Marvel Universe Thunderbolts
Universe
Base of Operations
Current Members: Former Members:
Other Members (Honorary, Reserve, etc.):
First Appearance
Significant Issues
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Contents |
The Deception
After a battle with Onslaught left the world without the majority of the heroes that made it feel safe, Baron Zemo devised a plan like no other in order to rule the world. Zemo gathered Beetle, Fixer, Goliath, Moonstone, and Screaming Mimi, all former members of the Masters of Evil, together to disguise themselves as a new heroic team in order to take advantage of the missing heroes and gain the trust of the authorities and public in general. They were soon joined by starry-eyed young rookie heroine Jolt, who was unaware of her teammate's true identities and hidden agenda. Zemo barely tolerated Jolt, regarding her as little more than a public relations tool, but most of the team quickly grew fond of her and found her idealism infectious. A seeming exception was the amoral Techno, who grew colder than ever after his neck was broken and he returned in robotic form.
Justice Like Lightning
Most Wanted
Veteran super hero Hawkeye, who was sympathetic to the Thunderbolts because of his own outlaw past-quit the Avengers and joined the Thunderbolts as their new leader, enhancing the team's reputation, morale and fighting skills. He persuaded ex-Beetle Abe Jenkins, the team's only known wanted killer, to go back to prison for the sake of the group's credibility-though this parting proved difficult for both Jenkin's and his girlfriend Songbird. Hawkeye also championed the joining of the team's repentant one-time foe Charcoal and led the group to victory over the Crimson Cowl's new Masters of Evil, seizing the Masters’ Mount Charteris complex to serve as the new Thunderbolts headquarters. The facility’s reclusive resident caretaker and mutant machinesmith Ogre, a long-inactive agent of defunct subversive group Factor Three, began providing the Thunderbolts with tech support. Hawkeye began a romance with the cynical Moonstone, inspiring her to change for the better. Jenkins soon rejoined the team as MACH-II, having won a secret early release through covert government work. A bored, lonely Techno secretly imprisoned and impersonated Ogre for a time, eventually sacrificing his artificial life to revive Jolt, who had been shot by the mind-controlled assassin Scourge as part of an anti-superhuman conspiracy led by rogue government agent Henry Gyrich, who was himself under the mental influence of Hydra's Baron Strucker. During Gyrich's conspiracy, Atlas and Zemo were seemingly slain by Scourge, Ogre quit the group, and Hawkeye was estranged from his teammates when they learned that he never had government approval for his work with them and could not authorize pardons for them as he once claimed. Hawkeye redeemed himself when he led the team in defeating Gyrich and secured pardons for the Thunderbolts in exchange for going along with the government cover-up of Gyrich's plot, the catch being that Hawkeye had to go to prison for his own technically illegal vigilante work with the Thunderbolts.
Heroes Reborn
Most of the other Thunderbolts were released, though conditions of their pardon forbade them from public use of costumed identities or special powers. As minors, Charcoal and Jolt became wards of the state and were assigned to the Redeemers, a Thunderbolts-inspired, government-backed super-team whose members included the resurrected Fixer (his human body restored plus memories apparently downloaded from his robotic Techno form), the sonic entity Scream (the sonic soul of Songbird's ex-partner Angar the Screamer) and new incarnations of Beetle (Abe's old enemy Leila Davis), Meteorite (disgraced pilot Valerie Barnhardt) and Smuggler (Atlas' brother Conrad Josten). Captain America mentored the group briefly, but was soon replaced as leader by the new Citizen V, who was secretly possessed by the disembodied consciousness of the slain Zemo. After a power-mad Graviton slaughtered most of the Redeemers, he and his alien P'Tah allies were defeated through the combined efforts of Citizen V, Fixer, Jolt, Moonstone, Songbird, a reborn Atlas (sharing a composite form with his ex-lover Dallas Riordan) and a re-armored Abe Jenkins (now MACH-3). Most of the heroes seemingly died in a climactic implosion, but were actually hurled to the alternate world Counter-Earth, created by Franklin Richards and the Celestial Ashema the Listener. Reunited and uneasily allied with a newly resurrected Zemo (whose disembodied consciousness had been drawn along with them), these Thunderbolts worked to restore peace and prosperity to the disaster-ravaged Counter-Earth. Zemo's Thunderbolts soon became the leading heroes of that world.
