Thunderstrike #2
Family Matters!
After defeating Bloodaxe, Thunderstrike brings his foe’s enchanted weapon to Avengers Headquarters to be examined.[1] The Black Knight scans the weapon and cannot get very much information from it. When asked if he is going to contain the weapon at Avengers Headquarters, Thunderstrike decides against it thinking it’d be safter if he returned to Asgard. However, this is something he is not certain he can pull off with his new mace. As the Knight sees Thunderstrike out, Crystal arrives to hang out with her teammate.[2] As the Black Knight and Crystal leave, Thunderstrike notices Sersi scowling at them from the window and wonders if there is any friction going on between them. He dismisses it as his imagination and takes off little knowing how correct he actually was.[3]
Thunderstrike needs to get going because he promised to take his son Kevin out to visit his grandparents. Reverting back to his civilian identity of Eric Masterson, Thunderstrike goes to pick up his rental car for the trip. When he is told that his car isn’t ready yet, Eric suddenly loses his temper and yells at the clerk to get him a vehicle right away.
Eric Masterson isn’t the only one in a fit of rage that day either. At the Steele home, Bobby tells his wife Marcy that he doesn’t want Eric taking Kevin out to see his grandparents. If anyone should be doing that it is him. Marcy is frightened as she has never seen her second husband this angry before. She is worried that Bobby has some kind of secret he is keeping from her and that this is the real source of his rage. However, when she asks him to talk about it Bobby decides to teach her his own definition of what a family should be like.[3] When Eric arrives at the apartment building later, he is chastising himself for getting so angry at the car rental employee and wonders if the Bloodaxe is somehow affecting his behavior. When he knocks at the Steele apartment, Marcy answers the door and Eric is horrified to see that she has a fat lip. She explains how Bobby struck her during their argument, but is more concerned about Kevin’s safety since her husband ran off with him.
Meanwhile, Cain Marko — aka the Juggernaut — has arrived on Long Island to seek out Genetech, a company that can help his friend Black Tom Cassidy who needs adjustments made to his wood and flesh interface.[4] However, when he calls ahead to Genetech, they refuse to release any client information with anyone except the patient themselves or direct family. Since they won’t talk to him, Cain decides to change into the Juggernaut and tear his way up to the Genetech building to show them he means business. As he runs up the highway he passes by the car owned by Bobby Steele. He is taking Kevin to visit his grandparents and the entire time he rants and raves about how he is under pressure both as a step-father, husband, and at work playing for the New York Smashers. He tells the frightened boy that nobody understands how many demands are being directed at him all at once. Kevin is afraid but keeps his step-father talking in the hopes he’ll calm down. That’s when the boy notices the Juggernaut coming up the street.
Above the highway, Thunderstrike is searching for Bobby’s car from the sky, a job that is made difficult by the fact that his enchanted mace doesn’t fly quite as smoothly as Mjolnir did. By this time, the Juggernaut has stopped at a roadside bar to get a drink. After polishing off an entire keg in one sitting, Cain tosses it into the air getting Thunderstrike’s attention. Although he is desperate to find Kevin, Thunderstrike can’t just leave the Juggernaut to go on his rampage. At first, he tries reasoning with Marko, but the Juggernaut won’t listen and literally walks all over his opponent. Helped back to his feet by a team of firefighters, Thunderstrike finally spots Bobby’s car and is relieved to see that Kevin is still safe.
However, he still needs to deal with the Juggernaunt and tries to stop him a second time. This time around, Marko is blasted from the same mystery individual who previously helped him during his fight with Bloodaxe.[6] Although this doesn’t harm the Juggernaut it does knock him meters below ground forcing him to climb out of a massive pit before he can keep moving. When Cain gets to the surface, Thunderstrike uses the Bloodaxe to lop off his protective helmet. This gets Juggernaut to take Thunderstrike seriously and Eric manages to convince him to talk. Learning why Marko was on the rampage, Thunderstrike uses his Avengers credentials to speak with the people at Genetch and compel them to release Black Tom’s files. Marko is happy to leave without further incident and even gives Thunderstrike money to pay for all the damage he caused.
By the time this is all over, Eric Masterson reverts back to his civilian guise and races to his parents house. He finds Kevin there safe and sound. As it turns out, Bobby dropped the boy off and then took off for points unknown. Eric is just happy to know that his son is safe.
