Didn’t See That Coming

After weeks of being split up between Earth and Counter-Earth, both teams of Thunderbolts have been reunited! However, it’s not exactly a happy reunion as both Hawkeye (Clint Barton) and Baron (Helmut) Zemo are having a stand-off. Zemo tells Barton to stand-down as they only succeeded in closing the void on Counter-Earth and the opening on this side still needs to be closed.[1] Moonstone (Karla Sofen), Clint’s girlfriend, steps in and tells him that they have to listen to Zemo.

This is enough to convince Barton to order his team — consisting of Songbird (Melissa Gold), Amazon (Katrina Van Horn), Harrier (Don Clendenon), Blackheath (Sam Smithers), and Skein (Sybil Dorvak) — to stand down. They then begin workling with Zemo’s team — consisting of Mach-3 (Abner Jenkins),[2] Moonstone, Fixer (Norbert Ebersol), and the recently de-powered Dallas Riordan and Erik Josten. While Blackheath and Skein help Erik and Dallas get to cover, the others begin trashing the Vanguard in order to make it collapse in on itself to shut down the portal to the void.

The two teams vacate the ship and join up with Citizen V (John Watkins), Silver Sable, and the final members of the V-Battalion’s Penance Council: Jim Hammond and Elizabeth Barstow. Upon seeing Baron Zemo, Citizen V is spoiling for a fight after the villain had previously controlled his body.[4] However, Hawkeye snares V in a net arrow because there is still work to be done to stop the void. With that, Moonstone uses her newly boosted powers to phase the alien ship out of synch with reality so that the only things that are destroyed are the Vanguard and Castle Masada, headquarters of the V-Battalion.[5]

With the danger passed, Mach-3 and Songbird embrace after spending months apart. The happy reunion is short lived when Silver Sable and Citizen V both draw guns and attempt to arrest Baron Zemo for his past crimes against humanity. Zemo then reminds them that he is legally dead and then removes his mask to show his face is no longer horribly scarred, making it hard for them to prove that he is Helmut Zemo.[6] With that, Zemo orders Moonstone to teleport them away, and both teams of Thunderbolts vanish in a flash of light. Jim Hammond then laments the loss of everything, but Citizen V and Elizabeth assures them that this is not the end of the V-Battalion and that there are other resources available to them that he doesn’t know about.[7]

Moonstone transports the Thunderbolts to a private villa on the Canary Islands that was once owned by Doctor Faustus.[8] The situation is tense, so Zemo and Hawkeye agree that the two teams should spend time catching up on things before figuring out what happens next.[9] Moonstone decides to start by explaining what happened to Jolt (Hallie Takahama).

The Thunderbolts’ youngest member had to stay behind on Counter-Earth in order to power the device that allowed her friends to return home. Now with the Young Allies (Bucky, Toro, Kid Colt, O, and K), she returns to the refugee city of Attilan which now hovers over flood ravaged New York City.[10] There she tells her new friends that she wanted to remain behind and help save the planet and asks if she can join the team. Bucky welcomes her abord by jokingly asking if she has a dental plan.

Back on Earth, it is now nightfall and Erik Josten finds Amazon walking along the beach. He asks her what she plans on doing. He intends on staying on with the Thunderbolts even though he apparently no longer has his powers. He also reminds her that he always knew she had what it took to be a hero. Unfortunately, Katerina doesn’t agree and says goodbye and walks into the ocean and swims off to resume her criminal life. Dallas soon catches up to Erik and tries to take his mind off of what just happened by showing off what she can do. Not only did their separation heal her damaged spine, but she now has superhuman agility, strength, and reflexes.[11]

Meanwhile, the Fixer is spying on the others trying to figure out his next move. He is shocked to learn that Blackheath is remaining on and wonders what he is doing with his life. His thoughts are interrupted by Baron Zemo who has come to see what Norbert’s plans are. He admits that he won’t know until he figures out what he wants and if they align with the Thunderbolts’ future goals. When Zemo asks what that is, Ebersol flies off without an answer.

In the dining room, Hawkeye and Moonstone are talking about their future on the team as well. After all the of the changes that have happened since they were last together, Clint no longer believes that he can lead the team anymore. This is especially true now that Karla is convinced that Zemo is more than capable of leading them going forward. Something they want to try even if it negatively impacts their efforts to redeem themselves in the eyes of the public.

As this is happening, the Fixer arrives at a secret chemical weapons plant in the Middle East. Blasting his way through security, he finds the stores of bio-weapons and destroys them before flying back home.

