Writer: Kurt Busiek
In San Francisco the Thunderbolts continue battling Graviton until Moonstone comes up with a plan to use armbands they received from Machine Man last issue that cancel the gravity equation against Graviton. Archangel flies in close to Graviton and puts the armbands on him canceling out his powers. The disruption in Graviton's gravitic force cause it to collapse inward and causing a black hole effect which the Thunderbolts try to escape. Graviton's sky island is sucked in before there's a pop and he disappears. Archangel leaves the fight with Graviton now over, and the Thunderbolts now have an ally to call on in the future. The Thunderbolts who can't fly take the damaged Champscraft back to their headquarters.
Meanwhile Graviton is stuck in a place that's described as a "gulf between here and there..." A cloaked figure appears before Graviton in a flash telling him they can give him a vision, since he has power but his dreams are too small and petty.
Waking up the next morning the Thunderbolts discover that the Champscraft has been fixed and looks better before and the C on the front as been replaced by the T-bolts Insignia. Charcoal has also found a costume made of unstable molecules with the Champions C on it. No one has any idea who has been doing all these things for them while Moonstone thinks of Techno and the Jolt comments about them having elves in the base.
Jolt and Charcoal head off to attend school and Jolt once again says she hates being school and its revealed in her thoughts she's thinking about the school she went in Manhattan before Onslaught where she was part of everything and happy.
Across town Atlas decides to go into a sports bar he's been at once before where Man-killer has a job. Atlas wrestles with his thoughts about what to do about her, whether he should turn her in or not. While Atlas talks to Man-killer and drinks a beer he catches a glimpse of someone that looks like Techno outside the window but shakes it off.
At Mount Charteris Hawkeye, Songbird, and Moonstone and searching the lower levels of their base for the one responsible for fixing all of their stuff assuming their hiding down in the base. Moonstone tells Hawkeye that there are thousands of places to hide even outside the shell of the base that there is no way to find anyone without using Bio-sensors. Hawkeye says they should try that later but he's going for a quick workout and Moonstone joins him while Songbird passes.
Back at Burton Canyon High School where Jolts returns since she spent four hours at marvel burger instead of in school. She returns only to see the Imperial forces of America kidnap Charcoal and take him away.
Hawkeye and Moonstone continue to work out which results in Moonstone kissing Hawkeye knowing he's attracted to her and she attracted to him as well. Songbird gets a message from Jolt that Charcoal has been kidnapped in a communications area. Songbird goes to the work out area to retrieve Hawkeye and Moonstone only to find Moonstone in front of Hawkeye without any clothes on.
"Uh oh..."
Comments: I really liked this issue a lot more than the last few there were so many things going on. The Thunderbolts finally defeated Graviton and then all the countless plots that were building through the title were touched on. Graviton was defeated nicely and it looks like he will be back with the cloaked figure appearing before him. For some reason I thought the figure looked like the Crimson Cowl when I read it maybe gathering a new Masters of Evil together again or some others to help her out. It also looked like it could be Veritas the self-appointed living embodiment of truth that used to be the Sphinx in the New Warriors.
Archangel was finally used in this issue instead of seeming like he was just there for not doing much.
The Citizen V mystery gets tied in with the Crimson Cowl mystery it would appear. I really hope that Citizen V doesn't turn out to be Dallas Riordan there's a few places to poke holes in this theory. I'm not thrilled about Charcoal's new costume but then I'm not really thrilled about the whole character maybe next issue will have me be more interested in him.
I thought from the beginning that this mystery person, assuming it is a person in the Thunderbolts base would be Techno from the beginning. Things seemed to be popping up to confirm that but his name mentioned and a look alike of him in this issue I think it's highly unlikely now and wouldn't be much of a surprise. I was looking forward to seeing Techno again, and as a matter of fact I'm still waiting for Baron Zemo to show up again maybe in the future some time then. The base mystery probably has something to do with an old defenders issue mentioned in Thunderbolts#27.
Now the kiss between Hawkeye and Moonstone I wasn't thrilled about. The whole situation didn't seem right. Turning one of the most interesting characters on the team into a hero in love with Hawkeye isn't a good turn of events but I'll see how this plays out. There are still Moonstone's dreams and Mockingbird's message to Hawkeye that I hopefully think will factor into this.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.