Thunderbolts #55
Does Anyone Remember — Humus Sapien!?
After years of captivity, the powerful mutant known as Humus Sapiens is awake.[1] Back in tune with the Earth, he feels the damage done to the planet by humanity. It reminds him of the day that his parents died. Filled with rage, Humus Sapiens begins drawing energy from the Earth itself. At that moment, a man in Russia suddenly drops dead. He decides that humanity needs to pay for what they have done, starting with the nearby town of Burton Canyon. However, before he can do so he is ambushed by the Redeemers — Citizen V (Heinrich Zemo in possession of the body of John Watkins III), Jolt (Hallie Takahama), Charcoal (Charlie Burlingame), Fixer (Norbert Ebersol), Beetle (Leila Davis), Meteorite (Valerie Burnhart), Smuggler (Conrad Josten), and the enigmatic Scream.
The Ogre, who had been keeping Humus Sapiens in stasis for years warns them not to fight, but the heroes ignore him. When Charcoal is easily incapacitated by the mutant’s electro-encephalograhic energies, Jolt realizes that the elderly inventor might be their only means of salvation. She takes Ogre into the Redeemers Mount Chateris headquarters and asks the SHIELD agents stationed there to help. As she does so, the power of Humus Sapiens continues to affect the world around him.
In nearby Burton Canyon, Melissa Gold (aka Songbird of the recently disbanded Thunderbolts)[2] is showing a customer some music equipment at the shop she works at when he suddenly drops dead. For a moment, Melissa wonders if this was caused by her returning sonic powers.[3] While in the Middle East, the hero known as the Arabian Knight suddenly drops dead as well.[4]
Back at the scene of the battle, Humus Sapiens powers causes the Beetle’s armor to dissolve into nothingness. This forces Meteorite to rush Leila to safety while the rest fall under a powerful blast from their foe. With his opponents down, Humus Sapiens marches forward trying to remember how he got to this point. He then recalls how his friend, the Ogre, had sealed him in the stasis chamber. He once thought of Ogre as his friend, but he views this as a betrayal and decides that all humanity cannot be trusted and must be wiped out in order to save the Earth.
The only member of the Redeemers left standing is Scream. Without his teammates directing him, the creature of sound tries to make sense of the situation.[5] The first Redeemer to recover is the Fixer and he begins digging out the Ogre, since he is the only one who can help them contain Humus Sapiens now that he is free. As the rest of the team recovers, Citizen V asks Ogre what the plan is. The inventor doesn’t mince words, telling the Redeemers that they might want to plan on dying in order to avoid what Humus Sapiens has in store for them.[6]
Elsewhere, other events are unfolding that will further complicate matters. In California, Karla Sofen is surprised to see her recent patient, Graviton (Frank Hall), has adopted a new costume. This is to represent his new goal of saving the planet. His other-dimensional ally, M’Reel, arrives and tells Frank that all is in ready for their master plan.[7]
Meanwhile, at Seagate Prison, Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) is part of a prison chain gang that is being transferred to another location. With him are the super criminals known as Plant-Man (Sam Smithers), Headlok (Murray Singleton), and Cottonmouth (Quincy McIver). Little do the guards know that this is the start of an ambitious attempt to break out of prison.[8][9][10]
In New York, wheelchair bound Dallas Riordan has arranged a meeting at Avengers Mansion with the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) and Wonder Man (Simon Williams). She wants to speak to them because she has been having dreams and hearing the voice of her former lover Atlas (Erik Josten). Since Wonder Man is an ionic being like Erik and has cheated death in the past, she wants to know if these incidents are Josten’s attempts at returning to life as well. Simon believes that could be the case and that it could be possible as long as Erik has an emotional anchor in the world of the living to bring him back. It seems that Atlas still cares very deeply for Dallas, the question is: Does she feel the same about him?[11]
Back at the scene of the battle, the Ogre tells the Redeemers the origins of Humus Sapiens so they can understand the gravity of what they are dealing with. He was once a young teenager named Sonny Baredo, who grew up in the city of Pittsburg. On his fourteenth birthday, Sonny’s entire family died suddenly. Revealed to be a mutant, he was visited by Charles Xavier and the original X-Men who wanted to help the boy. However, Baredo had to go to an orphanage while Xavier wrangled with the legal red tape of having the boy released into his care. Before he could succeed, Factor Three — the mutant terrorist organization that the Ogre was a part of —kidnapped the boy.[12]
Over the years, the Ogre got to study and document Sonny’s powers as they manifested. First, the boys body began to change until it became an amalgam of plant, animal, and mineral materials. As his power grew he was able to use his power to grow and control vegetation, shift tectonic plates, and repulse non-organic materials. He was soon synched into the Earth’s geospatial biofield. By his 18th birthday, his powers became so great that he could deconstruct that atomic structure of technology, synthetics, metals, and plastics, everything that was created by humanity and therefore unnatural. Eventually, Factor Three deemed Humus Sapiens too dangerous and the Ogre placed him in stasis. After the group disbanded, the Ogre made it his mission to keep Humus Sapiens contained. This is because he discovered that Sonny’s powers were fueled by the life forces of random humans who would eventually drop dead, this was the reason why his family suddenly died. As the Ogre is telling this story, Humus Sapiens is remembering it as well and this makes him start to doubt his revenge mission.
