Thunderbolts #43
Chasing Your Own Tail
This story continues from Avengers (vol. 3) #32…
On a mission for the Avengers, the Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) has broken into the headquarters of the Thunderbolts, hidden inside Mount Chateris in Colorado.[1] She is impressed by how high tech the security is protecting the place, but it is no challenge to sneak in undetected. Climbing through the ventilation system she peers out into a bedroom and due to its sparce nature she figures it as Moonstone (Karla Sofen)’s room. That’s when she notices a tiny video camera and distables it, wondering if Hawkeye (Clint Barton) knows that their team has been bugged.
This is detected by Techno, who set up the cameras to spy on the Thunderbolts as he poses as Ogre, their resident tech genius.[2] At first he thinks it might be Moonstone returning but since it wasn’t her phasing powers setting off his detection circuits, he decides to ignore it because he is too pre-occupied with his experiments to care.[3]
As the Black Widow makes her way through the headquarters, she hides when Songbird (Melissa Gold) and Charcoal (Charlie Bluringame) pass by. She overhears them complain about how Hawkeye isn’t putting any effort into helping them find Jolt’s killer.[4] The Widow pauses to consider this dissention in the ranks and for a moment, she feels as though someone is standing right next to her, but there is nobody there. The Widow continues down the hall, unaware that her instincts were correct as the Scourge of the Underworld is stalking the Thunderbolts with his cloaking device on.[5] Natasha eventually finds Hawkeye in the main lab having a heated discussion with Mach-2 (Abner Jenkins),[6] and the “Ogre”[7] over the search for Moonstone. Clint is very upset about the lack of progress and Natasha can see that her former lover cares for Karla Sofen as much as he once did for her many years earlier.[8] Not only have the Thunderbolts have been unable to track down Karla, but Atlas (Erik Josten) as well, after he was recently captured by Wonder Man (Simon Williams).[9]
That’s when the Black Widow decides to make her presence known. Leaping down from the ventilation system she tells Clint that she can help him with at least part of their problems. Clint is happy to see his old flames, and learns that she has come to seek out the Thunderbolt’s help. She explains how the Avengers have been caught up in a mystery involving a data coin with information regarding the Maggia that ties into a former Avengers associate named Masque, who may be related to the criminal Madame Masque. After a clash with the Grim Reaper, the Avengers soon discovered that there was an all out turf war going on with rival factions within the Maggia. During one such clash, the Avengers failed to capture Cyclone, the mob’s super-powered muscle. Now Natasha needs the Thunderbolts help tracking down what the Maggia are looking for: information on the original Baron Zemo’s ion experiments.[10] Since Heinrich Zemo’s son, Helmut, (the current Baron Zemo) was a founding member of the Thunderbolts, Natasha hopes that the team might have more information on this.[11] Mach-2, almost blowing his cover, says anything that they might have had was in the Four Freedoms Plaza when it was blown up.[12]
However, after getting reports about Captain America and Citizen V’s recent battle with Zemo in Central America, “Ogre” says he can help them locate his former hideout.[13] He says that he can have the location in the time it takes the Thunderbolts to get ready. When Mach-2 goes to tell Songbird and Charcoal to get ready, Charlie is furious that they are going off on some other mission instead of finding Jolt’s killer. Hawkeye, and the Widow head down to his quarters where they catch up. She is disappointed to hear that he is in a romantic relatioship with Moonstone. Hawkeye then shows off his new costume that “Ogre” designated for him. He has replaced the Avengers emblem on his belt buckle with the Thunderbolt’s symbol, as a sign of where he allegiances now lay.
