International Incident

The Thunderbolts — Moonstone (Karla Sofen), Songbird (Melissa Gold), Radioactive Man (Chen Lu), Swordsman (Andreas Von Strucker), Venom (Mac Gargan), and Penance (Robbie Baldwin) — have been dispatched to a Center for Disease Control facility in Atlanta, Georgia, to prevent unregistered superhumans from stealing materials from the site.[1][2]

The superhumans in question are a German named Wagner, a Nigerian named Imo Miri, and two Chinese named Chu Jung and Feng Po-Po. Its the latter two that Radioactive Man recognize as being named after Chinese gods. As the Thunderbolts prevent Wagner from escaping, Chu Jung’s flesh suddenly beings sloughing off his body, leaving only his skeleton. Seeing what happened to their teammate, both Feng Po-Po and Imo Miri lose the will to fight and surrender, fearing that the same thing will happen to them.

The three survivors are taken back to Thunderbolts Mountain for questioning. There, Feng Po-Po tells Director Norman Osborn how she and her teammates were all genetically altered by and were working for Arnim Zola. Prior to this, Feng was a prostitute, while Wagner was a drug addict. All of them are foreign nationals and the dregs of society in their homelands. After hearing her story, Osborn promises to find a way to cure Feng and the others. However, this was a lie in order to get information out of her. Osborn tells Chen and the others that they will suffer the same fate as Chu Jung, as their unstable genetic structures have reached the point of no return.

Osborn then calls a team meeting and tells them that their next mission is to apprehend Arnim Zola. When its determined that three of his bases are located in Germany, Nigeria, and China, Moonstone points out that going after Zola is outside of the team purview. Norman disagrees, saying that Zola is responsible for unleashing unregistered superhumans on American soil. However, going into these other countries will be a covert operation as the United States government wants to get access to Zola’s technologies before any other country. The only one to protest this idea is the Radioactive Man, who is a Chinese national and is on loan to the Thunderbolts as a curtesy.[3] He tries to get Songbird to take his side, but Melissa agrees with the plan, pointing out that her former teammate Jolt (Hallie Takahama) was once a victim of Zola’s genetic tampering.[4] When Osborn suggests that they take this continue this conversation in private, Chen refuses. Norman then reveals in front of everyone that the Chinese government doesn’t actually want Chen back home because they fear his radiation based powers. When Lu refuses to believe this, he decides to find out the truth for himself.

Suspecting that he is going to have the same problem with the Swordsman, he calls Andreas into his office. He asks if Strucker’s ties to Germany or his family working with Zola in the past will negatively affect him on this mission. Andreas changes the subject and asks how the process of cloning his sister is going.[5] Osborn admits that creating a duplicate of his sister has proven difficult due to her unique mutant DNA, but assures him that they’ll crack it eventually. After a moment of silence, Andreas tells Osborn that there won’t be any troubles.

Meanwhile, Radioactive Man heads to the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC. There he meets with the Collective Man, another Chinese superhero. Using his radioactive powers to cancel out and listening devices, Chen asks his protege if what Norman Osborn said is true. The Collective Man confirms that their government fears that Chen’s radiation puts their nation at risk. More shockingly, they have agreed to loan him out to the Americans in the hope that his powers go out of control and create a disaster for the United States. This deeply hurts Chen and helps make up his mind to accompany the Thunderbolts on their covert mission.

The team quickly search Arnim Zola’s facilities in both Nigeria and Germany first. They arrive too late, as Zola has cleared out of both facilities. In Germany, the Swordsman finds a strange device. Chen’s powers allows him to determine it is giving off a signal back to Arnim Zola. Realizing that the base has been boobytrapped, Moonstone orders an immediate evacuation. The Thunderbolts manage to get the Zeus into the air just seconds before the entire facility explodes.

They then race to the location of the Chinese facility, which is hidden in the Siguiang Mountains. Upon landing, the Thunderbolts are ambushed by Doughboy and other creatures created by Arnim Zola. While the team is busy fighting these monstrosities, Swordsman manages to push through and heads off after Arnim Zola alone, unaware that Radioactive Man is following him from behind.

Andreas catches Zola as he is loading up his escape craft. However, rather than stop the mad scientist, he cuts off a piece of the tanned hide on the hilt of his sword.[6] This was made from his sister’s skin and Andreas hands over the piece to Zola and asks him to create a clone of his sister. Suddenly, Zola becomes incapacitated and falls to the ground. This was done by the Radioactive Man who used his powers to interfere with the frequencies Zola’s mind uses to control his cyborg body. Chen is willing to turn Zola over to the others, but Andreas threatens to blow up the base with them all inside as he is willing to die for his sister. He also plays on Chen’s newfound lack of trust in both the Thunderbolts and his own government. Ultimately, he convinces Lu to let Zola go so he can escape.

The other Thunderbolts arrive just as Arnim Zola’s craft is taking off and are too late to stop it. When Moonstone asks Chen if Andreas betrayed them, he says that they were too late to stop Zola and nothing of consequence happened.

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Norman Osborn, Songbird, Moonstone, Radioactive Man, Swordsman, Venom, Penance), Arnim Zola, Doughboy, Collective Man

Continuity Notes

1. This story takes place after the passage of the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) in Civil War #1, a law that requires all superhumans to register with the government. The Thunderbolts have been charged with bringing unregistered outlaws since Thunderbolts #110.

2. Here, it is stated that a government run team for the state of George has yet to be formed. Following the passage of the SHRA, the 50-State Initiative was created to train superhumans and give every state its own team of superheroes. This began in Civil War #5. George will eventually get its own team, called the Calvary, in Avengers: The Initiative #18.

3. Radioactive Man has been on loan to the Thunderbolts by the Chinese government since New Thunderbolts #4.

4. Following the Onslaught crisis, Hallie was kidnapped off the streets by Zola and given her bio-electric powers. See Thunderbolts #4 for the full dope on that.

5. Recently, the Swordsman’s twin sister, Andrea was killed by Baron Zemo, as seen in Citizen V and the V-Battalion #3. Osborn secured Swordsman’s loyalty by promising to clone his sister in Thunderbolts #113.

6. Andreas tanned a piece of his sister’s skin and wrapped it around his sword, as explained in New Thunderbolts #17, in order to maintain his powers.

7. Arnim Zola will come through for Andreas, producing a clone of his sister, who will turn up in Thunderbolts #122.

Topical References

• The reporter covering the Thunderbolts battle at the CDC asks Venom is Penance is dating Lance Bass. At the time of this story, Lance Bass was a member of the boy band NSYNC and a few years prior to this publication had come out as being gay. This should be considered a topical reference as Bass is a real world individual and his coming out is incredibly old news. A more contemporary example could be used in his place.

• Norman Osborn is depicted as having a cell phone with physical buttons. While these types of phones still exist, they have fallen out of common use thanks to the advent of smart phones and are on their way to obsolescence. As such, their depiction here should be considered a topical reference.