Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Fixer tries to get around Graviton's gravimetric field and in turn brings about Jolt's revival as her form takes shape again. She appears just in time to try to convince Zemo as Citizen V to not shot Graviton since all the cities Graviton has in the sky will fall and kill billions of people. Without many options Jolt turns to Moonstone who has been staying on the sidelines to try to talk Graviton out of what he is doing.
Meanwhile Hawkeye and the chain gang assess their situation upon awakening having been shocked into unconscious previously by their shackles. They start moving out of the area when Mentallo in Headlok's body says they are all going to work together, get rid of the shackles and then get the greatest weapon in the world that the deceased Justin Hammer had. Upon hearing this Hawkeye thinks back to his previous meeting in jail with Dum Dum Dugan.
Back at Mt. Charteris M'reel's body still filled with energies from Graviton opens a spatial doorway for M'reels race of the P'tah to come through and invade earth.
In orbit the V-Battalion has been monitoring the situation from their base the Vanguard and they have decided to try to beam Citizen V to the Vanguard. The V-battalion has a Skrull teleport pad but hasn't been reliable and its first use was the last time it was used. Remaining power is rerouted to the Skrull teleport pad.
The Thunderbolts battle the P'Tah as Moonstone talks to Graviton. Graviton finds out he's been used and tries to stop the invasion himself but he only makes things worse. Moonstone tries to convince Graviton to put the cities down, and stop using his powers that are helping the P'tah. Graviton reveals that he killed Deanna Stockbridge because he was scared of Moonstone. Eventually Graviton gives in lowering the cities, and the world's heroes, as the spatial doorway starts to close.
Atlas now merged with Dallas in one ionic form takes out Graviton after he's done lowering the cities but Graviton is still bleeding gravimetric energy so the doorway will implode instead of closing.
To solve the problem Songbird has create a vacuum and encase the entire area in a sonic bubble. She kisses Abe before creating the bubble. Moonstone holds onto Graviton inside the bubble as he starts to glow, the Fixer gambles on a way to save them all, and the others prepare for the worst. Citizen V is beamed out at the last second by the Vanguard carrier, which angers Fixer. Next everything within the bubble disappears as songbird falls to the ground exhausted. In the silence after, Scream now revealed as David Angar comes to her.
"David? Where did you? How did -- wait -- what's happening to my voice..."
Comments: The Thunderbolts continue their attack on Graviton and the ending gives the feeling of where is the title going to go from here? Keeping up the momentum of last issue, #58 delivers another good issue.
Entitled degrees of evil it readily becomes apparent why. A trademark of the thunderbolts run involving making difficult decisions and not always the right ones comes into play. Thunderbolts making choices, its something that I've always enjoyed, they can stop a robbery but they need to steal a car. Do they do it and what are the consequences? Now with Thunderbolts from the beginning but changed there are some interesting interactions. Zemo's hiding under the mask of Citizen V besides making a few slips that no one seemed to notice yet, he points a gun to Graviton's head. Once again Zemo's extremism comes through whatever will Watkins has been asserting. Fixer also kills off M'Reel and if it wasn’t for the ending I'm not so sure Fixer would be around much longer. If he turns out like Techno did and wants a challenge he would stay around but he mostly wants his freedom at this point. With Zemo beaming out it looks like he has lost the opportunity for now. The Fixer plays the hero role well in most situations but killing M'reel doesn't fit. It must have been frustrating for him not knowing what M'reel is doing and be a little restricted by the hero role. Getting rid of M'reel certainly solves the problem but it doesn't look like the redeemer program helped him much.
The whole death/resurrection theme rears its head as well this issue with M'reel, Jolt, and Deanna Stockbridge. I don't think that M'reel will be showing up anytime soon, and Jolt's return wasn't a real surprise. Jolt's second 'death' didn't seem like a real death to begin with and given the circumstances was one of the easiest ones to bring back. I think I would rather have Charcoal back then Jolt. Charcoal did have a continuing story it seemed and it was slowly building, plus there is what happened to his father, and then the Imperial Forces of America. So now that Jolt is back she can suffer some more as she tries to get used to her form. I wonder if this has caused more problems for her now that she has come back again and will be even more crippled. Finally Graviton killing Deanna Stockbridge was rather odd. He wants to intimidate Karla so he kills one of the person's she manipulated from the past. That's quite a bit of effort for little return. It was strange that what seemed like a nobody getting killed actually turns out to be a character once mentioned in a previous issue. It was chilling that Graviton could do that in that issue before and now that's another Thunderbolts character from the past gone. This title can seem so incestuous, for example once a family member of an obscure character has appeared for one panel its like I'm just waiting for them to show up, be the identity of the latest super villain or to be killed off. Kosmos has to be featured sometime in the future again. Although considering the P'tah invaded this issue I wouldn't be looking forward to another invasion story soon.
Graviton with all his power still can't defeat the Thunderbolts with all their teamwork. It's pretty amazing that he can just pop bullets of out his body, and some of Mach-3's armor capabilities are revealed. That's a significant weakness; he would be better off stopping them before they hit him. He admits to some thing's this issue and its intriguing but unless there's going to be more about him coping and a little of a continuing story I hope he doesn't show up for awhile now. Three times in fifty-eight issues is enough. He's going to have to try real hard to out do himself if he comes back bigger and better next time.
Hawkeye's adventure with the chain gang continues this issue. Looks like they won't be caught anytime soon. I like getting little bits and pieces of what's going on with Hawkeye each issue. It’s a nice way to keep him in the story even though he's not with the Thunderbolts. The chain gang is going to have to work together to get a device that Justin Hammer had. Something tells me that Mentallo's interactions with Hammer were worthwhile now Mentallo is out of jail and knows the whereabouts of a secret weapon. It looks like S.H.I.E.L.D. or at least Dum Dum knew about what was going on in Seagate prison. Even if this chain gang could be caught it would be wise for the law enforcement authorities wait at least until the weapon has been uncovered, and this situation is probably what Hawkeye talked to Dum Dum about.
The second last page has one of those classic endings with it fading to white. I wonder where the Thunderbolts are going, much like I did after issue twelve this title keeps me guessing. The status quo is shaken up again. The reunion of the Thunderbolts is split three ways, plus the later addition of Hawkeye is split off into a fourth component of the title. Songbird will be alone and she will be with scream/David next issue, and possibly have to deal with things on her own. Citizen V is beamed up to the Vanguard with a skrull device. He's beamed out of a bad spot with alien technology that can't be good news for Citizen V; something has to go wrong with that. Maybe two citizen V's, one solid personality in Watkins body, if Zemo keeps Watkins body that could present some interesting possibilities and I still want Zemo to interact more with the Thunderbolts or for them to at least find out.
Scream is back at the end of the issue, now revealed as Angar the screamer, who was certainly a top suspect. He was another candidate for an easy come back after Graviton's attack. Now I see how silent month next issue is going to be accomplished with Scream negating all the sound as shown on the last page.
Should be a big spotlight on Songbird next issue, which I will enjoy, but I hope there's at least a little more information on what happened to the rest of the Thunderbolts. Having silent month next issue I'm not so sure that there will be much focus on the other Thunderbolts and plots. Bagley's art will be a treat next issue since it won't be covered up.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.