Thunderbolts #76
Bare Knuckle
It’s winter time in New York City and a construction worker is heading home after a long day at work. He passes a homeless man begging in the street and tosses a coin into his cup. When the guy sees that it is a nickle, he begins berating the construction worker for being so cheap, but his protests are ignored. The man — Daniel Axum by name — returns home to the apartment he shares with his mother. As he heads to his room to change out of his construction gear, he is told that dinner will soon be ready.
In his room, he sees that his mother has put an old newspaper headline on his bed. It’s from the Daily Bugle and it is from his days as a super-villain named the Battler. Specifically, it is the day he was defeated by Spider-Man. Angered by the sight of this, Daniel goes into the kitchen and tells his mother off for leaving such a painful reminder in his room. He reminds her that he spent three years in prison — where he got the scar down his face — and that time is reminder enough for him to stay on the straight and narrow from now on. Three years that he was absent from his normal life. His father died in that time, and his girlfriend to give birth to their son and then leave him. He still remembers how his mother had to sell their home in Hempstead to pay for his lawyers.
His mother tries to deflect this, by saying the house wasn’t really his because it was bought with stolen money. Axum tells his mother that he knows and tosses the paper across the room. He tells her that he doesn’t need reminders like this in the house and storms back to his room loudly promising that his life of crime is over.
Elsewhere, a wrestling match is going on between the Armadillo (Antonio Rodriguez) and another superhuman wrestler. The crowd openly hates the Armadillo and boos him from the bleachers. Despite this, Antonio refuses to give up and pummels his opponent bloody. He continues to pummel his opponent even when he is knocked out in the ring.
Soon the fight is over, and those who bet against Armadillo grudgingly pay up what they owe to a bookie named Jason. Once the audience is gone, Jason goes out to a white limo parked out back and hands over money to his boss, Rey Tureno. He is pleased by the wad of cash and he thinks that maybe Armadillo still has some fight in him. Jason disagrees, despite the win the fight ended way too quickly. Almost as though Rodriguez was trying to end it before something happened. He agrees with Coach Cady that the Armadillo has hit a wall and his usefulness to them might be coming to an end. Luckily, Cady has someone new in mind. In the meantime, they are pushing up Armadillo’s next fight against the Monster. He then tells Jason to take Amber — the girl giving Rey head in his limo — and give her to Armadillo, saying that its her punishment for complaining about the cold when he was talking business instead of keeping her mouth shut.
The following morning, Daniel Axum is on his lunch break at the construction site where he works. He is interrupted by his superior who asks him to help lift a vehicle that tipped over. Axum’s superhuman strength will get it up right in a few minutes, less time and money it would take for them to do it the old fashioned way, particularly since the driver is still getting paid regardless if he is working or not. When Daniel says he’ll do it once he is finished his lunch, he is reminded that Griswold Contractors did him a favor by giving him a job when he was released on parole. This annoys Axum, but he does what he is asked anyway. Sure enough it does only take a few minutes. Once he is done, his boss tells him to hurry up and finish his lunch and doesn’t even thank him.
Meanwhile, back in Hoboken, Coach Cady is giving Armadillo a massage to loosen him up before his big fight. Cady warns Antonio that he has to keep his anger in check because the Monster actually gains more strength by feeding off the anger of others. They then go over the battle plan: The Monster is fast and will use that to keep out of the Armadillo’s reach. Antonio shouldn’t let that frustrate him or get him mad, just bide his time by letting his opponent tire himself out and get sloppy. The Coach notices that Rodriguez is tenser then usual and asks what’s wrong. Antonio complains that this is his fourth fight this week, but Cady can’t do anything about that, saying scheduling isn’t his job. When he suggests that many Anthony isn’t into it, it angers the Armadillo. Cady quickly diffuses the situation, and calms him down. Still, Armadillo asks Cady if he can at least talk to management about getting him some time off. Soon the fight is about to begin and when the the bell is about to ring, Coach Cady tells Armadillo to show them why he is the New Jersey Regional Champ.
The following morning, the Monster is found beaten to a bloody pulp on the side of the road. He is found by a trio of school kids on their way to school. When one of them tries to steal the money hanging out of his pocket, the Monster wakes up and scares the kids off.
By quitting time, Daniel Axum is exhausted after another grueling day at work. He heads to Limbo, the local bar hoping to get a drink. Unfortunately, T-Bone the bartender refuses to serve him another drink until he pays up his overextended tab. As Axum is telling T-Bone he gets paid tomorrow, Cady comes up behind him and dumps a beer on his head and demands that Axum thank him. Rather than losing his temper or starting a fight, Daniel asks T-Bone for a towel and begins drying himself off. Cady keeps on insulting Daniel trying to get him to lose his temper. Axum, not wanting to get into trouble, decides to leave instead. That is until Cady begins mocking him for going to prison and suggests that he is nothing more than a punk that enjoyed getting gang raped in the showers.
This is pushing Axum to the brink but he is still keeping his anger in check. That’s when another patron — Rey Trueno, who is sitting in a booth with a quartet of beautiful women — tells Axum to hit Cady because everyone likes to see a good fight….
Recurring Characters
Axum, Armadillo, Rey Trueno, Coach Cady, Axum’s Mother
Continuity Notes
Axum states in this story that he went to jail for three years after getting busted by Spider-Man. According to the Marvel Chronology Project, this clash happened between Spider-Man’s appearances in Spider-Man/Kingpin: To the Death #1 and Sensational Spider-Man #24. This tracks, see below for more detail.
Topical References
The length of time between Axum’s arrest and his time in prison is stated as being three years. As stated above, the Chronology Project places these appearances as happening between stories that were published in 1998, whereas this story was published in 2003. When measuring the publication dates to the Sliding Timescale, we will find that three years of time passed (in universe) between publications. As such, this should be considered a factual reference.
The characters use a lot of slang that was used by both the African-American and Latino communities in the early 2000s. These usages should be considered topical as they are dated and are considered negative stereotypes to many in these groups.