Back on Earth, Hawkeye escaped prison and teamed with Songbird on an unofficial secret mission for the intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D., seeking an ultimate weapon developed by the late criminal billionaire Justin Hammer. In the course of their mission, they teamed with criminals Amazon, Blackheath, Cyclone, Harrier and Skein, whom Hawkeye forged into a new team of Thunderbolts. Together, they neutralized Hammer's weapon and crushed the Crimson Cowl's reorganized Masters of Evil, saving the world and securing pardons for Hawkeye and Songbird. Shortly thereafter, Hawkeye's Thunderbolts and Zemo's Thunderbolts found themselves simultaneously battling an all-consuming void that threatened both their worlds. Once the threat was neutralized, almost all the Thunderbolts reassembled on Earth, though Jolt remained on Counter-Earth to lead the Young Allies in aiding that troubled world. Having cravenly deserted the team rather than face the void, Cyclone was turned over to the authorities by Hawkeye-but the group gained a new addition in longtime ally Dallas Riordan (now called Vantage), who had been serving as a host body for a disembodied Atlas until he regained his own physical form during the void conflict. Amazon and Skein, doubting they could make it as heroes in the long run, returned to their old extra-legal lives. MACH-III and Harrier both decided to return to prison to serve out their sentences for past crimes. Finally, Moonstone reluctantly convinced Hawkeye to leave, too, since he had taught them well and she wanted to prove they could continue their reformation without his guidance. Though wary of the supposedly reformed Zemo’s role in the team, Hawkeye agreed that the revamped team deserved a chance to prove itself and he left, but Songbird secretly agreed to keep him informed, having stayed with the group largely to keep an eye on its less reliable members.
Project: Liberator
Zemo's new Thunderbolts were successful at first, neutralizing high-profile threats and garnering public acclaim; but the team never fully trusted Zemo, and when they created the global energy-absorbing Liberator project as a potential means of enforcing world peace, Moonstone programmed a secret failsafe into it that would allow her to absorb its vast power if need be. The Avengers, receiving reports from Songbird and having planted Iron Man in the Thunderbolts as a double agent in the guise of Cobalt Man, discovered the failsafe and assumed it was Zemo's handiwork. The Avengers interfered in the Liberator’s test run and accidentally triggered the failsafe, sending a power-crazed Moonstone on a rampage that was halted through the combined efforts of both teams, thanks in part to assistance from Abe Jenkins and Jolt. In the end, Moonstone was left comatose, an embittered Zemo stole away with her moonstones, Blackheath voluntarily returned to prison calling himself Plantman once again, Vantage joined the Commission on Superhuman Activities, Atlas had Henry Pym remove his powers, and the Thunderbolts disbanded.
New Recruits
Passage to War
Using the moonstone gems, Baron Zemo looked into all possible futures and found Photon to be a threat to the world. He then displaced Songbird in time by taking her to an opening in space in order to persuade her to join his new cause to save the world. Zemo began a partnership with the Commission on Superhuman Activities after showed them the future and convinced them that he is out to save the world. Once he returned Songbird to normal time and space, Songbird took leadership of the Thunderbolts from MACH-IV. During this time Songbird fired Blizzard because she didn't think he could cut it as a member of the team.
