Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Inside Saturn's moon of Titan Captain Marvel watches over the captured Thunderbolts. Mentor had asked Captain Marvel for his help after Mentor had heard of Moonstone talking to the Supreme Intelligence.
Meanwhile Mentor and Issac are seeing to the removal of the Moonstone's power gem. Hawkeye tries to appeal to them to not take the power gem. His attempts initially fail as Issac states plenty of good reasons why it should be removed. Moonstone speaks up for herself and says that she is different now and asks them if they really know she feels now and other reasons. Mentor agrees that Moonstone does have a point but Issac still hasn't been convinced. Issac says that the alien incursions into this sector of space will have alien races wanting the lifestone fragments and its power. Mentor brings up the point of this sector of space standing up to many threats in its time including Galactus.
Hawkeye shoots an arrow into Issac's forehead saying that the discussion doesn't matter anymore since he's shot Issac he can't make anymore decisions.
Back on earth at a hospital in the capital of Latveria, Doomstadt, Dallas watches news on CNN seeing Atlas out of control with his Ionic energies.
Outside of Langley, Virginia at a storage depot for the Commission on Super Activities Mr. Warton receives a delivery from Colorado. The person delivering says that the cargo box had a hold order on it from Gyrich.
In Los Angeles Andrea Sterman confronts Bob Haggert about the information she has uncovered on his sister's death. If Andrea Sterman wrote the book not enough of it would stand up under inspection, because of this she asks if Bob Haggert wants her to continue. Revealing the conspiracy would create tension in the country between the government and super heroes. She asks if the truth of his sister's death is worth a superhuman world war.
At Castle Masada the headquarters of the V-battalion the Silver Scorpion informs Roger Aubrey about what's happening in Burton Canyon, Colorado. Roger says their suspicious were accurate and that the weapon has been activated when they watch the screen. This is who they wanted to assassinate, Riordan was right to question them but now they have to accelerate the contingency plan.
Back at the Saturn moon of Titan, Hawkeye is taking Moonstone out of the device that was to extract her power gem. Issac recovers and wants to continue with the process of removing the gem but Mentor wants to gain a measure of their resolve and to under the character they have.
The Thunderbolts show up having been freed by Captain Marvel who says they have convinced him what is happening is wrong. Captain Marvel and Moonstone plead her case. When the subject that the Thunderbolts haven't murdered anyone comes up Songbird says something about Moonstone has murdered but Songbird and Mach-2 are further away from everyone and Mach-2 is the only one that hears it.
Captain Marvel says that the Thunderbolts will watch over Moonstone so that the power gem isn't used for evil. He also says that he will watch over the Thunderbolts as well since he now lives on earth.
Issac and Mentor agree to the conditions but still wonder about aliens taking an interest in Moonstone's power gem. Issac then makes it so that Moonstone will never again be able to access the memories of the original owner of the gem. Moonstone is now on her own again without the emotional problems from the stone as she smiles.
On earth, Jolt and Scourge team up to stop Atlas from killing thousands in Burton Canyon. Scourge wanted to kill Atlas but it wasn't part of his assignment to let thousands of people die as well as Atlas explodes.
Scourge calls up Goliath of the Avengers for help on Atlas' situation. Goliath wonders how anyone was able to access an Avengers priority-one line but agrees to help to help Atlas. Goliath tells Scourge that Atlas doesn't have the same control over his ionic form as Wonder-man does so he didn't recover the same way. For Atlas to gain control over his ionic form as Wonder-man does Atlas will have to go through the same experience such as death.
Jolt fails to consider that a solution to Atlas' problem as he slowly breaks up. Atlas decides it's the only way so he doesn't explode and kill thousands of people. Scourge tells Atlas how it's going to be accomplished while Gyrich, Andrea Sterman, and Bob Haggert as well as others watch from TV screens far away from the battle commenting. The enchantress even has a comment about the favour Atlas owed her.
Scourge uses all his supply of Pym Particles to shrink Atlas down to size inside his gauntlet. Scourge throws his forearm assembly into a chasm between two mountains as Atlas explodes within it. Atlas explodes spreading ionic energy all over the place but he was far enough away that it doesn't harm anyone.
At the old X-factor Headquarters hours later Mr. Warton talks to the new Citizen V as a cargo box is opened the contains the Beetle armor that first showed up at the end of Thunderbolts #33.
"Well then, now we have just enough power to do the job, don't we? Since we have most of the team assembled, I imagine its time for them to meet their new leader -- Citizen V?"
Comments: Heroic Tendencies part three was more exciting then the past two parts as there was just so many things going on in this issue and all of them were all really interesting.
Jolt is back in some form, which seems to be working out fine at this point. If that's only her energy form maybe she will be able to return to school. Although that seems to be a bit of a problem since she does have a grave and all, and I'm sure there are not many incidents where students return to class after a long while having gone through something like this. It will be more than just a few students who will be suspicious of her and know what she is. Jolt didn't get a chance to kill Scourge this issue so maybe the next one ;)
I was a little surprised to see Jolt working with Scourge but I guess if Scourge is the only one that can help she might as well work with him. Maybe Jolt still had a bit of her optimism left in her before she died. Her death probably sapped some of that out of her though.
