Baron Helmut Zemo's Thunderbolts Baron Helmut Zemo puts out a call for any members of prior incarnations of the
Masters of Evil to assist him in a rescue attempt of
Goliath (his former bodyguard). Those who answer the call include Beetle,
Fixer,
Moonstone and Screaming Mimi. Surprised that so many of his former allies were still loyal to him, Zemo was inspired to resurrect the Masters of Evil once again. Before they could strike, the
Avengers and the
Fantastic Four were apparently killed by the villain
Onslaught. When both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four were declared dead, Zemo saw a unique opportunity. Realizing that the world needed superpowered champions, he planned to disguise the Masters as a group of new, independent superheroes who would claim to be inspired by the example of the Avengers. Once they had gained the public's faith, Zemo hoped to convince
S.H.I.E.L.D. to take on the Masters as an official team, giving him access to technologies and state secrets of immeasurable value while also putting him in a position to protect other supervillains from the law in exchange for tribute. The team found tremendous success as superheroic champions and quickly gained the public's affection and trust. Unbeknownst to Zemo, his teammates began to see the value they could bring to the world as heroes and started to question the true mission of the Thunderbolts.
Dallas Riordan, an aide to the Mayor of New York, became their closest ally.
Jolt, an
Asian American teenage girl whose entire family was killed by Onslaught and was experimented on by
Arnim Zola, soon joined the team after she came to the Baxter Building seeking the help of the FF. Jolt, however, was not a supervillain, with the young girl honestly believing that her new friends were heroes (Zemo used the opportunity to create the team's new history). Soon after the addition of Jolt, Techno's neck was broken in battle with the Elements of Doom. Techno then seemingly transferred his mind into an
android body built from his tech-pack. Just as Zemo's plans were about to come to fruition, everything unraveled. To the astonishment of the entire world, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers returned. Faced with the return of the lost heroes, Zemo revealed the true nature of the Thunderbolts to the world. Ostensibly, he did this to ensure the loyalty of the team by ruining their chances of becoming heroes. The Thunderbolts (minus the android Techno) turned on Zemo for his betrayal. In the ensuing battle, Zemo and Techno used a
mind control device to turn the Avengers and Fantastic Four against the remaining Thunderbolts, who, with the help of the size-changing Atlas – as well as Iron Man who had designed his armor to make himself more resistant to mind control – ultimately rallied and freed the other heroes. Together, they defeated Zemo and Techno. Unbeknownst to his teammates, Atlas helped the wounded Zemo escape, while Techno fled under his own power. Amidst this chaos, Meteorite decided to return to her old identity. She altered her costume and changed her codename back to Moonstone. After a brief stop-over in an
alternate dimension, the team learned that Moonstone had no intention of reforming and becoming a superhero. She told them she only turned against Zemo out of self-preservation. Upon their return to Earth, the team set up shop in Colorado and pondered their next move.
Marvel's Most Wanted Now fugitives, new members soon joined the Thunderbolts. These members included the former Avenger
Hawkeye, and later a young
African American hero named
Charcoal who had previously fought the team, having been created by a "Create a character" contest in
Wizard Magazine. Hawkeye convinced his new teammates they would be pardoned if MACH-1, who had murdered someone as the Beetle (as the only member of the team who had ever actually killed anyone), turned himself in to authorities. The team considered joining the mysterious
Crimson Cowl's new Masters of Evil instead. Ultimately, the Thunderbolts followed Hawkeye's advice. MACH-1 turned himself in and pleaded guilty to murder. Even with MACH-1's surrender, the U.S. Government refused to pardon the group. The Thunderbolts then defeated the Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil and took over their headquarters. After unmasking the Crimson Cowl, the team discovered that she was Riordan. In truth, Riordan was not the Crimson Cowl. The real Crimson Cowl, Justine Hammer, had framed Riordan to take the fall for her crimes. Riordan actually did have her own secret identity as the new Citizen V, leader of the secret
V-Battalion. Riordan decided to keep her secret to avoid exposure of the group. She was sent to jail for the Crimson Cowl's crimes, but was later rescued by the V-Battalion.
