Storm Clouds Gathering

Gaviton (Frank Hall) is making another attempt at conquering the planet Earth. This time, thanks to the help of Moonstone (Karla Sofen), he has such fine control over his powers that he will succeed.[1] Watching from the sidelines. With his gravimetric powers, Hall has lifted every major city on Earth high into the air. Watching all this from the sidelines is the Fixer (Norbert Ebersol), Gaviton’s reluctant ally. He wonders why the heroers of Earth haven’t already risen up to stop Graviton. What Norbert doesn’t know is that Frank has already dealt with that threat by suspending all of Earth’s heroes — including members of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, the X-Men, X-Force, the New Warriors, and various others — high in the air. With Earth at his knees, M’Reel — Graviton’s other-dimensional ally — tells Frank to start using his powers to reshape the planet in his image. It’s now that both Moonstone and Fixer begin to start questioning their decision to back Graviton. Scanning M’Reel with his tech-pack, Norbert also notices that the alien has a strange corona of energy around him that is invisible to the naked eye. He wonders if this might be the key to defeating Graviton, but laments that — without help — that is an impossible task.

The nearby town of Burton Canyon is being decimated by Graviton’s powers, putting its population in danger. As one building begins to crumble, a young boy falls out. Luckily, Citizen V catches the boy and is caught off guard when the child hugs him and thanks him for rescue. This is because Citizen V (aka John Watkins III)’s body has been possessed by Baron (Helmut) Zemo, who is unaccustomed to such heroics. Before he can leave, the boy pleads with the “hero” to save his mother. Although he doesn’t have time for this, Zemo finds he can’t just abandon the boy like that and rescues his mother before heading back to the scene of the battle.[2] Zemo can’t understand why he is charging into battle when his old self would pretend to join up with Graviton and kill him when his back is turned. That’s when Helmut spots two of his former Thunderbolt comrades, Abe Jenkins and Melissa Gold in the crowd of refugees below. He approaches them and asks for their help.[3] He tells them that the Redeemers — particularly their former comrades Charcoal (Charlie Burlingame) and Jolt (Hallie Takahama) — were seemingly slain by Graviton.[4] With all Earth’s other heroes incapacitated and Citizen V unable to contact the V-Battalion who, unknown to them are on their way but won’t arrive for another 10 hours.

Abner is reluctant to help because of the Presidential pardons they were given in exchange for never becoming Mach-2 and Songbird ever again.[5] Citizen V manages to convince Abe that they were never meant for a normal life. Realizing that “Watkins” is right, Abe reluctantly agrees to help. Revealing his true identities to his employers at the Burton County Police, he uses their communications system to rig up a means for Citizen V to contact his handlers.[6] This allows “John” to contact Roger Aubrey and the rest of the V-Battalion’s Penance Council and requests that they initiate T-Bolts Protocol M-3 and SB-2. Still hours away, Roger agrees that they have no other choice and orders the contents loaded into an escape pod to be sent to Citizen V’s location.

Little does anyone know that this entire crisis is being observed from a cloaked space station called Damoclese Base. The observer is the time traveler known as Kang the Conqueror. He is amused at Graviton’s ambitious play, and believes that this will greatly benefit his mission to conquer this century once and for all.[7]

While at Avengers Mansion, Jarvis — the team’s butler — checks in on their guess, the wheelchair bound Dallas Riordan. He is shocked to see that she has become charged with ionic energy and is now floating in the middle of the room. Javis is shocked to hear that her voice has changed. She responds by saying they are not Dallas Riordan![8]

In West Virginia, a prisoner transport carrying Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Plantman (Sam Smithers), Headlok (Murray Singleton), and Cottonmouth are the only survivors of their crashed prison transport. Thanks to Graviton’s attack on the Earth, Smithers can feel the agony from the world’s plantlife. Headlok explains the situation with them with his telepathic powers.[9] When Clint throws doubt his way, Mentallo (Marvin Flumm) reveals that he has taken mental control of Headlok to help facilitate their escape plan.[10] Cottonmouth doesn’t want any part of whatever this plan is and tries to leave. Clint tries to warn him to stop, but he gets too far, triggering a safety device in their power dampening manacles that administers an incapacitating jolt once one of their chain gang strays too far from the others, knocking them all out.

Back in Colorado, Citizen V, Abe, and Melissa arrive at the base of Mount Chateris. There they run into Radek and a number of SHIELD agents who just dug themselves out of the Redeemer’s headquarters.[11] At first, they refuse to let Abe and Mel violate their parole but when its impressed upon Radek that they are the last people still standing he agrees to turn a blind eye. Citizen V then contacts Fixer and convinces him to betray Graviton and create a distraction by offering to deactivate the government’s control over his tech-pack when this is all over.[12] Norbert accepts the offer, and creates a distracted by zapping M’Reel with electricity. This distracts both Moonstone and Graviton enough that they do not see the V-Battalion escape pod land nearby. Inside, the pod are Abe and Melissa’s Mach-2 and Songbird gear.

While they are busy suiting up, M’Reel explains to his master that he was attacked by something. However, the alien insists that Graviton continue his reclamation of the planet. Karla, however, knows that Fixer was responsible and confronts him about it. Norbert admits to doing it but points out that Frank Hall is batshit insane and they need to stop him. More over, he reveals that M’Reel is somehow tapping into Graviton’s powers and channeling it to points unknown for some reason. Karla is furious that Norbert is trying to ruin their plans to take over the world and is about to tip Graviton off that Citizen V is back. However, she is quickly silenced by the Fixer.

