Thunderbolts #52
The Pursuit of Justice
The Redeemers — Captain America (Steve Rogers), Jolt (Hallie Takahama), Charcoal (Charlie Burlingame), Fixer (Norbert Ebersol), Meteorite (Valerie Burnhardt), Smuggler (Conrad Josten), Beetle, and Scream — have come to Latveria to liberate Dallas Riordan from the country.[1] The team has reluctantly agreed to help Doctor Doom stop a plot by the Young Allies — a team of young heroes from Counter-Earth — from committing an act of terrorism that will wipe out the entire population of Latveria. Working with them is the high tech cowboy known as Rebel (Connor O’Reilly).[2] No sooner have they joined forces with Doom are they attacked by an army of reporgrammed robots.
Captain America in particular wanted to get to the bottom of things because the leader of the Young Allies is apparently his former partner on Counter-Earth, a young woman calling herself Bucky (Rikki Barnes), although he has very little memory of his time living on that world.[3] While Steve hardly remembers Bucky, he cannot condone the idea that she intends to unleash a bomb filled with biochemical gas. While Cap searches with the Beetle, Meteorite, Scream, and Rebel; Jolt is searching elsewhere with the Fixer, Smuggler, and Charcoal.
Jolt is lamenting her current situation, as a ward of the state, she was forced to join the Redeemers.[4] She is also worried about who she is teamed up with. The Fixer could bolt at any moment and Smuggler’s lack of experience could get them into trouble. More importantly, she is concerned about Charcoal, as he has been acting more reckless since the Thunderbolts were forced to split up.[5] The Fixer is putting up a cocky attitude to hide the fact that he is processing the fact that he has somehow returned from the dead. The last thing he remembered was being killed by one of the Elements of Doom and then being woken up months later by Henry Gyrich of the Commission on Superhuman Activities.[6] He now requires to be always connected to his tech harness in order to keep his brain functional. Jolt briefly gets distracted by a castle on the Symkarian side of a nearby river where she sees a huge castle and wonders if that is the home of Silver Sable, the famed Nazi hunter. That’s when the Fixer’s scanners pick up a concentration of superpowered beings. When the Smuggler stretches his body to get a look from a higher vantage point there is a sudden avalanche that threatens to bury them under tons of rock.
Meanwhile, in Burton Canyon, Colorado, Abe Jenkins (aka Mach-2) and Melissa Gold (Songbird) are trying to settle into their new lives as civilians. Abe has just landed a job at Kingman Eletroniks and is heading in for his first day of work. After Abe heads into work, Mel wonders what she is going to do for the next nine hours. She decides to head to a local jewelry store to look around. She has been having a hard time adjusting to a normal life and when she sees an expensive necklace on display, she can’t help a compulsion to steal it.
Back in Latveria the Young Allies’ Bucky and Toro (Benito Cerando) check the site of the avalanche they just caused. It was necessary to buy them time, but Bucky stops to make sure the Redeemers aren’t seriously hurt. Still Bucky is uneasy about their mission, however their telepathic ally IQ (Ishmael Questor) — who is mentally linked to them from his bio-tank back on Counter-Earth’s version of Germany — assures Rikki that this is absolutely necessary to liberate their world from the Doctor Doom’s tyranny. That’s when Jolt and the others (having dug themselves out of the rubble) launch a sneak attack. However, their lack of teamwork and experience working together makes capturing Bucky and Toro a challenge.[7] However, before Bucky can escape with the bio-weapon, she is stopped by the arriving Captain America, who tells her that she is going about this all wrong.
As this confrontation is happening, Doctor Doom waits at his castle for the crisis to pass. He has forced the wheelchair bound Dallas Riordan to be in his company. As they wait, she wonders why Doom hasn’t alerted and evacuated his people. The brutal monarch insists that it would only unnecessarily worry his people when he is confident the Redeemers will succeed in their mission. When she calls him on this and his keeping her prisoner, he insists that he is merely engaging in politics rather than any kind of criminal activity. Doom assures her that he will not allow harm to come to his people, even if it means sparking a war with another planet.
