Thunderbolts #79
Play the Odds
Fighting league founder Rey Trueno is appearing on WUNJ New Jersey Sports Radio to talk about his new fighting league. The host of the program, Morris Lachs, starts the interview by talking about Rey’s past. He notes that Trueno moved to New Jersey from Texas twelve years ago and opened a sporting goods store. Rey boasts that it was so successful he has been able to open four “Thunderdome Sports” stores in the state. Morris then brings up his time on the Camden City Council, mentioning how he resigned amid a parking scandal.
Rey quickly corrects Morris, saying that he served a single term and did not opt for re-election. The parking allegations surfaced five months after he resigned from office, and shifts the blames on other “crooks” who worked in council.
Lachs doesn’t entirely buy this, but moves along to the next part of Rey’s biography. He notes that Trueno was hired to help promote New Jersey’s flagging United Football League team, the Centurions. When Morris remembers the commercials for the team were awful, Rey defends them saying that they increased attendance by 100%. Morris notes that the team did so well, the owners gave Trueno shares of the team, which Rey promptly sold a year later. Morris then notes that the team just went under this past year. Rey decides to stop things there, saying he has talked enough about the past and wants to talk about the future.
Rey is, of course, talking about his new super-human fighting league. Morris has heard about it and recalls how it is an unsanctioned fighting league. He also mentions how a number of badly beaten super-villains have been found around town. Rey takes offense to this, saying his league is completely legal. He suggests that the beat-up supervillains are probably the work of heroes like the Avengers and have nothing to do with his league. Rey starts to get angry and begins accusing Morris of having secret of his own. This entire interview, a cockroach has been skittering around the recording studio. Now, as he defends himself, Rey burns it with his lighter then smashes it into pulp. He then says he is going to clean his hand and after, they are going to talk about how he is going to change the face of professional sports in the state. Morris, sufficiently intimidated by all of this, meekly agrees to do just that.
Meanwhile, Coach Cady is training the league’s newest break out star, reformed criminal Daniel Axum. As Axum goes through his daily training regimen, Cady encourages him on, telling the young fighter that he has a decent chance at becoming the world champion. After they are done practice, Cady is impressed by how much Axum improved his stamina, saying he’ll need it in the upcoming championship bout. Daniel can’t understand why he can’t be shown footage of how his competition fights. Cady explains that the rules state that no recordings of matches are allowed to take place, citing liability issues. He also says that this is also part of what makes the fights more challenging, by keeping opponents in the dark over who they are fighting. All Cady can do is inform Axum on what he knows and what he has seen with his own eyes. He assures Daniel that he is plenty strong to defeat his opponent. When he says that “we” will win, Daniel corrects him, since he’s the only one doing the fighting.
When Cady then calls him “son”, Axum gets even more upset. He turns and tells the coach that they are not friends. The coach figures that Daniel is still sore after he started the fight at the Limbo Bar when they recruited him and thought they had it all sorted out.[2] Axum however, reminds Cady how he called him a monkey and confronts him about his racist comment. The argument is interrupted by Lydia — Axum’s new girlfriend — who wants to go shopping. Axum leaves with her and as they head to the car, she notices the tattoo Daniel has on his forcep, a heart with the word “Gin” in the center. She remarks how she has only ever saw him drink whiskey and asks what the tattoo means. He is pressed to tell her that it was a tattoo of his ex-girlfriend Gina. When she ghosted on him while he was serving out his prison sentence, he couldn’t get it removed so had it altered instead, removing the letter “a”. Now that he is a free man, he figures he can finally get it completely remove. Lydia tells him to keep it, saying that she actually likes it. As they walk away, Cady is watching them and is not impressed with any of this.[3]
When Axum returns home he gets to spend some time with his son, little Benny. Daniel’s mother has been giving him the silent treatment for an entire week and eventually he gets annoyed and asks her to speak her mind. Daniel’s mother isn’t happy that Axum is fighting for a living and wonders if he has told his son what he does for a living. Since Benny has nodded off, Axum puts the boy on the couch to sleep so they can hash things out. He tells his mother that he fights for a living to provide for his son. It is the best money he has earned since getting out of jail. Before this opportunity, he was slaving away on a construction site barely making enough money to get by working for somebody else. Mamma Broughton can’t believe her son can be so blind, pointing out that Axum is still working for someone else and that this has the potential of ending very badly for him.
That’s when he gets a call from Rey Trueno, who is drinking down at the Limbo bar and asks Axum to come down so they can talk about the future. Axum tells Rey that he cannot come out until Gina comes to pick up Benny in an hour. When Trueno tries to impress how important his time is, Daniel puts his foot down and says that spending time with his son is more important than anything else and says he’ll be down in about an hour after Benny is gone. When the call ends, Cady notices that Rey is annoyed and asks what’s up. Trueno assures the coach that its a problem that he can fix.