Changes While exploring their new headquarters, the Thunderbolts discovered
Ogre. Ogre was a former member of the villainous Factor Three, the original owners of the base. Factor Three made Ogre the new base caretaker after they disbanded. This also left him with custody of
Humus Sapien, a dangerous mutant teenager that Factor Three had kidnapped and placed in suspended animation. Ogre was accepted as a member of the Thunderbolts. Soon after, Techno attacked him, placed him in stasis, and assumed his identity. During this time, the Thunderbolts joined forces with the Avengers against the latest plan of
Count Nefaria, as he intended to detonate an ionic bomb, which would transform millions of people into an ionic state which he could then control, perceiving this to be the best way to guarantee that he received the respect that he felt he deserved. The two teams were drawn into this plan when Nefaria used his new control of ionic energy to take control of the heroes
Wonder Man and
Atlas, intending to use them to kill the Avengers. Despite his power, he was stopped by the combined efforts of the Avengers, the Thunderbolts, and
Madame Masque. Madame Masque used a weapon she had developed to disrupt Nefaria's own ionic energy so that the heroes could defeat him. Meanwhile, Moonstone found herself going through changes. She fell in love with Hawkeye. Soon after, she learned that the spirit of the Kree Moonstone that powered her tried to make her a more honest person. This conflicted with her naturally amoral personality, and slowly made her insane. The Thunderbolts faced many more challenges.
Henry Peter Gyrich sought to destroy the team and Hawkeye. Gyrich changed a brainwashed
Jack Monroe into the new
Scourge. The Scourge then attempted to assassinate the Thunderbolts one by one. First he killed Jolt. He then traveled to
South America and apparently killed Baron Zemo. After this, Scourge broke into the Thunderbolts headquarters and destroyed the robotic Techno. He then killed Atlas by allowing the giant to implode into a storm of ionic energy.
The Redeemers All four characters apparently killed by Scourge had survived in some form: the robotic Techno had recovered Jolt's body and used her electrical powers to resurrect her from the dead, even while he "died", imbuing her with the knowledge that Hawkeye had failed to get the team pardoned in the process. The Thunderbolts were upset with Hawkeye, but, on unmasking Monroe, decided that confronting Gyrich was more important. While all this happened,
Valerie Cooper had gathered her own army of heroes she named the Redeemers. This team included a new Citizen V, Atlas' brother
Smuggler, and Fixer, who had only copied his mind into his tech-pack as a contingency. The original Norbert P. Ebersol survived his injuries and recovered in secret while the robotic Techno continued on as a Thunderbolt in his place. Eventually, all the others murdered by Jack Monroe returned from the dead. Baron Zemo's mind had been transferred into the comatose body of the man whose role as Citizen V he had usurped in the first place. Later, after a teleportation accident, Zemo's mind was transferred into Techno's mechanical "Tech-Pack", which had also cybernetically replaced the broken segment of Techno's real body's spine. Atlas was later raised from the dead after a merger with Riordan, who had been crippled in battle with the Crimson Cowl. Jolt and Charcoal, the only Thunderbolts without criminal records, were assimilated into the Redeemers under the leadership of Captain America and the Zemo-possessed Citizen V.