Meanwhile, the Ogre and Fixer have to be broken up when they start bickering over things. Citizen V asks how they can get Humus Sapiens under control. The Ogre says that the tesseract that he hid HS-1 in could have, until the Fixer wrecked it. They to have Charcoal and Jolt use their powers to recharge the device, but it only opens a brief pin-prick that quickly dissipates. The Ogre deems it hopeless, telling the Redeemers that the Mount Charteris facility drew power from white holes and binary stars, and its link to these power sources has been irreparably severed. That’s when Citizen V gets word from the V-Battalion who is monitoring the situation. They report that over 2400 people have already died thanks to Humus Sapiens.
This is overheard by Sonny, who has returned to the Redeemers for help. He is horrified to learn how many people have already died and asks the heroes to help him stop. However, there are only two options available to them: Either Humus Sapiens needs to leave Earth, or die. However, as much as Sonny wants to stop this, he also doesn’t want to die. Luckily, he has already absorbed enough power to power the tesseract machine so he can leave the Earth. The Ogre tells the boy that this is a one way trip into oblivion and he’ll be all alone. Sonny understands and enters the portal. Not wanting to leave the young man he has cared for, the Ogre leaps in after him before the portal closes and just like that, the immediate crisis is over.[13]
However, the Redeemers hardly have a moment to catch their breaths when they are ambushed by Graviton, who has mistaken them for the Thunderbolts. Realizing his error, Graviton decides they will still be the first to fall under his power and asks them who wants to die first.
Recurring Characters
Redeemers (Citizen V (Watkins/Zemo), Jolt, Fixer, Beetle, Charcoal, Smuggler, Meteorite, Scream), Humus Sapiens, Dallas Riordan/Atlas, Humous Sapiens Ogre, Moonstone, Hawkeye, Headlok/Mentallo, Cottonmouth, Plantman, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, Songbird, Arabian Knight
Continuity Notes
Humus Sapiens has been kept in stasis for years (as will be explained later this issue) and was released by mistake last issue.
The Thunderbolts disbanded in exchange for Presidential pardons for their past crimes in Thunderbolts #50. It’s remaining members have been trying to live out normal lives since.
In the past, Melissa’s vocal chords were altered to allow her to generate sonic screams. This power was burned out prior to her becoming Songbird, as told in Thunderbolts Annual 1997. Since then, she had to use a sonic carapace to simulate her former abilities. However, she discovered that her powers were slowly coming back in Thunderbolts #47 also her vocal chords had time to heal.
As of this writing (September, 2023), the original Arabian Knight (Abdul Qamar) remains among the deceased. He has since been replaced by two successors, an unidentified man who briefly used the identity in Black Panther (vol. 4) #15, and later Navid Hashim, who took on the role in Union Jack (vol. 2) #1.
The narration here gives bits and pieces about the Redeemers that are explained in more detail in other places:
It is stated here that Citizen V harbors a dark secret. They are referring to the fact that his body is possessed by the mind of Baron Zemo. Zemo took over Watkins’ comatose body in order to cheat death. See Citizen V and the V-Battalion #3, Thunderbolts #39, 45, 54, and 61 for all the pieces of that puzzle.
Mention is made how Leila Davis is dealing with loss. This is reference to her late husband Anthony Davis, aka the Ringer, aka Strikeback. His death was referenced last issue, and the cause will be explained in Thunderbolts #56.
Smuggler aversion to hope is reference to the fact that he is struggling with his family reputation being destroyed by his brother, Atlas (Erik Josten), and the fact that his brother seemingly died a hero. See Thunderbolts #47, 50, and 54.