An hour later, Axum arrives at Limbo just like he promised. Rey is happy to see him and give him his advance on the upcoming championship fight — half of his anticipated winnings. Trueno is confident that Daniel is going to win this fight and has big plans for the future. However, in order for those dreams to become a reality, Rey needs Axum to quit his day job at the construction sight so he can focus on fighting full time. Daniel tells Rey that he can’t do that, as the job at Griswald Construction is part of an early release program. If he quits now, his parole officer will be informed and he can’t risk his freedom. This deeply upsets Rey, who reminds Axum that he has super-human strength, and shouldn’t be afraid of some pencil pusher at the parole office. He then snatches back Axum’s advance, telling him that he’ll have to do without until he wins the big fight. Trueno also warns Daniel that he’s going to have to go above and beyond in the ring, and quit his day job or else he doesn’t want to see his face.
Backed into a corner, Axum quits his job and is depressed when it comes to fight night. As the coach is prepping him for the fight, Rey Trueno comes in to congratulate Daniel for quitting his job. He then flashes his pay for this evening’s bout, telling Axum its his once the fight is over. “Do right by me, and I’ll do right by you”, Trueno promises and says he’ll hold the money until the fight is over. The Coach reassures him that they made the right decision and when they walk out of the locker room, Axum is shocked to see his Parole Officer, Mister Eales. However, rather than busting Daniel, he tells him to win the fight because he has a lot of money riding on his winning. That’s when Rey comes from around the corner and boasts that every man has his vice. Realizing that all of this was set up, Axum gets upset again and asks Cady why they didn’t just tell him straight. Cady says it was a test of loyalty to see if Daniel has what it takes to be a pro. Cady defends their actions, saying everybody lies to everyone about everything. He says there is only one place where Axum can get the unfettered truth and that is in the ring.
Soon Axum enters the ring and meets his opponent for the first time. He is a massive Russian fighter (complete with metal plate in his skull and Soviet hammer and sickle tattooed on his forehead) called Slag. At first, Axum is intimidated by Slag’s size, but he focuses his anger and frustrations on his opponent. He dances around Slag as the crowd goes wild. Eventually, twenty minutes go by since Slag managed to land a blow and the other fighter is getting tired. Axum gives Slag a chance to lay down and get counted out, but he refuses, confident that he can defeat Daniel once he catches his breath. Slag doesn’t get the chance, however, as Axum relentlessly and wins the match. The crowd goes wild and when Axum sees Rey he demands payment immediately.
Later, Axum goes out for a night on the town with Lydia, but realizes that he forgot his cell phone back at the gym so he goes back to get it. As he gets out of the car, a homeless man asks him to spare some change. Pulling out some bills, Axum figures he’s doing a good thing giving away all his money. The homeless man thanks Axum for his charity and calls him “champ”, that’s when Axum realizes that he was talking to his predecessor, the Armadillo![4]
Recurring Characters
Axum, Rey Trueno, Lydia, Coach Cady, Benny
Continuity Notes
Axum had just served a three year sentence, as we learned Thunderbolts #76.
Coach Cady goaded Axum into a fight to show Rey Tureno that he could fight, see issues #76 and 77 for the details. He did indeed use a racial epitaph.
Cady believes Lydia’s interest in Axum is a bad thing and expressed this to Tureno last issue. Rey, however, has allowed the relaitionship to continue because it suits his ends.
The Armadillo was the champ before Axum defeated him. After which he was discarded because both Rey and Cady believed he was past his prime, as seen over the last four issues.
Topical References
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.
Rey Trueno states that he promoted the Centurions so well that they outsold the New York Jets. The Jets are a NFL team that has been in existence since 1960. Their reference here should be considered topical as this is a real world sports team.
A poster hanging on the gym advertises the Armadillo as the 2002 Regional Champ. The year listed should be considered topical as it is relative to the date of publication. Modern readers should interpret this to mean that Armadillo was champion for about a year before Axum defeated him.
Rey Trueno is depicted having a flip model cell phone. While these types of phones are still around at the time of this writing (October, 2023), they have fallen out of popular use thanks to the advent of smart phone technologies. The flip phone has been downgraded to being used by those with low incomes, or burner phones for criminals. Given Trueno is a sketchy guy, you could argue his using a flip phone here still works. However, this is a technology is on its way to obsolescence so you’re going to have to recognize it as a topical reference sooner or later. You do you.
Rey Trueno states that Axum stands to make $100,000 on the upcoming championship fight. Adjusting for inflation that would be worth about $17k in 2023 money.