While in America, Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) has been incarcerated at the notorious Seagate Prison as part of the Thunderbolt’s clemency deal. He is informed that he has a visitor to see him and hopes that it is his lover, Karla Sofen, aka Moonstone. However, he is surprised to discover that it is none other than senior SHIELD agent Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan. Dugan tells Clint that he is here on unofficial business.[8]
Meanwhile, coming face-to-face with her former mentor causes Bucky to pause only for a moment. Then she swings into action, combining her Vibranium soled shoes and energy shield, she is able to wrest Captain America’s shield away from him and use it to break the protective seals on the bioweapon canister. Rebel then tries to get her to surrender by threatening to shoot Toro in the head. The two Young Allies laugh and when Rebel pulls the trigger of his revolver, he discovers that Toro is quite bullet proof. Cap then tries to reason with Bucky again, saying that he would never condone a terrorist attack. Rikki, however, refuses to accept a “holier-than-thou” attitude from him since he and his fellow Avengers abandoned their world. She then tells him about all of the chaos that ensued after the fact and how Counter-Earth had been decimated by environmental and cosmic forces that have pushed their civilization on the brink.
She tells him that children are starving and she needs to act. With that, she opens the canister unleashing the gas. However, the Redeemers quickly discover that it is quite harmless. Bucky angrily explains that they would have never intentionally killed anyone, they just wanted to make Doom believe they were capable of such atrocity. But now, thanks to the Redeemers, Bucky had to call her bluff. With their mission scrubbed, she and Toro use a teleportation gateway to flee back to Counter-Earth. Rikki’s parting words are ones of condemnation. While the Fixer considers this mission a complete success, Captain America isn’t entirely sure. Bucky’s words have given him a lot to think about.
When they return to Doctor Doom’s castle, Doom releases Dallas Riordan into their custody as per their arrangement. However, before leaving, Cap warns Doom that Bucky had planted more gas bombs in hiding places across Latveria.[9] He warns Doom that she might detonate them unless he makes changes on Counter-Earth. The Doctor thinks this is another bluff, but Cap calls him on it — using the tyrant’s own brand of “politics” to force him into action. With that, the Redeemers head home.
Primary Characters
Redeemers (Captain America, Beetle, Charcoal, Fixer, Jolt, Meteorite, Scream, Smuggler), Hawkeye, Songbird, Mach-2, Dallas Riordan, Doctor Doom, Rebel O’Reilly, Young Allies (Bucky, Toro, Kid Colt, O, K, IQ), Ogre
Continuity Notes
After suffering crippling injuries in Thunderbolts #42, Dallas Riordan has been recovering at a Latverian hospital.
Counter-Earth is a duplicate Earth created by Franklin Richards back in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1 where he placed the Avengers and Fantastic Four for a time to save their lives. They ultimately returned to their proper reality in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1-4. Subsequently, Doctor Doom took over Counter-Earth as seen in Heroes Reborn: Doomsday #1, Heroes Reborn: Ashema #1, and Heroes Reborn: Doom #1. The Young allies formed in Heroes Reborn: Young Allies #1.
Captain America spent a fair amount of time on Counter-Earth, reliving a reimagined version of his life. It was there he partnered with young Rikki Barnes, who became his sidekick Bucky, as primarily told in Captain America (vol. 2) #1-12. When Cap returned to his proper reality, memories of his time on Counter-Earth became dim.
Hallie refers to herself as an orphan here. As explained in Thunderbolts #1, her parents were killed during Onslaught’s attack on New York City.
The Thunderbolts were forced to disband in exchange for Presidential pardons for their past crimes in Thunderbolts #50.
The Fixer had his neck snapped way back in Thunderbolts #7. From the following issue until issue #46 he was replaced by a robot with a copy of his robotic brain that worked to restore his body, although he has no memory of that time. These blanks will be filled in by issue #61.
When Toro quips that the Redeemers are getting all “Philly” on them, Bucky remarks how the Philadelphia is overcrowded because of flooding. Indeed, on Counter-Earth, the east coast of the United States has been subject to a massive flood thanks to the machinations of the Dreaming Celestial. See Heroes Reborn: Doomsday #1 for the details.
We learn what Dugan wants in Thunderbolts: Life Sentences #1, where he asks Clint to help tie-up some loose ends regarding Justin Hammer and how he was able to get criminals out of prison.
Here, we see Jolt in human form walking with the assistance of a cane. It’s not explained here, but she is recovering from partial paralysis after cheating death between Thunderbolts #34 through 46. She will eventually recover from this by the time she appears in Exiles #81.
Topical References
Jolt recalls how she once compared Charcoal to the character Oz (played by Seth Green) on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This was a popular supernatural teen drama that was at the height of its popularity around the time this series was first published. It ran from 1997 to 2003. This should be considered a topical reference since the show has long since ended its televised run and there are more contemporary examples that could be used in its place.