I wonder how Jolt feels about Techno having her in that biocontainment chamber and bringing her back to life too. I also wonder if Jolt will be confused about who are members of the Thunderbolts right now. She might think that the Thunderbolts let Techno back on the team or that the team is under control of Techno right now.
Scourge shows a different side to himself again with actually helping Atlas. He showed this once before when he found out that Techno was connected to the three bio-chambers and he was there only to kill Techno. Scourge makes a decision on his own instead of having his assignment parameters changed like before. He moves like Captain America? I guess that's supposed to be hint as to this identity. I suppose this could be leading towards a long held suspicion that Scourge is actually Nomad.
Now that Scourge no longer has any Pym Particles, when the Thunderbolts arrive back on earth they won't have much of a challenge as they once would have had, since Scourge won't be able to call upon his weapons. Scourge could always run away back to headquarters for more weapons or maybe turn himself invisible is he still has that with him. He probably doesn't considering that he just threw away his forearm assembly, he only has what's on him. At least the Thunderbolts will take notice that a lot of things are happening around them besides Hawkeye trying to piece just a few things that he knew together in past issues. Atlas is gone; Jolt is back, Techno is possibility revealed, No Ogre.
I enjoyed the Avengers Forever limited series so it isn't that bad that they make references to it but it seems all too definite that is the future and its not just one alternate future, the way things are going. After seeing the words on the cover Songbird and Captain Marvel: Lovers in another lifetime...enemies in this one I thought great this should be more interesting. Then I saw the question mark and knew I was in for more of what the solicitation said about this issue.
The conclusion of Moonstone's power gem and the influences from the gem that were tied up this issue were more interesting than last. The moment Moonstone smiled after never having access to the memories within the gem ever again had me thinking. Maybe Moonstone will revert to the way she was before and she would once again before more interesting as her evil ways come back to her slowly. Would prove to be a challenge for Hawkeye as well. Eventually she could even be kicked off the team for the way she is acting but then she is supposed to have Captain Marvel and the Thunderbolts watching over her. Although I don't think Captain Marvel will be paying to close attention to Moonstone, more like focusing his attention on Songbird. I don't think Captain Marvel will showing up in the title ever again, if at all many issues from now, the same with Issac and Mentor. In the future a writer may dig this up again but I don't count on seeing them any time soon. With this resolution looks like Moonstone gets another costume out of the deal too.
Once the cargo box arrived at a storage depot for the COSA I was thinking it was either something to do with Omega-32 or possibly the Beetle armor. I didn't think this would be touched on again until next issue. At the end its revealed its the Beetle armor though which makes things interesting, and should be a good use for armor.
Andrea Sterman has finally finished her investigation and shows it to the one who started her on this investigation Bob Haggert. Now how hard was it for Andrea to dig all this information up? Maybe anyone could have if they had the will or had even knew about it but it looks like she's pretty good as what she does. I don't expect this sub plot to go much farther. Having a superhuman world war seems like a marvel wide event to me but maybe things will turn out differently if the book is published. Still don't know everything that Andrea does about Omega-32 though, maybe someday.
Roger Aubrey has to "accelerate the contingency plan" and just who were they talking about Atlas or Scourge. If they were talking about Atlas that could mean the whole Thunderbolts and the V-battalion would bring together a team to go after the Thunderbolts but they also said "He has activated the weapon". That doesn't make a lot of sense with Atlas. Atlas can't control his ionic energies and that's a weapon? He explodes at the near the end of the issue anyway. So Scourge is the weapon that has been activated then. So Dallas must have known about Scourge when she was asked to assassinate him. Otherwise it would be just another costumed face to her. At least that's one thing solved only to bring up many other mysteries.
I had to chuckle when Scourge accessed the Avengers priority-one line. Goliath probably doesn't even know that Scourge is the one that has been killing Thunderbolts. With Goliath aiding Scourge maybe Scourge could even be considered a bit of a hero in Goliath's view since he is helping Atlas. Scourge might have accessed the Avengers priority-one line but the Thunderbolts are not above doing something wrong, although if Hawkeye were at the scene he would have likely used another form of communication.
Well I didn't expect to loose another Thunderbolt this issue. Another Thunderbolt gone and Scourge didn't even have to kill Atlas, only five more to go. So much for most of the founders staying together on the Thunderbolts team. Eventually Atlas will be back maybe. If he ever pulls himself back together and if Goliath was right about Atlas having to experience the same thing as Wonder-man. Goliath says that this was the solution but Techno must have had more knowledge or a really big ego saying that he could have solved Atlas' condition but since he has to pretend to be Ogre he couldn't seem to perfect by solving the problem right away.
Nice to see the enchantress as one of the many people watching on as Atlas was going to explode. The other fellow that has the black costume with the white on it has a bit of a doorman from the lighting rods look. I guess he will join up with Mr. Warton and the new Citizen V next issue. I wonder who will pilot the Beetle armor? I hope they are know how it works and are skilled with it.
With all the things there were happening in this issue I can forgive not showing anything of Techno's lab this issue besides the Thunderbolts will have to go looking through it sometime and that's when the fun begins.
Looking forward to next issue as the Thunderbolts will likely encounter a whole slew of things back at their headquarters and the title builds up to #50.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.