Becoming Heroes, Part 2: Trust in Fear

Birmingham, Alabama, 33 Years Ago

Young Don Clendenon used to help his father around the family owned hardware store. One day, his father entrusted him to make a bank deposit. However, along the way, Don was confronted by a bully who robbed him. When his father found out he was furious and told his son that in order to survive in this world, he will have to fight for what’s his.

Fort Paris, Georgia, 25 Years Ago

Don Clendenon joined up with the miltiary. During basic training, he slips and falls in the mud. As he tries to pull himself up, his drill sargeant steps on his back. He tells Don that he doesn’t have the needed fire in his belly to be in the army and predicts that he will wash out in five weeks. This angers Don, but he merely grits his teeth.

Zembabwei, 21 Years Ago

Now a mercenary for hire, Don spends a lull in the fighting in a bar with Amelia “Sprocket” Burnhardt.[1] After getting significantly drunk, the two agree to spend an evening together, no strings attached.

Seagate Penitentiary, Twelve Weeks Ago

Serving a sentence for his crimes as Cardinal, Don is visited by Sprocket who reveals that their one-night-stand produced a child, Valerie. However, this revelation is finally coming because their daughter was killed in action as Meteorite of the Redeemers.[2] Don can hardly believe that his daughter is dead.

Seagate, Eight Weeks Ago

Don is visited in his cell by the Crimson Cowl who reveals that the former Avenger known as Hawkeye (Clint Barton) is responsible for the death of his daughter. He was the one who led to Valerie becoming a member of the Redeemers, and ultimately her death.

Symkaria, Now

Hawkeye and Songbird have convinced former members of the Masters of Evil to reform the Thunderbolts. This is because they have uncovered that the late Justin Hammer — former employer to many of the villains — had planted bombs inside them that could be use to enslave them. They are now racing against the Crimson Cowl and her new team in the hopes of stopping them from finding the controls to this weapon.[3] The villains on Hawkeye’s new team have all reinvented themselves as heroes and traveled to Symkaria to learn how it connects to Hammer’s weapon. Plantman (Sam Smithers) now goes by Blackheath, Man-Killer (Katrin Von Horn) is now Amazon, and Gypsy Moth (Sybil Dvorak) calls herself Skein. Cyclone (Pierre Freeson), however, still goes by his original name.

Now calling himself Harrier, Don locks the weapons of his flight harness and fire on Hawkeye as two of Silver Sable’s Wild Pack try to get the drop on him. Luckily, Clint was already aware of them (an unaware of Harrier’s desire to kill him) and leaps out of harms way. Hawkeye scolds Harrier, telling him to trust his teammates. That’s when he is struck in the face by a chai thrown by Silver Sable, ruler of Symkaria and leader of the Wild Pack. Given Hawkeye’s standing as a former Avenger, Silver the puts a gun to his head and orders everyone to surrender or she will shoot their leader. However, when it becomes clear that the new Thunderbolts don’t consider this much of a threat, Silver stands down, deciding that she doesn’t want a fight as it would cause pointless damage. She instead invites the Thunderbolts into her home so they can explain what they are doing in Symkaria.

Inside the royal castle, Hawkeye goes over how he was hired by SHIELD to investigate Mentallo’s ties to the late Justin Hammer. How, he manufactured a break-out to figure out the location of a secret weapon that Hammer was allegedly hiding. During this time, the Crimson Cowl has managed to beat them to it. Clint managed to convince some of her former teammates to join the Thunderbolts and help stop her get it. The trail led to Symkaria, where the Cowl’s former minions say she lives. When Sable asks how this is possible, Blackheath convinces her to interface with his connection to plant life. He shows her that this “weapon” Justin Hammer is actually a powerful bio-toxin located in nature that he infected all of his former super-villain employees with. Apparently, Smithers’ powers are what can trigger to toxin and kill all those infected with it. Discovering the Crimson Cowl infected her Masters of Evil with the same toxin as well as reason enough to convince the group to join the Thunderbolts. He was also able to track the toxins source back to Symkaria. This is enough to convince Sable to let them remain, and offers her assistance.

While Hawkeye, Songbird, and Silver Sable spend the next few hours planning, the rest of the new Thunderbolts spend their downtime relaxing. As Cyclone grows impatient over a game of pool, they start talking about the things they did while on the run from the law. Amazon confirms that she usually tends bar.[4] Skein reveals that she runs a number of successful sex clubs, admitting that her criminal career was for kicks. She also tells them that her decision to become a Thunderbolt is strictly out of curiosity of becoming a hero. She also reveals that she wants to know what it is like to sleep with a hero. When Cyclone tries to charm Skein, she humiliates him by using her ability to telekinetically rearrange fibers to unravel his costume around the groin. She laughs at his tiny dick before Cyclone runs off and then turns her attentions to the man she really wants, Hawkeye.

By this time, Hawkeye, Silver, and Songbird have finished their plan. Clint isn’t convinced it will work but agrees to do it anyway. He tells Melissa to inform the others, but she wants to talk to him about her concerns over Harrier. Hawkeye knows that Don has some kind of problem with him and tells her to tell him that Harrier is nothing he can’t handle. Clint then goes to check on Blackheath, who is still trying to find a way to neutralize the toxins using his power over plant life. Unfortunately, it is proving more difficult to his finely attuned abilities that work in harmony with plant-life, something that this toxin is not.[5] Little do either of them know that Harrier is watching them from the rooftop of Silver Sable’s manor. He locks his weapons systems on Hawkeye but decides against shooting him then and there. Taking off his helmet in a cold sweat, he warns Hawkeye (who doesn’t hear him) to watch his back as he doesn’t know who he can trust.

