Writer: Fabian Nicieza
The Penance Council (The Mighty Destroyer, Iron Cross, Goldfire, Topspin, Nuklo) protect their headquarters by engaging the Thunderbolts in combat. Atlas joins the fight to help the Thunderbolts while Charcoal protects the puking Moonstone. Nuklo actually burns Atlas by messing up his Ion energy flow.
Moonstone watches the battle been the Penance Council and the Thunderbolts thinking its wrong and they should stop. Moonstone hears whispers from the Kree warrior inside her that have made her have uncontrollable impulses to be a hero.
During the battle Sandman escapes to go on his real mission to go after his previous employer Silver Sable.
Moonstone continues hearing the whispers from inside her and finally screams out while changing her costume into something resembling a Kree warrior. Moonstone also stops the fighting through waves of invisible energy coming from her to make everyone intangible so they can no longer fight each other. Moonstone then promptly leaves in a hurry into the sky. Mach-2 says he might be able to find Moonstone so Hawkeye tells him to go find her.
The Thunderbolts and the Penance Council stop fighting and agree to go after Sandman since he's a threat being on the loose and they figure he's after Silver Sable. Atlas also reminds Hawkeye why they are in Symkaria and that he wants the V-battalion to come clean about Citizen V and their activities.
Elsewhere the Crimson Cowl is holding Dallas in a dark room where she sees food enter the room from a metal contraption. She has counted the time between when her last three meals and has figured out they come in the same intervals and thinks the Crimson Cowl has made a mistake doing that.
In Los Angeles California, Bob Haggerty the brother of Bobbie Haggerty who was murdered by the Scourge is meeting with Andie Sterman. Bob talks about an idea for Andie's next book about how Bobbie was killed and how he intends to prove that someone in the United states government is responsible for Bobbie's death. While in Burton Canyon Colorado, Techno has finished his visit to the sports bar with Man-killer. For a moment Techno thinks he sees something odd about Man-killer and leaves the bar. The silent person who was in the bar with him who actually is the Scourge follows him. In an alleyway Techno turns back into his robot form and mutters "Crimson Cowl, What an absolutely insidious gambit! I'm actually jealous that I didn't think of it."
Scourge calls on his storage access and tracks Techno back to the Thunderbolts headquarters.
While back in Symkaria Sandman has arrived at Silver Sable's base of operations. Inside he knocks two of the Wild Pack unconscious. Sandman next runs into Battlestar. Sandman questions Battlestar where Silver Sable is or he is going to drown him in sand.
The Thunderbolts and Penance council arrive in time before Sandman can get an answer out of Battlestar. They put a plan into action to capture sandman that involves the Mighty Destroyer breaking Sandman into pieces and Atlas smashing him into smaller pieces. Then Topspin creates a vortex to keep Sandman discorporated while Songbird puts a sonic bubble around Sandman to hold him in one place. Next Goldfire, Nuklo and Charcoal heat up the sonic bubble until the sand particles fuse together and turn Sandman into solid glass. Now that the battle has concluded Atlas wants to hear the information the Penance council promised him.
Hour's later Mach-2 now in space reports to Hawkeye that he can't find Moonstone anywhere and that she might not even be on earth. He says he is going to try once more to find Moonstone while he orbits. Hawkeye suggests for Mach-2 to contact Ogre (Techno) to see if he can help. Mach-2 says he has been trying that for the last half-hour with no answer.
Finally Techno arrives back at the Thunderbolts base and assumes his Ogre guise and makes up the excuse that he was checking some venting systems to Mach-2. He accepts the answer and asks for Ogre's help boosting the gain on his sensor array to find Moonstone's energy wavelength. The whole while Scourge watches Techno in the background.
Elsewhere Dallas escapes the dark room she has been trapped in and finds her Citizen V costume.
"Well lady--mistake number two...thinking I wouldn't break out and leaving my Citizen V armor where I could find it! And the joke's on you. Because I'm not planning on escaping--I'm planning to kick your butt!"
Comments: A bit of a cliche battle heavy but fine issue, at least they knew they knew they were playing into the cliche a little.
I was expecting to see more on the V-battalion this issue and it doesn't appear to give much more than the names Goldfire and Topspin. Hopefully next issue will give more information on this secretive organization. Seeing the V-battalion these last two issues I wouldn't mind reading a limited series with them in it. There is plenty of ground to explore with them. The history of all the characters, the forming of the V-battalion and its past 50 years along with what its doing presently. It has also made me more aware of the golden age, which I didn't have much interest or know much about before.
The Moonstone sub plot seems to be moving along fairly nicely now with this issue. I'm looking forward to where this is going and anything that keeps her away from Hawkeye has to be good. Didn't really mind the kree helmet she changed her helmet into and turning everyone else intangible seems like a neat extension of her powers.
One thing I really enjoyed this issue was seeing Sandman go find Silver Sable. Despite the fact that Sandman shouldn't be a villain I enjoyed his appearance here since he was used well and looks really threatening. Then there was Silver Sable drawn by Bagley that was nicely done and an added treat of seeing the Wild Pack. Since I read the Silver Sable's series its good that they were not forgotten and were shown here once more before they all fade back into comic limbo.
There was a possibility Dallas was in the same place Graviton was but that's out of the picture now, which just adds to more mysteries to this book. It's great that Dallas escaped but finding her armor nearby was just dumb on the Crimson Cowl's part.
As for Techno in the bar I wonder what he saw when he looked at Man-killer. Was that the actual first time he realized that it was her or what else did he see. Maybe something to do with the Crimson Cowl and he mutters something about the Crimson Cowl later. Seemed like Techno had figured out who the Crimson Cowl was when he said her name or by looking at Man-killer somehow figured out something about the Crimson Cowl, another Interesting mystery.
I am so looking forward to Scourge's encounter with Techno. I wonder how well Techno will do. Techno has to do as good as Zemo or most likely better. He has the whole base to draw on and many resources at this disposal and could always call on the Thunderbolts for help as they finally learn that Scourge is after them. Unless of course Techno is knocked unconscious before he can do anything that would be rather anti-climatic from what I'm expecting and Scourge did engage Zemo in combat. If Scourge defeats Techno I wouldn't be surprised to see Techno transfer himself to another body or something through the system in the base. If Techno can be controlling another body at the base while being in town he can surely set something up like this for his confrontation with Scourge so he can get another chance.
The thunderbolts and Penance council uses an ingenious plan to defeat Sandman. First I was impressed with the way the Thunderbolts were going to defeat the Hulk and now they use another strategy against Sandman. This was much better then just having them beating on each other until one is knocked unconscious.
With Wonder Man appearing next issue and him hopefully being beaten by Atlas I did notice something that could be always referred to in this battle or the upcoming crossover with the Avengers. Nuklo burned Atlas through messing with Atlas' ion energy flow. This could always have some effect on Atlas for the short term.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.