Thunderbolts #53
The Parent Trap
Charlie Burlingame, aka Charcoal, has begun to notice that he has become a ticking time bomb. As he sits in class at Burton Canyon High, he wonders if Jolt (Hallie Takahama)’s recent “death” or the disbanding of the Thunderbolts had anything to do with his current mental state.[1] When his teacher asks him a question in history class about the Bus Boycott of 1955, he is able to answer the question without missing a beat, even though he wasn’t really paying attention. This earns the ire of Mick and the other members of the 89er’s football team, who are a pack of racist bullies who have had it out for Charlie since he started attending school there.[2]
After class, Charlie’s friends Angie and J.D. — the only people who know his secret identity — are worried about him as he hasn’t been the same since Atlas (Erik Josten) nearly blew up the town.[3] They also wonder what happened to Hallie, now that they know she is still alive. Charlie overhears this and says nothing. He thinks about poor Hallie who’s resurrection came at the cost of partial paralysis when she is not using her powers. The Redeemers have her undergoing physiotherapy with a personal trainer named Sergei Radek.[4] She is struggling with the process of regaining her mobility, it has been a frustrating process. Radek says that she has a lot of work to put in and not to give up. Charlie offered to skip school to spend time with her if she wanted to hang out, but she turned him down so she could keep training. Now out on the playing field, Charlie spots some of the 89ers hassling a Latino student for his notes. Hearing them use racial slurs, Charlie gets fed up and changes into Charcoal and confronts them.
While at Mount Charteris, headquarters of the Redeemers, Captain America (Steve) wonders how he is going to get the group in proper shape given his other duties as a part of the Avengers, and his own personal life.[5] As Cap leaves the training room he passes by G.W. Bridge, the SHIELD agent in charge of things at Chateris. He is reporting back to Director Sharon Carter about something in the computer logs called HS-1,[6] something that has been apparently kept here since the base was run by the mutant terrorists known as Factor Three.[7] However, he doesn’t know what HS-1 is, or where they might find it. Little do they know that they are being spied upon by the Fixer (Norbert Ebersol) who admits that his own curiosity is piqued. He is being spied on by the Ogre, who is worried that their attention on HS-1 will lead to either SHIELD or Ebersol finding his hidden lab, where he is keeping HS-1 safe.[8]
Back in town, Angie and J.D. find Charlie at the Wide Awake Coffee House, their usual hang out. They are really concerned about him since he lashed out at the 89ers, but tell him that nobody saw him change into Charcoal at school. He tells them that someone had to stop the 89ers from terrorizing the other students. That’s when a man who has been watching Charlie all day enters the shop and tells him that he can help him. Carlie gets one look at the man and grudgingly introduces his friends to his father, Calvin Burlingame.
As this is happening, there are more developments in the lives of the other Thunderbolts. Moonstone (Karla Sofen) has been spending her time counseling the villain known as Graviton (Frank Hall). Having completely mastered his powers, he now has the power to over the gravity of the smallest grain of sand and the largest mountain. While at Seagate Prison, Hawkeye (Clint Barton) continues serving out his sentence. He now has protection from the super-villains he is locked up with in the form of Mentallo (Marvin Flumm), a mutant telepath. Marvin has agreed to protect Clint in exchange for assistance in breaking out of prison when the time comes.[9]
Meanwhile, Calvin Burlingame takes his son for a drive. He tries to remind his son how much the Secret Empire has done for them, particularly giving Charlie his powers as Charcoal. However, Charlie no longer supports the supremacist group and reminds his father that the process that turned him into Charcoal killed most of the other test subjects.[10] They stop outside of town near a cryogenic chemical production lab. Calvin then admits to his son that he has come because Secret Empire’s scientists want a compound that is being developed there and he wants Charlie’s help getting it. Not wanting to get involved with the Empire again, Charlie tells his father to get bent. Calvin is sorry to hear that and summons some of the Empire’s Shock Troopers to deal with Charlcoal.
It doesn’t take long before the the battle becomes known to the staff at Mount Chateris, prompting Captain America to mobilize the Redeemers. This interrupts the Fixer’s investigation into Factor Three, and the secrets of HS-1.
By this time, the fight between Charcoal and the Shock Troopers has spilled into the factory proper. In the ensuing battle, Calvin gets knocked over a railing and holds on to dear life. Below him is a vat of the chemical compound he had come to steal. His ability to hold on is being hampered because a pipe carrying freezing gas is leaking. Calvin calls out to his son and begs for rescue. When Charlie tries to reach out to his father, his stone hand instantly freezes and crumbles when exposed to the gas. This hurts Charlie really bad, worse than he has ever been hurt before, and wonders if his hand will regenerate this time. He then considers the risk of trying to rescue his father. He realizes that saving Calvin isn’t worth it and leaves his father to fall to his death.