Later, the happy reunion between Abe and Melissa turns sour. Hurt by what Jenkins has planned, Melissa runs out of the house and into the forest. Skein tells the others to let her handle it and goes out side to see what’s wong. Mel won’t talk about it and when Sybil suggests they quit the Thunderbolts and go have some fun, Melissa turns her down as she still wants to remain on the team. That’s when Dorvak bumps into Blackheath, who has decided to remain as well. Seeing that Sybil never took the Thunderbolts seriously to begin with, Smithers suggests that she go while she still can.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye still can’t trust Baron Zemo and asks for a reason why he should trust him. When Karla returns from dropping Skein off at her home, Helmut has her teleport them to Burton Canyon. There, they appear in the apartment of a young mother and her son. Zemo explains how during Graviton’s attack he saved their lives when he could have left them to die.[12] They then teleport to Zemo’s old hideout in Central America. Helmut wants to show Clint that the facility had been cleaned out by the Commission on Superhuman Activities after his “death” and it is now occupied by the people he and his father once enslaved. In fact, Zemo gave the locals his property as atonement for his past crimes.[13] When Clint recognizes a famous Hollywood actor among the people living there, Karla teleports them back to the villa before he can verify who it really is.

When they are back, Zemo admits that he doesn’t know if he will continue being a hero, but insists that he will never know for sure if Hawkeye is always there watching his every moment. When Clint asks Karla if she supports this, she admits that she also doesn’t know if she was trying to be a hero because of her love for Hawkeye and wants to be able to see if she is doing it for him, or for herself and flies off before Clint can convince her otherwise.

That’s when the Fixer returns and uses some Pym Particles he stole from the chemical weaposn depot to restore Erik’s size-changing powers so he can become Atlas again. When everyone regroups at the villa, Abe informs everyone that he has decided that he is going to go back to prison and serve out the rest of his sentence, as that is the right thing to do.[14] Melissa doesn’t want Abe to go, but understands his reasons for doing so and promises to be waiting for him. After Abe suits up as Mach-3 one last time, Fixer hands him a means of restoring his original face, as he now remembers everything he did as the robotic Techno.[15] However, Abe won’t be going to Seagate Prison alone, Harrier has also decided to return to jail and promises to look out for Jenkins while they are both incarcerated.

With the departure of Mach-3 and Harrier, Hawkeye also announces that he will be leaving as well. Although he doesn’t trust the new Baron Zemo, he is proud of how far the Thunderbolts have come since he took them under his wing. He believes that the others will keep him in line, and if all else fails, the Avengers are always around to stop them if they go bad again.

After Moonstone drops Hawkeye off in Washington, DC, she comes back to the villa. Zemo then checks to see if Barton still swallowed their ruse. When Karla confirms that is the case, he rallies the Thunderbolts together and tells them that in order to save the world, they must first rule it!

…. This story is continued in Avengers/Thunderbolts #1!

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Baron Zemo, Moonstone, Songbird, Hawkeye, Mach-3, Fixer, Dallas Riordan, Erik Josten, Amazon, Blackheath, Harrier, Skein), Silver Sable, V-Battalion (Citizen V, Betsy Barstow, Jim Hammond), Young Allies (Bucky, Jolt, Kid Colt, Toro, Order, Kaos)

Continuity Notes

1. Both Earth and Counter-Earth were being threatened by twin alien ships that caused a dimensional void that threatened to suck both worlds into it unless they were shut down. Hawkeye’s team’s efforts were chronicled in Thunderbolts #65, 67, 69, 71, and 73 while the exploits of Zemo’s team were seen in issue #66, 68, 70, 72, and 74.

2. Mach-3 and Harrier mention their previous criminal identities:

   • Harrier got his start as the costumed criminal known as the Cardinal back in New Warriors #28. He had just recently reinvented himself as Harrier back in Thunderbolts #67.

   • Abner Jenkins got his start as the criminal known as the Beetle back in Strange Tales #123. When he reinvented himself as a hero, he started calling himself Mach-1, as first seen in Incredible Hulk #449. Upgrading his number each time he got a new upgrade for his flight suit. Here, Abner incorrectly refers to himself as Mach-5. This is an error, he has been currently referring to himself as Mach-3 since Thunderbolts #58, he won’t become Mach-V (as he switches from numbers to Roman Numerals) until Thunderbolts #144.

3. Songbird comments on Moonstone’s new look. She recently changed her costume after acquiring a second Moonstone on Counter-Earth in Thunderbolts #68.

4. Baron Zemo lost his original body when he was decapitated by Scourge in Thunderbolts #39. However, as explained in issue #61, he cheated death thanks to his mind being transmitted via a bio-modem into the body of John Watkins III in issue #45. Zemo’s mind was pulled from Citizen V’s body when most of the Thunderbolts ended up getting shunted to Counter-Earth in Thunderbolts #58. From there, he lived on inside Fixer’s tech-pack until he was able to take over the body of his Counter-Earth counterpart in Thunderbolts #62.

5. While this is happening, Baron Zemo mentions how Elizabeth Barstow is suffering from a neurodegenerative disease. This was first revealed in Citizen V and the V-Battalion #1.

6. Years earlier’ Helmut’s original body had its face horribly scared after he did a noser into a vat of boiling Adhesive X. See Captain America #168 for all the ooey-gooey details.

7. Hammond had just recently become leader of the V-Battalion after its original leader, Roger Aubrey, retired in Citizen V and the V-Battalion: The Everlasting #4. This is not the last we see of the V-Battalion either, although we’ll only hear of them operating behind the scenes in New Invaders #1-2 and Cable & Deadpool #28-29.