Meanwhile, Moonstone has reverted back to her original costume and has broken into the Fantastic Four’s Pier 4 headquarters. There she uses their database to look up information on the Inhumans when she is caught red handed by Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) and his wife the Invisible Woman (Susan Richards). As they demand to know what Karla is doing in their headquarters, she debates on if she should ask for help, or kill them.[14]
While half a world away, in London, Andrea Sterman is investigating the recent murder of a Roxxon employee, and the government cover-up surrounding it.[15] Her investigation has brought her to the Notting Hill shop owned by a former Roxxon employee named Colin Hume. Hume was also a Canadian superhero who was a member of Alpha Flight under the name Windshear.[16] Since those days he has retired and now uses his mutant gift to create hard air sculptures that he sells as unique works of art. Hume is reluctant to talk about his career at Roxxon, but he confirms that they took samples of his hard air structures. However, he tells her that back then they would eventually dissipate because he wasn’t as proficient with his mutant gift back in those days.[17]
In Latveria, a young girl is going to fetch a pale of water from a nearby stream. That is when she finds the body of Dallas Riordan laying face down in the water. The outsider frightens the little girl who runs away to tell someone about her grisly discovery.[18]
By this time, the Thunderbolts have arrived at Baron Zemo’s ruined hideout in Central America. According to “Ogre’s” scans of the area, there are residual energy signatures indicating a battle happened there about a week earlier.[19] However, they detect that someone has been inside recently and so they begin looking around for clues. They find dried blood, and Mach-2 hopes it doesn’t belong to Zemo, as he had hoped their former leader might reform like the rest of them. That’s when they find scuff marks on the floor that lead down to a lower level of the facility. They soon trace them to their source and find a secret passage way. However, when they open it up, they are swarmed by an army of Zemo’s old mutates. Also emerging from the hiding place is Cyclone, who is carrying out the criminal scientist Doctor Karl Malus. Mach-2 tries to follow after them, but they manage to escape in a ship, Luckily, Mach-2 manages to tag it with a tracking device so they can go after him later.
Inside, the battle rages on and Techno decides it is getting too dangerous to fully maintain his cover and creates a bio-cellular resonance wave device that causes all of the mutates to revert back to human form. The Black Widow — who has felt that there was something off about the “Ogre” this entire time — is now suspicious about how he was able to develop a counter-measure against their attackers so quickly. However, the other Thunderbolts easily buy his quick explanation. That’s when Mach-2 returns and tells the others that he has picked up a radio report about the Avengers, who are currently locked in a life or death battle with Count Nefaria himself!
… This story continues in Avengers (vol. 3) #33
Primary Characters
Thunderbolts (Hawkeye, Altas, Moonstone, Songbird, Mach-2, Charcoal, “Ogre”), Black Widow, Andie Sterman, Windshear, Maggia (Cyclone), Karl Malus, Avengers (Iron Man, Goliath, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wonder Man, Warbird, Triathlon), Scourge, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Citizen V, Count Nefaria
Continuity Notes
Black Widow was sent to check in on the Thunderbolts after the Avengers were attacked by Count Nefaria along with the enslaved Wonder Man and Atlas. Nefaria enslaved Wonder Man following the events of Avengers Two: Wonder Man and Beast #3, while Atlas was captured last issue.
Techno has been posing as the Ogre since Thunderbolts #33. His cover will be maintained until issue #46.
Moonstone has been undergoing a personality crisis since Thunderbolts #28 as her personality is being sublimated by those of Ajes’ha, a Kree warrior who wielded the Moon Stone centuries earlier. She took off on her teammates in Thunderbolts #41.
Jolt was seemingly killed by Scourge back in Thunderbolts #34. The team has been too busy with other things going on to try and find her “killer”. What they don’t know is that this was one of those “faintest sparks of life” situations and she is actually been secretly being regenerated in Techno’s lab and will return to life in Thunderbolts #46.
Scourge has been targeting members of the Thunderbolts since issue #34. He snuck into their headquarters back in issue #41 and has been waiting for the right time to strike at his next target, Techno. As will be explained in Thunderbolts #49-50, Scourge is under orders from Henry Gyrich of the Commission on Superhuman Activities to wipe out the Thunderbolts as part of a larger scheme to kill every superhuman on the planet. Hyrich has been compromised by Hydra, who is using him as their puppet.
The Widow doesn’t recognize the “new” Mach-2. What she doesn’t know is that this is a still Abner Jenkins. Why he looks like an African-American is kind of complicated. Allow me to explain:
A few years earlier Jenkins, while still operating as the Beetle, killed a man in Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #3.
After Hawkeye took over leadership of the Thunderbolts (in issue #21) he convinced Abner to surrender to the authorities and serve out his sentence as a good will gesture to show that the team was reforming. He surrendered to the police in Thunderbolts #23.
Not long after that, he was recruited by the CSA to help bust Justin Hammer, as seen in Thunderbolts #26 and 32-36. When the Thunderbolts found out, Hawkeye blackmailed Gyrich into allowing Abe to go free in Thunderbolts #37. In order to cover this up, Abe underwent facial reconstruction making him a Black man. This will remain his status qup until Avengers/Thunderbolts #1.
