Writer: Fabian Nicieza
A tale of tumultuous twists and turns!
Meanwhile the Thunderbolts are dealing with the V-battalion. The V-battalion has no reason to fight with the Thunderbolts any longer with the disappearance of Dallas so they are set to leave. Atlas says it isn't that simple because Dallas could be in trouble. Atlas gets upset and injures some of the V-battalion. The V-battalion leaves shortly after with the Thunderbolts wondering where Atlas disappeared to.
At the administrative offices of the Commission on Superhuman Activities someone asks Henry Gyrich about some files being purged from the hard drive with his access codes. Gyrich explains that the files were obsolete from a failed experiment so he asked for it to be purged. Gyrich smiles as he gets away with the files on 'Alpha-32' being deleted.
Later over the eastern European nation of Symkaria the V-battalion's ship arrives. The current and former members of the penance council are revealed as Ameiko Sabuki, Robert Frank, Jr., Helmut Gruler, Robert Aubrey, Isadora Martinez, Darren Mitchell, Fred Davis, and Elisabeth Barstow. Elsewhere on the ship Atlas has knocked out one of the people that are part of the V-battalion and changes into their outfit while accidentally stepping on the Comm-link in his Atlas costume so he was no way of telling the Thunderbolts where he is. The V-battalion's ship docks above Masada castle the original headquarters of the V-battalion. The V-battalion now uses their ship as their main headquarters.
Back at Mt. Charteris Ogre was tracking the signal from Atlas' Comm-link until it went dead so the Thunderbolts only have any idea that he is somewhere in northern Europe along the Symkarian/Latverian border.
Abe has an idea about how to find Atlas in Symkaria. In New York City Abe encounters the Sandman and asks him to be his guide to find Atlas in Symarkia realising that Sandman's previous employer also lives there which would make the journey much more appealing for Sandman.
Midday at Mt. Charteris Hawkeye, Moonstone, and Songbird are practising their fighting skills. Songbird and Moonstone get into a bit of a verbal argument with Moonstone commenting about Melissa's behaviour around Abe and Songbird commenting on Karla's behaviour with Hawkeye. Songbird runs off as Ogre says that Abe has successfully infiltrated Symkarian air space. Hawkeye offers for Ogre to come along with the Thunderbolts to Symkaria but Ogre declines. Hawkeye mentions Ogre should get out more but little does Hawkeye know that Ogre is already outside as Techno in his human guise.
Techno enters the bar that Atlas regularly attends. Man-killer makes a comment about Techno being more company than 'sad sack Buchanan' who happens to be the Scourge. Man-killer realises that she's talking to Techno and he looks like how he was before he was killed and became a robot. She figures that Techno doesn't recognize her as Man-killer and just plays along.
While in Symkaria Mach-2 flies through the air looking for the V-battalion's ship since one that big can't be hidden from view that easily. Mach-2 passes a V-battalion checkpoint as his armor uses electromagnetic countermeasures to scramble their systems and uses audio to pick up their words. Mach-2 thinks he's close to the V-battalion now because the checkpoint and continues on. Finally he arrives at Masada Castle and opens up a container he has been carrying that Sandman is in and talks to him. Mach-2 keeps on flying under Sandman's advice until Sandman comes out of the container and presses himself across the cloaked ship to show Mach-2 where the V-battalion's ship is. Mach-2 shoots some E-M pulse grenades at the V-battalions ship so it will be visible to everyone. Mach-2 fends off some of the V-battalion that came out of the ship when he attacked it while Sandman goes into the ship looking for Atlas who disposed of his V-battalion costume as soon as the Ship was hit by the grenades. The penance council watches on and for the first time in a long time they are going to suit up to solve the problem of the Thunderbolts finding them.
 | The Thunderbolts arrive in the T-bird to help Abe and are ready to engage the V-battalion in a fight until the V-battalion is told to stand down. Moonstone starts feeling sick and pukes saying she can't fight the battalion since they are not evil and their motives are pure. Five members of the penance council appear all suited up to face the Thunderbolts.