As it turns out, Silver Sable has deduced the identity of the Crimson Cowl and knows exactly where she lives. The following morning, the Thunderbolts and the Wild Pack load up in an government limo. They park outside a mansion where Sable and confronts the owner, Justine Hammer, daughter of the late Justin Hammer. When Justine comes out of her home, Silver pulls a gun on her, furious that the young woman is carrying on her father’s legacy of evil. With her cover blown Justine activates her cloak — which is disguised as a ordinary red jacket — and knocks out the two guards that are accompanying Silver. She then grabs Sable and teleports away.

The Thunderbolts then scramble out of the limo, but while they are doing so, the Crimson Cowl reappears in costume and tosses Hawkeye far away. Harrier jets off to catch their leader with Songbird and Cyclone behind him. However, the pair end up slamming into a wall of water created by Hydro-Man (Morrie Bench), a member of the Cowl’s new Masters of Evil. He is joined by Black Mamba (Tanya Sealy) and Machinesmith (Samuel Saxon). As Harrier catches Hawkeye out of midair, Machinesmith hacks into his armor and forces him to drop the archer to his seeming death in the river below.

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Hawkeye, Songbird, Amazon, Blackheath, Cyclone, Harrier, Skein), Wild Pack (Silver Sable), Masters of Evil (Crimson Cowl, Black Mamba, Hydro-Man, Machinesmith), Amelia Barnhardt

Continuity Notes

1. This is a deep cut character that you’ll recognize if you follow Fabian Nicizea’s body of work. She first appeared in Night Thrasher: Four Control #2.

2. Cardinal was serving time in prison after he was busted with the rest of the Masters of Evil in Thunderbolts #25. Meteorite became a member of the Redeemers in issue #48 and was killed by Graviton in Thunderbolts #58.

3. Hawkeye was approached to uncover this weapon while he was incarcerated between Thunderbolts #51-61. He convinced Cardinal, Man-Killer, Gypsy Moth, Plantman, and Cyclone to join them in issue #65. At the time of this story, Justin Hammer had recently died in Iron Man: Bad Blood #4.

4. Bartending is something we saw Man-Killer/Amazon do between Thunderbolts #27-42.

5. Hawkeye and Blackheath bond over the fact that they both lost their parents at a very young age. This is the first mention of Smithers being orphaned. Hawkeye’s parents were killed in a drunk driving accident, as originally told in Solo Avengers #2.

Topical References

• Young Don Clendenon is depicted wearing a Jaws t-shirt. Jaws was a 1975 film about a killer shark that terrorized an oceanside community and the failure of local authorities to take it seriously. This comic was published in 2003 and if we were to subtract 33 years from that date we’d get 1970, 5 years prior to Jaws being released. So not only is this a topical reference but an anachronistic one at that.

• It is stated in this story that Don fought as a mercenary in Rhodesia. The African nation of Rodesia was involved in a lengthy war that took place between 1965 and 1979. A number of American mercenaries fought for Rhodesia during the conflict. That said, if we went by the publication date, this would also be wrong since 21 years from this issue would have been 1982, three years after the end of the Rhodesian conflict. So another anachornistic topical reference.

• When asked why he didn’t reveal that they had a child, Sprocket sarcastically asks if the truth would make them go all “Cosby Show”. The Cosby Show was a sitcom starring comedian Bill Cosby that ran from 1984 to 1992 and followed the antics of an upper-middle class African-American family living in Brooklyn. Cosby played the patriarch, Cliff Huxtable and the episodes revolved around his wholesome family. This reference has taken a somewhat darker undertone in more recent times after Bill Cosby was accused of rape in 2014. As such this should be considered a topical reference, particularly since a more contemporary example can be used in its place.

• Skein’s former name is Gypsy Moth, it was changed due to the fact that the term “Gypsy” became considered a pejorative term to describe the Romani people. However, its use cannot be written off as it was the character’s actual name for a time.

• Skein mockingly refers to Cyclone as “Desperado”, this is in reference to his hair which is in a style similar to actor Antonio Banderas in the 1995 Desperado. The film was a commercial success at the time of its release. Its reference here should be considered topical as it is even more dated now than it was when it was used when first published. The reference to this film can easily be replaced with a more contemporary film.

How Old is Cardinal?

One thing I like to do is figure out a character’s relative age in the Marvel Universe and Cardinal presents just such an opportunity what with all the flashbacks. We are never told Cardinal’s actual age. However, we can get a rough idea by looking at his military service. Someone can join the United States Army as young as 18 years of age. I think it would be safe to assume that he enlisted as soon as he became of age.

That would make Don about 10 years old in the earliest flashback that is said to take place 33 years prior to the main story. He would have made him 22 when he had his one-night-stand with Sprocket and about 43 at the time of the present day in this story as the Sliding Timscale places this in “Year Eleven” of the Modern Age.