When Charcoal exits the factory, it is just as Captain America and the rest of the Redeemers are arriving on the scene.[11] Charlie tells Cap that he clashed with the Secret Empire and defeated them all on his own. He then tells them that he couldn’t save one of the Empire’s goons — not telling them that it was his father — and says that it as no big loss.[12]
Primary Characters
Redeemers (Citizen V, Beetle, Charcoal, Fixer, Jolt, Meteorite, Scream, Smuggler), Captain America, Hawkeye, Mach-2, Moonstone, Songbird, Ogre, Calvin Burlingame, Mentallo, Rebel O’Reilly, Sergei Radek, Snake Marsten, Tombstone, Humus Sapien
Continuity Notes
Charlie is referring to the two biggest things to happen to the Thunderbolts since he joined up with the team. They are:
Jolt was seemingly killed by an assassin’s bullet in Thunderbolts #34. However, that was one of those “faint-spark-of-life” situations and she was restored to full life in issue #46.
The Thunderbolts were recently forced to disband in exchange for Presidential pardons for their past crimes. Hawkeye was also forced to serve out a prison sentence in exchange. As he and Jolt were wards of the state, they were forced to join the Redeemers, a government sponsored team of criminals seeking redemption. See Thunderbolts #49-50.
Back when the Thunderbolts were still a team, Hawkeye insisted that both Charlie and Hallie go to Burton Canyon High and finish their high school educations. See Thunderbolts #27.
Atlas’ powers were destabilized after being enslaved by Count Nefaria in Thunderbolts #42-44/Avengers (vol. 3) #32-34. This caused him to reach critical mass and he nearly blew up the town had he not been shrunk down to size with Pym Particles, as seen in Thunderbolts #47.
Jolt revealed that she was partially paralyzed in issue #48. She will continue undergoing physio and will eventually have her body fully restored by the time she appears in Exiles #81.
Captain America was asked to temporarily train the Redeemers in Thunderbolts #50. This is because their regular leader — Citizen V — is off on a mission against Hydra with the V-Battalion as seen in Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1-3. He’ll be back next issue.
At the time of this story, Sharon Carter was the Director of SHIELD. This was a temporary posting, only lasting between Captain America (vol. 3) #31-45.
Factor Three were a group of mutant terrorists who originally operated out of this facility (the first of many groups to do so), as seen in X-Men #28-39.
HS-1 is a powerful mutant dubbed Humus Sapiens, as well learn in Thunderbolts #54-55. Ogre is particularly concerned about Fixer finding him since a robot duplicate of Fixer once imprisoned him from Thunderbolts #33 through 46.
Moonstone helping Graviton and Hawkeye’s deal with Mentallo both began in Thunderbolts: Life Sentences #1. What Mentallo doesn’t know is that Clint was previously contacted by Dum Dum Dugan of SHIELD to help facilitate Mentallo’s breakout in Thunderbolts #52 in the hopes that they can be lead to the late Justin Hammer’s hidden treasure, as will be explained in issue #58.
Charlie’s ties with the Secret Empire — aka the Elite, aka the Loyalist Forces of America — were chronicled in Thunderbolts #31-32.
Charlie chides Captain America about not dealing with the Secret Empire since they were originally his foes. He is referring to the time when Cap fought them back when they were the Royalist Forces of America circa Captain America #194-200.
This story ends with Calvin Burlingame’s hand sticking out of the frozen ice and narration box suggesting that he is still alive and hinting he might return with some kind of super-powers. This, however, will never come to pass (at least, as of this writing in September, 2023) this is due to the fact that Charcoal’s character was written out of the series in Thunderbolts #56. This was an editorial decision after a legal battle with the fan who created Charcoal.
Topical References
The 89ers use some racial slurs in this story, referring to Charlie as a “monkey” due to the ignorant belief that all Black people originate from Africa (that’s not entirely accurate). They also refer to the Latino student as a “wetback”, a derogatory term used to describe undocumented immigrants in the United States who came from Mexico. The term comes from the perception that the majority enter the country by swimming the Rio Grande River that runs between the two countries, another ignorant belief. While the use of these terms were acceptable (even during the days of the Comics Code Authority) they are considered incredibly racist by todays standards. However, since the 89ers are racist pieces of shit, then yeah, of course they’d use such hateful terms.