8. Back in the day, before becoming Moonstone, Karla was employed by Doctor Faustus. Check out Captain America #192.

9. Hawkeye is surprised to see that Dallas Riordan and Erik Josten are back together again. This is because a lot has gone down since he last saw either of them, and I realize that I am going to have to right a book length explainer…

   • When Hawkeye last saw Dallas Riordan, she was Citizen V and she had just been kidnapped by the Crimson Cowl, as seen in Thunderbolts #41. The last thing he knows is that Josten exploded when his powers reached critical mass in issue #47.

   • The reason why Hawkeye has been out of the loop is because he went to jail in Thunderbolts #50 and had been separated from his other teammates until last issue.

   • While he was in the slammer, Dallas was rescued by Latveria in Thunderbolts #52, but was paralyzed from the waist down. Josten’s love for her draw him back to the land of the living and the two were merged together in Thunderbolts #56.

   • The two remained fused as one being until they were separated in Thunderbolts #74.

10. Jolt decided to remain on Counter-Earth in issue #74. Its version of New York City was ravaged by a massive flood in Heroes Reborn: Doomsday #1.

11. It would be silly of me to neglect to mention that Dallas got crippled in a fight with the Crimson Cowl in Thunderbolts #42. She was confined to a wheelchair until she and Erik were merged together. However, she could only walk when she was powered up.

12. Zemo saved the lives of this mother and her child in Thunderbolts #57.

13. After World War II, Heinrich Zemo fled to Central America where he enslaved the indigenous population to do his bidding, as first seen waaay back in Avengers #6. Something that was continued by Helmut after his father’s death in Avengers #15.

14. Abe once killed a man back in his Beetle days, as seen in Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #3. Initially, he was convinced by Hawkeye to surrender to the authorities and serve out his sentence in Thunderbolts #21-23. However, between issues #26 through 36 he was roped into a CSA op to capture Justin Hammer. When the Thunderbolts learned about it, they blackmailed Henry Gyrich into letting Abe free in Thunderbolts #37. In order to hide the fact he was out of prison, Abe underwent a facelift that turned him into an Black man. When we see Abe again in Avengers/Thunderbolts #1, he’ll be back to normal.

15. They are referring to the time when Fixer got his neck snapped and transferred his mind into a robotic body in Thunderbolts #7-8. When the robot body was destroyed in issue #46, his mind was transferred into his old body which had been healing that entire time, causing him to resurface in Thunderbolts #48. In issue #61 he claimed not to remember anything from that period.

Topical References

• Hawkeye states that the Vanguard represents sixty years of research. As this is in reference to the V-Battalion existing during World War II, this measurement of time should be considered topical. Due to the Sliding Timescale, the number of years between the end of World War II and the Modern Age will continue go grow over time.

• The neurodegenerative disease that Elizabeth Barstow is suffering from is identified as Alzheimer’s Disease. This condition should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world illness that scientists are finding new methods of treating this illness and may ultimately find a cure.

• When trashing the chemical weapons plant, Norbert says “Saddam, you bad boy.” This is in reference to Saddam Hussein, the former leader of Iraq. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the George W. Bush government used the anger over the attacks to stage an invasion of Iraq and depose its leader, even though Hussein had no connections to al-Queda or had any part in the terrorist attacks. The American public were sold on the idea that Saddam had “weapons of mass destruction”, despite the fact that United Nations inspections of the country found no evidence to support this. The narrative continued until it was definitively learned that there were no such weapons in Iraq. Despite this, Hussain was executed and America was locked in a pointless 20+ year war that left the Middle East in more disarray when they first got involved in the region. Anyway, the idea that Saddam had WMDs was so prevalent it even began being referenced in American entertainment, hence the reference in this story. References to Saddam Hussein should be considered topical since he was killed in 2006.

• The young boy that Zemo saved is wearing an Elmo t-shirt. Elmo is a popular character from the children’s television program Sesame Street. The character was at the height of his popularity at the time this comic was published. His depiction here should be considered topical as he could be replaced with a more contemporary example.

• The family also have a CRT television, which should also be considered topical as it is an obsolete technology.

• The actor that Hawkeye spots is Kevin Costner, who was experiencing a decline in his career at the time this issue was published. Not entirely sure why he’d be here, is it implying that Zemo hired actors? I can’t really tell. At any rate, this should be considered a topical reference since Costner is (time of this writing) in his late 70s and doesn’t have many years left in his career. More over, a more contemporary actor could be used in his place.

• Hawkeye refers to Helmut as “New Coke Zemo”, this is a reference to New Coke, a short-lived refresh of Coca-Cola in 1985. The changed formula was supposed to replace the original but the company received backlash from the company. Eventually the original formula (now called Coca-Cola Classic) was brought back and New Coke was rebranded as simple Coke, and later Coke II. It remained on the market until 2002, when it was discontinued. Its reference here should be considered a topical reference as this is a real world brand.