The Black Widow recognizes the Ogre from Factor Three, a mutant terrorist organization that he was previously a member of, as seen in X-Men #28-39. The Ogre had gone into hiding for years until the Thunderbolts set up shop in Factor Three’s former hideout in Thunderbolts #31.
Natasha thinks back to her long ago relationship with Hawkeye. The two became partners in crime starting in Tales of Suspense #57. The two were in an on-again-off-again as the pair reformed at different times (Clint in Avengers #16 and Natasha in Avengers #30. However, their romance came to an end when Natasha decided to continue her espionage career working for SHIELD rather than be a stay-at-home girlfriend like Clint wanted, as seen in Avengers #76.
The reason why they can’t track Atlas is because he accidentally broke his communicator/tracking device in Thunderbolts #40.
This is an exposition dump so big, you’re going to need to stretch your sphincter to be ready for it. Let’s break all of this down:
Natasha states that it all started when she got a disc from a robot named Benedict when she was in charge of the Avengers. This was in Avengers #399, a plot thread that got lost in the shuffle following Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1, and Natasha shuttering the Avengers for a time after its core members were seemingly kill, as told in Avengers Annual 1999.
Masque first appeared back in Iron Man #320, it is later revealed in Avengers (vol. 3) #31-32 that she is one of many bio-duplicates that were employed by the real Madame Masque dating back to Iron Man #138.
The original Baron Zemo first created a device to turn people into beings of ionic energy waaaay back in Avengers #9. It was used to create Wonder Man, as well as give Erik Josten his powers in Avengers #21. Count Nefaria has also become an ionic being back in Avengers #165-166. More recently, circa Iron Man (vol. 3) #16, Nefaria has become a sort-of ionic vampire, needing to feed off the energies of others like him. As we’ll see in Avengers (vol. 3) #33-34, the Count is attempting to set off an ion bomb that will turn every living thing on Earth into ionic beings for him to feed off of.
Heinrich Zemo died in a battle to the death with Captain America way back in Avengers #15. His son Helmut eventually took on the Baron Zemo mantle in Captain America #275. In more recent times, Zemo posed as the latest Citizen V and helped reinvent his Masters of Evil into the Thunderbolts as part of a complex plot to take over the world, as revealed in Thunderbolts #1 until the team was exposed in issue #10.
The Thunderbolts took over the Four Freedoms Plaza during a period that the Fantastic Four were believed to be dead following Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. They moved into the building in Thunderbolts #2. The building was decimated by explosives to cover Baron Zemo’s escape in Thunderbolts #10. The remains of the building were later transported to the moon in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #13 and dumped into the Negative Zone in issue #38 of that series.
Techno doesn’t actually need reports to go by since he was there when the battle happened, see Captain America Annual 1998.
The reason why Moonstone is looking up the Inhumans, is because they have a connection to the Kree. As revealed in Thor #146-148, the Inhumans were bred by the Kree to be used as super-powered soldiers in war.
Andrea has been investigating the murder of Bobbie Haggert, who was killed by Scourge in Thunderbolts #36 using Omega-32, a method that turns air in to solid structures. This is all part of Gyrich’s cover-up I mentioned earlier. Andrea has been on the job since Thunderbolts #41.
For more on Hume’s time at both Roxxon and Alpha Flight see Alpha Flight #87-130.
Hume notes that Andrea “wrote that book”, he is referring to American Dreamers: The Lives and Deaths of Jack Monroe, which was based on her investigation into the life of the vigilante Nomad. See Nomad #1-4 and (vol. 2) #1-25.
Dallas ended up falling to her seeming demise after a battle with the Crimson Cowl. See Thunderbolts #38-42.
This would have been Zemo’s battle with Scourge, where he was seemingly killed, as seen in Thunderbolts #39. However, Zemo managed to survive being beheaded because of a “bio-moden” was created to transfer his mind into a new body. Ironically, Zemo finds his mind transmitted into the mind of John Watkins III, as we’ll see in Thunderbolts #45.
Topical References
Charcoal says that Zemo’s former hideout looks cozy in a “Addam’s Family” sort of way. He is referring to the Adams Family, which started off as a series of one panel cartoons in the New Yorker from 1938 to 1988, and has since been adapted into various film and television spin-offs over the almost a century. Due to its endurance in the cultural zeitgeist, it wouldn’t necessarily be considered topical.
