Silent Scream!

Following the Thunderbolts battle with Graviton, the town of Burton Canyon is left in ruins.[1] However, the locals quickly discover that something is absorbing all sound in the area, including their voices. This happens to be the massive solid sound form of the late Angar the Screamer. Songbird (Melissa Gold), the last survivor of the Thunderbolts tries to stop him but is blasted out of the sky.

As she recovers from the hit on the ground, a pair of SHIELD fighters arrive in the area to try and stop Angar. As she watches the fight, Melissa recalls how the other Thunderbolts seemingly perished stopping Graviton. She had used a sound bubble to contain a gravimetric portal. The end result shattered her sonic carapace. This is where the energy form of Angar — for unknown reasons — emerged.

Meanwhile, the SHIELD agents have run a scan on Angar to confirm his identity and cross-references their files and learn that he is a former crime partner to Songbird, back when she was the supervillain known as Screaming Mimi.[2]

As Melissa wanders through the ruined forest, her mind is visited by memories that must be from David Angar himself. It of the last day she saw him alive. They had just succeeded in robbing a bank, but Angar was fatally shot and collapsed to the ground. It wasn’t long after that that Melissa was found by Baron Zemo and the Fixer and recruited into the Thunderbolts.[3] What she sees next is what was going on behind her back after Zemo recruited her. He and the Fixer took Angar’s body and surgically removed his larynx. This was then used to create the sonic carapace technology she would later use as Songbird. Time flashes forward to when Baron Zemo was killed by Scourge and his hideout raided by the Commission on Superhuman Activities.[4] The CSA then found the device Fixer created and upon activating it, they unleashed the creature that would later be called Scream, a member of the short lived Redeemers team. The last memory Melissa sees is when she and Abe Jenkins encountered Scream and the Beetle a few days earlier.[5]

That’s when Songbird finds herself surrounded by SHIELD agents. She surrenders without conflict and is brought SHIELD agent Sergei Radek in a mobile command unit. Unable to speak due to Angar’s absorption of all sound, Radek asks Melissa in writing how they can stop David. She uses pictures to explain that if they repair her sonic carapace she can absorb Angar back into it and then destroy the device, ending his threat. However, the process could kill him, however Radek won’t allow that to happen.

Melissa agrees to let a pair of SHIELD scientists examine her damaged carapace and how they work in conjunction with her vocal cords. They are successfully able to repair and upgrade the Songbird. Outfitted with the repaired device, Melissa goes out and attacks Angar, who is happy to see that she is the one come to stop him. After she absorbs him into her sonic carapace, David uses a bit of his power to write the words “Thank You” in the sky. Realizing that David wants to end his tortured existence, Songbird removes her carapace and smashes it on the ground before SHIELD can recover it.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, the rest of the Thunderbolts have actually survived their battle with Graviton. The first one to wake up from unconsciousness is the Fixer and he looks up just as a group of people approach him. This group consists of a man dressed like the original Baron Zemo, a cyborg woman, another made of energy, as well as men who resemble the mutant terrorist known as Solarr, the original Moonstone, and the reformed Nazi, Iron Cross![6]

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Citizen V (Watkins/Zemo), Songbird, Moonstone, Mach-3, Fixer, Atlas (Josten/Riordan), Jolt), Graviton, Scream, Sergei Radek, Thunderbolts (of Counter-Earth: Baron Zemo, Iron Cross, Phantom Eagle, Solarr, Chain Lightning, Makeshift — All unidentified)

Continuity Notes

1. The battle between the T-Bolts and Graviton took place over the last two issues.

2. Anger the Screamer and Screaming Mimi formed a crime fighting partnership back in Avengers Spotlight #28. It also listed the various groups that Melissa has been a part of. She was first a member of the Grapplers an all female wrestling team turned mercenaries, as seen in Marvel Two-In-One #54, the Masters of Evil who she joined in Avengers #271, and lastly the Thunderbolts, we’ll get into that in a minute.

3. Angar’s alleged death and Melissa’s recruitment into the Thunderbolts was depicted in Thunderbolts Annual 1997.

4. Baron Zemo was decapitated by Scourge in Thunderbolts #39. However he actually managed to cheat death by hopping into the body of John Watkins III in Thunderbolts #45, as we learned in issue #54. Here, we also see the CSA carting away Fixer’s regenerating body. His body had been put in stasis after his neck was snapped in Thunderbolts #7, he was finally let out in issue #48.

5. The Redeemers were formed in Thunderbolts #48 as a government sponsored version of the Thunderbolts. Scream was part of the team until it was decimated by Graviton in issue #57. His earlier encounter with Melissa and Abe happened in issue #51.

6. Next issue we will learn that the Thunderbolts are on Franklin Richards’ Counter-Earth, which was created back in Onslaught: Marvel Universe #1. This is that world’s version of Baron Heinrich Zemo (first seen in Captain America (vol. 2) #6) and his Thunderbolts. They are:

   • Solarr, who seems to be a duplicate of the Earth-616 version (Silas King) first seen in Captain America #160.

   • The man who appears to be Moonstone, is indeed Counter-Earth’s version of Lloyd Bloch. On Earth-616, Bloch was the first Moonstone starting in Captain America #169 until his Moon Stone was stolen from him by Karla Sofen his successor in Incredible Hulk #229. On this world, he is called the Phantom Eagle. On Earth-616, the Phantom Eagle (Karl Kaufman) was a World War I, as seen in Marvel Super Heroes #16. As of this writing (September, 2023), there has yet to be a direct connection made between Bloch and Kaufman.

   • The woman glowing with energy is identified next issue as Chain Lightning, aka Voletta Todd. The other woman is only known as Makeshift. The pair appear to be unique to Counter-Earth.

   • Lastly, we have Iron Cross. On Earth-616, he was known as Helmut Gruler, a former Nazi who later reformed and became part of the V-Battalion. He was first seen in Invaders #35. However, the Counter-Earth version is actually Helmut Zemo, as we’ll learn next issue.