Jolt’s newly bio-electric powers are revealed. She originally got the power to generate electricity back in Thunderbolts #3. However, after a brief brush with death in issue #34, she was resurrected with increased powers in Thunderbolts #46.
Lastly mention is made about Charcoal’s “hard shell” life, this is in reference to chip Charcoal has had on his shoulder since issue #53.
Here, Jolt speaks with a lisp. This is because her recent resurrection came at a price. As revealed in Thunderbolts #48, the cost of her resurrection came with half her body being paralyzed when in human form. She will undergo extensive physio and will eventually recover by the time she appears in Exiles #81.
Moonstone was approached by M’Reel to help Graviton in Thunderbolts #51. She has been coaching him since Thunderbolts: Life Sentences #1.
Hawkeye surrendered to the authorities to serve time for the crimes he committed while the Thunderbolts leader between Thunderbolts #21-50. He is secretly helping Mentallo break out of prison, a deal made in Thunderbolts: Life Sentences #1. However, what Mentallo doesn’t know is that Clint is working for SHIELD, as per issue #52 and 60.
Here, Headlok is identified as Murray Singleton. This is in contradiction to Alpha Flight #104, where he is identified as Arthur Goddard. Dark Reign Files #1 has a profile for Headlok lists both names but does not specify which is his actual name. Unlike a certain crowd sourced website that is really bad at their research, I’m not going to assume which name is real and which one is an alias as there is no evidence supporting one name or the other.
On the other hand, Cottonmouth is misidentified as Quincy McIver, this is the real name of his teammate the Bushmaster. The possible source of this error could have been a typo in Dragon Magazine #15, which mixed up the identities of both Cottonmouth and Bushmaster. Whatever the case, Cottonmouth’s real name was not revealed until Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #10. In the Serpent Society entry, he is given the name Butchell Clemens. One could assume that he was using McIver’s name here as an alias.
Ionic beings are notoriously hard to kill. Here are the facts about Wonder Man and Atlas:
Both men became ionic beings through a process created by the original Baron Zemo, as seen in Avengers #9 and 21, respectively.
Simon Williams has died twice only to come back to life. The first time was between Avengers #9 and 151 when his body underwent a metamorphosis from flesh and blood to being a being of pure ionic energy.
The second time he died was in Force Works #1, when his body was destroyed when he was aboard and exploding Kree war ship. His love of the Scarlet Witch and Wanda’s Hex powers pulled him back into the world of the living between Avengers (vol. 3) #2 through 11.
More recently, both Atlas and Wonder Man were enslaved by Count Nefaria, another ionic being as seen in Thunderbolts #42-44/Avengers (vol. 3) #32-34. This led to Atlas’ body becoming unstable until he reached critical mass and exploded in Thunderbolts #47.
Dallas has been haunted by visions and sounds of Erik since Thunderbolts #51. He is very much trying to come back. He will succeed in issue #57. Mention is made about how she is confined to a wheelchair. She was crippled due to injuries sustained fighting the Crimson Cowl in Thunderbolts #42.
Factor Three was a mutant terrorist group that sough world domination by kicking off World War III. Their leader, the so-called Mutant Master, turned out to be an alien invader seeking to make the planet hospitable for his race and were using Factor Three as his dupes. As seen in X-Men #28-39. Per the Official Index to the Marvel Universe: X-Men Factor Three kidnaped Sonny Baredo between the events of X-Men #13 and 14, prior to the X-Men knowing of their existence. Per the Sliding Timescale, that would have happened about 10 years prior to this main story.
The Ogre has been seen again on Earth hanging out at the Bar With No Name in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #66. As of this writing (September, 2023) it is unrevealed how he returned home or what became of Humus Sapiens.
Topical References
In the flashback, Sonny Baredo is wearing a Pittsburg Steelers jersey. When recounting these events, the Ogre notes that Sonny’s biggest worry was who would replace Terry Bradshaw. Bradshaw was the quarterback for the Steelers from 1970 until a sports injury forced him to retire in 1983. The Steelers did not have a consistent quarterback until 2004, apparently — I don’t care enough about American football to explain why that was. The point is, references to the Steelers and Bradshaw should be considered topical as the Steelers are a real world sports team and Bradshaw (who is 75 as I write this in September, 2023) has been retired and replaced for a long time since then.