Elsewhere Dallas talks to herself saying that the V-battalion and the Thunderbolts will not fight against each other if that's what the Crimson Cowl is trying to accomplish. There's the 'tik' noise and the Crimson Cowl appears. "I do not expect them to annihilate each other, but rather just to have them -- how do you Americans say it -- 'Soften each other up' -- so that both organizations shall be susceptible to the wrath of the Crimson Cowl!" |
Comments: An excellent example of a great issue of the Thunderbolts as the title continues its many interesting plot threads.
The revelation of the V-battalion as golden age super hero's or people descended from was a bit surprising making use of characters from Marvel's golden age. I could only identify one of them at first glance Fred Davis. Davis being a possible suspect for the Scourge which theory is now gone and having the same last name as Abe's new Alias and one of the Alias' the Scourge used.
A little bit more on Gyrich as I'm still trying to piece everything together on this mystery and how it connects with the other stuff. Gyrich being the sneaky person that he is renamed the Omega-32 files, as Alpha-32 so no one would think any of it but Gyrich would still is able to identify the files. I was excited to see the Sandman drawn by Bagley as I was quite fond of his work on Amazing Spider-man and as usual he does a great job depicting Sandman. The scene with him holding Abe is quite impressive that I even used it for the new banner on the front page.
I would rather see Sandman as the hero he really is but I'll settle for this for now as the change for him being a villain again is just his head being messed with by the Wizard. So if that's all it is they can always do something about it later and turn Sandman back to the way he's supposed to be and everything will be well with the character again. Sandman as a villain though presents an interesting situation since he was like an original 'thunderbolt' in what he did reforming from a villain to a hero and it would be a real waste to just have that all thrown away and that no villain ever reforms. Sandman is put to good use though being who he is and we get to see another one of those scenes where he's put into a container and his head pops out when Abe lifts the container lid while Sandman talks. I've always enjoyed silly little things like that.
Techno going to the bar that Atlas regularly goes to could cause some problems. If Techno eventually realises that Man-killer works as that bar and that Atlas has been keeping it a secret. Techno could have control of Hawkeye and Atlas now that is of course if Atlas said he recognized Man-killer at all and just doesn't lie about that.
The scourge uses the middle name of Bucky. Scourge sure has this fascination with Bucky using any kind of names they used as his aliases. Now that he's back in Burton Canyon whose his next target going to be? It would certainly make sense for it to be Techno since he's always helping the Thunderbolts with the Technical stuff and controls their whole HQ plus he's in the same bar as the Scourge now.
I guess with Techno going to this bar in his human form that means that the human Techno we saw in previous issues was supposed to him. Still a possibility that wasn't Techno and sitting beside Techno in the bar as the Scourge could be human Techno. Now that's one crazy theory. I'm thinking now that its possible Scourge's boss could be someone like the Red Skull with that shield Heli-carrier he has. That could certainly provide the Scourge with everything he would need along with the Red Skull's resourcefulness. So many things to consider.
Moonstone puking because she can't fight the V-battalion because their motives are pure is an interesting twist. She shouldn't have much of a problem if they find out something sinister about the V-battalion next issue but even if they don't maybe Moonstone can get over it justifying that the V-battalion has rather twisted motives now. This could have something to do with the influence from the moonstone she has or maybe just psychological. It certainly posses an interesting problem for her.
The design of five of the penance council suited up is outstanding. Bagley has to be one of the best costume designers in comics. The only things that were a bit bland due to what the story called for were the characters with the Imperial Forces of America with such a character named such a thing as loblolly. Finally a little bit more about the Crimson Cowl and Dallas in this issue. Dallas seems to be deposited within the same place the Graviton appeared to be before the Crimson Cowl rescued him. With the Cowl's comment about American's it would appear that she's a foreigner. Possibly Red Skull or Zemo related as the Identity of the Crimson Cowl with the Crimson Cowl is even human or a really a person at all. I think this was the first time she had her any of herself showing beneath the red cowl at all. With all these mystery identities though the characters have to be someone the readers have a slight chance of knowing otherwise there's no point of the in the mystery. This doesn't always turn out to be good sometimes villains are just someone new.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.