Hearing Sofen cry out, Graviton turns to see what’s going on when he is suddenly attacked by the new ionic form of Dallas Riordan. That’s when he is struck by the weapons and powers of Mach-2, Songbird, and Citizen V, who announce themselves as the reformed Thunderbolts!

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Citizen V (Watkins/Zemo), Songbird, Mach-3, Atlas (Josten/Riordan), Hawkeye, Headlok/Mentallo, Cottonmouth, Plantman, Graviton, Moonstone, Fixer, M’Reel, Trish Tilby, Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hercules, Wonder Man, Warbird, Stingray, Firebird, Firestar, Justice, Silverclaw, Triathlon, Jack of Hearts), X-Men (Cyclops, Phoenix, Archangel, Wolverine), Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Defenders (Sub-Mariner, Hulk, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Hellcat), New Warriors (Nova, Namorita, Speedball, Aegis), Marvel Knights (Daredevil, Black Widow, Punisher, Moon Knight, Shang-Chi, Dagger), Rangers (Texas Twister, Shooting Star, Red Wolf), X-Force (Orphan, Anarchist, U-Go-Girl, Vivisector, Phat, Doop), Steel Guardian, Darkstar, V-Battalion (Roger Aubrey, Betty Barstow, Fred Davis, Darren Mitchell), Ant-Man, Tigra, She-Hulk, Black Panther, Iron Fist, Spider-Man US Agent, Andromeda, Captain Marvel, le Peregrine, Doc Samson, Union Jack, Ghost Rider, Black Knight, Kang, Edwin Jarvis, Sergei Radek

Continuity Notes

1. Moonstone was enlisted to help Graviton master his powers back in Thunderbolts #51. He launched his latest bid to take over the world last issue.

2. How Baron Zemo got into this situation is quite complicated, allow me to explain: At the time of this story, Baron Zemo was believed to be dead after he was decapitated by Scourge in Thunderbolts #39. However, his mind was transferred to the body of the comatose John Watkins III in Thunderbolts #45, but wasn’t revealed until Citizen V and the V-Battalion #3. However, how this was done (via a so-called “bio-modem”) is not explained until issue #61.

3. Here, Citizen V refers to Abe as “Mach-1”, this was the codename that Abner took when Zemo first formed the Thunderbolts, as seen in Thunderbolts Annual 1997. Since then, Jenkins has taken on the name of Mach-2, to denote a recent upgrade in his equipment in Thunderbolts #37. Zemo is apparently unaware of this, or misspoke.

4. Charcoal and Jolt were seemingly slain last issue. Jolt will be revealed to be still alive next issue. As of this writing (September, 2023) Charcoal is still considered among the deceased.

5. The Thunderbolts were forced to disband and promise never to get into costume again in exchange for Presidential pardons for their past crimes, as seen in Thunderbolts #50. Since then, both Abe and Melissa have been trying to live normal lives, with marginal success.

6. Abner mentions how he underwent a face-lift to disguise his identity. This is a long and involved story that had its roots in Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #3, when Abe — as the Beetle — killed a dude. When Hawkeye took over the Thunderbolts in Thunderbolts #21, he convinced Abe to surrender to the authorities and serve out his murder sentence, which he did in issue #23. Instead, he was roped into a secret mission for the Commission on Superhuman Activities in Thunderbolts #26-36, but the Thunderbolts managed to help him get free. In order to hide the fact that he was on the loose, Abe was given a new identity and the appearance of an African-American man. He will maintain this appearance until Avengers/Thunderbolts #1.

7. This story takes place during the “Kang Dynasty” storyline where a series of world crisis attack the Earth and the Avengers under the backdrop of a planned invasion by Kang. See Avengers (vol. 3) #41-54.

8. Dallas has been confined to a wheelchair since she sustained a serious spinal injury battling the Crimson Cowl back in Thunderbolts #43. Here, her body has been possessed by the ionic essence of her former lover, Atlas (Erik Josten), as will be explained next issue. Atlas seemingly perished in issue #48, but has been using his love of Dallas as an anchor back into the world of the living. They have merged together and will remain in this state until Thunderbolts #74.

9. Here, Hawkeye points out that Headlok has previously been referred to as Arthur Goddard, and is now going by the name Murray Singleton. This is in reference to Alpha Flight #104, where he is identified as Arthur Goddard. Dark Reign Files #1 has a profile for Headlok that 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.

10. Hawkeye is referred to as a “former Avenger”, he had been a mainstay of that team for years starting in Avengers #16. However, he led the Thunderbolts from issue #21 through 50 of their series. He surrendered to the authorities in order to get amnesty for the rest of his team. Mentallo offered to help Clint break out of prison in exchange for help locating the lost treasure of the late Justin Hammer, as seen in Thunderbolts: Life Sentences #1. What Mentallo doesn’t know is that Clint is only going along with this as part of a secret mission for SHIELD, as seen in issue #52.

11. Radek and the others were buried alive when the base was recently attacked by Humus Sapeins as seen in Thunderbolts #54-55.

12. How the Fixer got into this mess is a bit complicated. See, he had his neck snapped way back in Thunderbolts #7. Placed in a rejuvenation chamber for months, he was liberated and forced into the Redeemers by the government in Thunderbolts #49.

Topical References

• The boy rescued by Citizen V is wearing an Elmo t-shirt. Elmo is a character from the children’s educational show Sesame Street. The character was at the height of its popularity at the time this story was published. Its depiction here should be considered a topical reference as Elmo could easily be replaced with a more contemporary favorite among children.