two issues. However, Jolt isn’t truly dead, and will be brought back to life again in Thunderbolts #46.

3. Techno has been posing as the Ogre’s since Thunderbolts #33, his cover will be blown in issue #46.

4. The narration here gives a Coles Notes version of how Techno came to be posing as the Ogre:

   • It explains how he was a founding member of the Thunderbolts (Thunderbolts #1) and that the team’s original goal was to only pose as heroes to take over the world.

   • The real Techno had his neck snapped in Thunderbolts #7, his mind was copied to a robotic body in the following issue. However, this is not the real Techno, just a copy of his mind. The real deal will be restored to life in issue #49.

   • When the Thunderbolt’s true purpose was exposed in Thunderbolts #10-12, Techno fled with Baron Zemo while the rest of the team remained together, choosing to legitimately reform. Techno remained by Zemo’s side until Captain America Annual 1998.

5. The two unidentified bodies in stasis are Jolt (as revealed in Thunderbolts #46) and the mutant known as Humus Sapiens (as will be revealed in Thunderbolts #55).

6. Gayle has mostly been reporting on the Thunderbolts, documenting their path to redemption since Thunderbolts #18, which made her quite visible in Burton Canyon after the Thunderbolts set up shop in nearby Mount Chartris in issue #24. She was murdered between last issue and this one by the same man responsible for “killing” Jolt, the Scourge of the Underworld, as we’ll learn in issue #38.

7. Hawkeye had previous married Barbra Morse, aka Mockingbird, back in Hawkeye #4. In Avengers West Coast #100, it appeared that she had been killed in a battle with Mephisto. In reality, this was a Skrull spy who had taken Bobbi’s place. The truth won’t be revealed/explained until Secret Invasion #8 and New Avengers: The Reunion #2.

8. Citizen V was ordered to eliminate a target. We later learn in Thunderbolts #50 that this target is Henry Gyrich, who had been compromised by Hydra and is being forced to enact a plot that will eliminate every superhuman on the planet.

9. The suit can be piloted remotely, as we learn next issue. Although it’s not implicitly stated, Abe got out of the suit when he got away and sent the it to attack Hawkeye and the others.

10. “Justice is Served” is said here as a hint to the identity of the mystery assassin that has been active since issue #34. This is a phrase used by the assassins known as the Scourge of the Underworld whenever they eliminated a super-villains, as first seen in Iron Man #194. That organization was created by Thomas Halloway, the Angel of World War II, as revealed in US Agent #4. However, this Scourge is unrelated. In reality, he is Jack Monroe, who was forced into becoming the New Scourge by Henry Gyrich, as revealed in Thunderbolts #49.

Topical References

• Hawkeye quips that they found the “Daily Double” when they unmask the Beetle. This is in reference to the popular TV game show Jeopardy. This should be considered a topical reference.