After visiting with his parents, Masterson returns to New York where he wonders what happened to Bobby Steele and what he’s going to do to contain the Bloodaxe. That’s when he notices a familiar flash of light up on a rooftop. Changing back into Thunderstrike, Eric goes up to the roof to investigate. It turns out to be the lady Sif who has come to Earth from Asgard seeking Eric’s help![7]
Recurring Characters
Thunderstrike, Juggernaut, Avengers (Black Knight, Sersi, Crystal), Marcy Steele, Bobby Steele, Kevin Masterson, Sif, Stellaris
Continuity Notes
Thunderstrike defeated Bloodaxe and took their axe last issue.
Crystal accidentally calls her teammate Thor instead of Thunderstrike. Eric Masterson and Thor have a long standing history together. When Masterson was seriously injured in battle, Thor merged with him in Thor #408. The pair lived a shared existence until the thunder god was manipulated into seemingly killing his brother Loki leading to his banishment in Thor #432. Masterson took over as Thor until the true thunder god was restored in issue #459. Eric changed his name to Thunderstrike — after his enchanted mace — last issue.
At the time of this story, there was a complicated love triangle going on between Black Knight, Crystal, and Sersi in the pages of the Avengers. The details:
Dane has been attracted to Crystal pretty much from the moment she joined the Avengers in Avengers #336.
Meanwhile, Sersi has been attracted to Dane, throwing herself at him since Avengers #350.
Sersi’s has been experiencing increasingly erratic behavior has been making her more aggressive about romancing Dane. It’s later revealed that she has been pushed over the edge by Proctor, the evil Dane Whitman of another reality who has gone all Incel after his Sersi dumped his possessive ass. See Avengers #374 for all the problematic facts about that.
The situation with Crystal is complicated as she is currently married to Quicksilver, dating back to Fantastic Four #150.
However, after being neglected by her husband, Crystal engaged in an illicit affair in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6-12.
Despite this infidelity, the pair have been trying to patch up their marriage since Fantastic Four Annual #21.
This was made much more difficult since Pietro joined X-Factor in X-Factor #71 and Crystal joined the Avengers in Avengers #336.
Pietro and Crystal recently tried to reconcile by going on a romantic retreat together in X-Factor #89. Unfortunately, a paparazzo put the doubts into Quicksilver’s mind that Crystal might be seeing another man, putting their reconciliation on ice.
However, never say never, since Crystal and Quicksilver will make another attempt to patch up their failing marriage following the conclusion of the Bloodties event that takes place in Avengers #368-369, X-Men (vol. 2) #26, Avengers West Coast #101, and Uncanny X-Men #307.
Bobby’s erratic behavior is for a few reasons: He was apparently brutally mugged recently. His performance on the Smashers has also been flagging leading to him to start abusing steroids to try and enhance his game. See Thunderstrike #5 and 8. His strange behavior is being used here as a red herring to lead readers into believing he might be Bloodaxe. However, as we’ll learn in Thunderstrike #22, Bloodaxe is actually Jackie Lukas.
At the time of this story, Black Tom Cassidy was injured during a battle with X-Force as seen in Spider-Man #16 and X-Force #4-5. The arm’s dealer Tolliver agreed to help Cassidy recover from these injuries and hooked him up with Genetech. They implanted a wood fibre virus that turned him partially into wood, enhancing his mutant powers as seen in Deadpool: The Circle Chase #1-2. This will remain Tom’s status quo until New Excalibur #6-7.
That happened last issue. The mystery person helping Thunderstrike is Stellaris who will reveal herself to him in Thunderstrike #6.
Sif has come seeking Thunderstrike’s aid because Thor has succumbed to the Warrior Madness exacerbated by an ongoing identity crisis. See Thor #460-471, Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #86-88, Warlock Chronicles #6-8, and Warlock and the Infinity Watch #23-25.
Topical References
The computer at the car rental place is depicted as having a CRT monitor. This should be considered topical as this is an obsolete technology.
During Thunderstrike’s fight with the Juggernaut we see a number of real world businesses. They include fast food restaraunts such as McDonalds, Arby’s, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Friend Chicken, as well as Kinko’s copying, and Blockbuster Video. These should all be considered topical as they are real world buisnesses. Particularly in the case of Blockbuster has all but gone out of business. There is only one Blockbuster video chain left as of this writing in November, 2022.