Random Back Issues #26 - Thunderbolts #38

You just know there was a joint congressional subcommittee that designed the look of that costume. Wow. To be fair, I actually like the helmet with the red eyes and teeth. That part's pretty cool. And the "To the DEATH" blurb is actually, technically, correct. One of these two does get decapitated in the next issue.

This is about one year into Fabian Niceza's run on Thunderbolts, and about one year from the end of Mark Bagley's run as artist on the book. A lot of threads are coming together, so this is the issue to stop and take stock of what's happened, plus do some foreshadowing. Also, a surprise (?) identity reveal.

Hawkeye's trying mountain climbing to clear his head. His time as leader of the Thunderbolts started well, but had hit a rough patch, starting roughly with their ultimately failed attempt to capture the Hulk. Then Jolt was killed by a sniper in her civilian identity, and they don't know who did it. The police report was sealed, which is definitely not suspicious. A reporter named Gayle Rogers had been working on a story on the T'Bolts, and turned up dead. They found Abner Jenkins, who Clint convinced to turn himself in for a murder he'd committed as the Beetle, running around in a new, more tanklike Beetle costume. Abe's back on the team as Mach-2, with an altered appearance, although there was a screw-up in the process and he looks African-American now. Whoo, yeah, don't know about that creative decision.

On top of all that, Clint had just recently returned from trying to rescue Mockingbird's soul from Mephisto, only to end up bringing out Hellcat's soul instead. And he's worried the relationship he's building with Moonstone is betraying Bobbi's memory.

(In the Hellcat mini-series Steve Engelhart and Norm Breyfogle did shortly after this, Patsy ends up back in Hell and encounters Bobbi again, and encourages her to escape to stop Karla from moving in on Clint, but Bobbi just wants him to be happy, which is pretty big of her. Although I guess that was really a Skrull that believed it was Bobbi. Yeesh, friggin' Secret Invasion.)

Moonstone herself is having some weird dreams about a blue warrior sporting a familiar gemstone, and feels she's not acting like herself lately. Meaning she's not being a horrible and entirely self-serving person. Charcoal is struggling to cope with Jolt's death and other underlying anger issues. Atlas is having trouble coping with Jolt's death, plus he knows one of the Masters of Evil is working in the town nearby as a bartender, but hasn't told anyone yet. What he doesn't know is the guy he's talking to, Ogre, who maintained the base before they arrived, and was part of some early '70s bad guy mutant group called Factor Three, is actually the fully mechanical version of Techno in disguise. The real Ogre is having trouble with being stuffed in some stasis tube or something by Techno, along with Jolt's body, and one other body (which doesn't become relevant for about another 20-30 issues).

Ogre doesn't actually say or do anything, because he's unconscious, but I didn't want him to feel left out.

On top of all that, Clint and Karla's discussion/picnic lunch/probable makeout session is interrupted by the arrival of a Citizen V. And right after Karla mentions how attractive the idea of Clint marching into Burton Canyon's police station naked is. Kinda kinky, but ok. Might explain why she's not real happy at the interruption.

This Citizen V is not Zemo in disguise. It's the one Hawkeye ran into several issues earlier, when the team was trying to stop the Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil. Now she's on the run from the V battalion itself, over a difference in philosophy I think. The T'Bolts get drawn into the fight unwillingly, with Moonstone going from extremely frustrated to insisting they have to help Citizen V simply because she needs them in the span of a few pages (don't worry, she's confused by that, too).

The last two pages shift to a secret fortress in Central America, where Scourge smashes a bunch of Zemo's shit to draw him out for a fight. Next issue is pretty much one long battle between the two, as Scourge busts out a huge number of super-villain gimmick weapons while Zemo can't quite bring himself to just run for his life. It's actually kind of an interesting shift, taking Scourge from a guy (or guys) who wipe out second and third-tier villains, to being the weapon of a group of shadowy people who utilizes the arsenals of the same sorts of villains. Scourge does end up being a pre-existing character, and at least one of the people manipulating him is a longtime pain in Hawkeye's ass, but those things won't start coming to light until at least issue 47 or so.

[11th longbox, 196th comic, Thunderbolts #38, by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley (storytellers), Scott Hanna (inker), Joe Rosas (colorist), Troy P. (letterer)]