Speed Demon secretly began stealing money in order fund the Thunderbolts. Speed Demon decided to steal from his ex-teammate Nighthawk. This lead to him confronting Speed Demon about it at Thunderbolts headquarters. During this confrontation the Thunderbolts were attacked by a newly reformed Squadron Sinister who wanted to recruit Nighthawk and Speed Demon back into their ranks. The Squadron Sinister managed to kidnap Nighthawk and Speed Demon joined the group in order to infiltrate them. The Thunderbolts teamed with Nighthawk attempted to put a stop to their plans, but failed and the Squadron Sinister escaped. After the battle was over, Nighthawk joined the Thunderbolts and Songbird fired Speed Demon for stealing money and Speed Demon ended up joining the Squadron Sinister after all.
Baron Zemo began recruiting his own group of Thunderbolts that would help him battle Songbird's Thunderbolts. He recruited Fixer, MACH-IV, Blizzard, Man-Killer, Blackout and a comatose Moonstone. Swordsman found out Zemo's plans tried to warn Songbird's Thunderbolts, but failed to warn them before Zemo's group attacked. During the battle the Smuggler used Blackout to return from the Darkforce Dimension and Zemo severed Photon's body into different pockets of time and dispersed those pockets across the Darkforce Dimension in order to save Photon from destroying the world. The team roster would change again as Smuggler and Swordsman would join and upon learning that Songbird only used Nighthawk for his money, he left the team to join the Squadron Sinister.
Thunderbolts Army
Zemo was able to convince both Captain America and Iron Man, the leaders of each side in the war over the Superhuman Registration Act, to help him at a crucial point in his battle with Grandmaster. The battle with Grandmaster was felt thought the entire world, due to Grandmaster using the power from the Wellspring of Power to grant people all over the world powers and manipulating them through that power. In the end, Zemo was able to defeat Grandmaster and obtain the power of the Wellspring. Believing Zemo would use the power for evil intentions, Songbird shattered the moonstone gems, sending Zemo through both time and space into the past.
While the Thunderbolts dealt with Grandmaster and the reformed Squadron Sinister, the Thunderbolts Army and other heroes throughout the world battled those that Grandmaster had granted powers. During the battle some of its members were taken control by Grandmaster's power resulting in some members turning on each other. This led various members to doubt they could actually do any good. The Thunderbolts Army quickly dispersed; some returned to their villainous ways while others continued operating under the Superhuman Registration Act becoming federal agents.
Operation: Justice Like Lightning
During a battle between the Pro-Registration and Anti-Registration sides, Goliath was killed by a clone of Thor. This opened the eyes for many and put things in a different perspective, causing some members to leave each side for the other. The Pro-Registration side ended up losing more members than anticipated, causing the Fifty State Initiative plan to be put in action faster than planned. The CSA, with the help of Songbird, gathered Bullseye, Lady Deathstrike, Jack O'Lantern (Steven Levins), Jester (Jody Putt), Taskmaster and Venom (Mac Gargan) to capture the Secret Avengers. Not taking any chances, Mister Fantastic chipped and tagged each member with nanobot technology to monitor their actions. Before the team fought as a unit, Jack O'Lantern and Jester were utilized in an attempt to capture Spider-Man, but were promptly killed by the Punisher in the process.
While the Civil War between the hero community took place, Norman Osborn was placed in a leadership role for the Thunderbolts and had him persuade various villains to join the new group of Thunderbolts on a more permanent basis. Moonstone, Radioactive Man, and Swordsman agreed to join Songbird in the CSA's Thunderbolts. Even though it appears that Songbird is responsible for this new group of Thunderbolts, it has yet to be revealed who exactly is responsible for placing Osborn in the position of leader of the group and for what purposes.
The first official mission as a team was to capture the fugitive Jack Flag, who had come out of retirement and not registered. During the mission Moonstone had the Thunderbolts manipulate the situation to save face with the public and make it look like Jack Flag was indeed a threat to the public. Jack Flag was unable to escape the wrath of Bullseye, whose association with the team is hidden from the public, and was paralyzed by him while trying to escape.
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