The New Thunderbolts Marvel subsequently launched
New Thunderbolts #1. MACH-3 (now called MACH-IV), Atlas and Songbird were now a part of the new Thunderbolts. The team's new recruits included
Photon,
Speed Demon,
Joystick,
Blizzard, and the
Radioactive Man. The new team has battled
Atlantean superhuman terrorist group the Fathom Five and Baron Strucker's Hydra organization, which funded the team's return. In "Purple Reign",
Swordsman, along with his master, the
Purple Man, plotted to enslave New York City by drugging the water supply with the Purple Man's pheromones, which allowed him to control his victims. While the Thunderbolts eventually defeated the Purple Man, before they could interrogate him he was teleported away by his boss, Baron Zemo, who tortured him by inducing
rigor mortis in his body and sent him back to prison where his powers would be nullified. Later,
Hank Pym and
Warbird offered to pardon the members of the Thunderbolts (who still had outstanding legal problems), if the Thunderbolts would attack and humiliate the New Avengers in public. However, it was later revealed that Pym and Warbird had been blackmailed into doing so. Only
Spider-Woman survived unscathed from the Thunderbolts' sneak attack, beating Joystick senseless. The rest of the team was beaten back before the Thunderbolts left. Songbird told Captain America that the Thunderbolts could beat the New Avengers senseless anytime they wished. In the end, it was revealed that Baron Zemo spearheaded the attack. He did this to humiliate Captain America but also to see how far the Thunderbolts would go for the chance at being pardoned. Meanwhile, new threats were rising as Fixer resurfaced and recruited both MACH-IV and Blizzard to work with him on a top secret project, which was also run by Zemo. Meanwhile, Speed Demon was confronted by the new female
Doctor Spectrum, who was out to reform the
Squadron Sinister and take over the world. In the end, Speed Demon quit the Thunderbolts to join Dr. Spectrum while
Nighthawk, the former
Defender and member of the original Squadron Sinister, was offered membership on the Thunderbolts by Songbird.
Right of Power Soon after Nighthawk joined the team, the Thunderbolts discovered that Photon's awareness of all space and time brought with it a vision of the destruction of the universe at his hands. As they tried to come to terms with this, they were attacked by a Moonstone puppeteered by Zemo to kill Genis-Vell. When the initial strike failed, the remainder of Zemo's team revealed themselves to the Thunderbolts. Zemo explained that he had used the Moonstones to accelerate Genis' return from death, and in the process made the mistake of siphoning energy from the beginning and end of time itself, caused by inexperience with his Moonstones, creating a link between Genis and the universe that threatened to end existence. Unable to find a way to save both Genis and the universe, he concluded that the only solution was Genis's death. Unwilling to accept this Songbird led the team in combat against Zemo's group. To prevent the other Thunderbolts from intervening, Zemo revealed that Atlas' brother Smuggler had survived Graviton's massacre of the Redeemers, trapped in the
Darkforce dimension. Using the prospect of his release to make Atlas stop the other Thunderbolts from interfering, Zemo bested Genis in battle and, apologizing for both his mistake and the necessary solution, sliced Genis' body into pieces and scattered them through both time and the
Darkforce Dimension to prevent Genis returning from the dead a third time. He then fully released Smuggler. In the aftermath, Zemo—his face apparently fully healed from Moonstone's attack—and Songbird became allies and lovers.
Civil War: Hero Hunters The new Thunderbolts engaged and defeated
Quicksand in a battle in Denver during the early days of the superhero
Civil War. After this, they were summoned to Washington where they met with Iron Man,
Mister Fantastic, and
Yellowjacket. The three heroes, all supporting the
Superhuman Registration Act, informed Zemo that they wanted the Thunderbolts to hunt down supervillains and recruit them to the Pro-Registration cause, which would be their chance at redemption. Unknown to Iron Man, the Thunderbolts had been doing this in secret for three weeks. Zemo's "Thunderbolt Army" grew rapidly, the team vastly expanding. It now included dozens of other supervillains, including most notably
Doctor Octopus, the
Wrecker, and
Ox. The new team dispersed to battle super-villains, capture them and offer them a choice: join the Thunderbolts or go to prison. Of course, they all chose to join the Thunderbolts. Baron Zemo convinced Captain America not to stop him from battling the Grandmaster, while Nighthawk was revealed as being a spy for the Squadron Sinister inside Captain America's Secret Avengers. Zemo then informed Songbird that in the coming battle, he knew that she would betray him, which she had been planning to do all along, in revenge for his killing of Photon, and he would sacrifice himself to save the world. Zemo then saved the Wellspring of Power from the
Grandmaster, who planned to use it for his own ends. Believing that all of his visions were subject to the flow of time, and that nothing was set in stone, Zemo defeated the Grandmaster, and boasted to his teammates that the power was now all his and theirs. He insisted that he would use it to help the world, despite the consequences for doing so. Songbird, who had temporarily lost her powers during the final battle, was told by Zemo, "now is when your betrayal would have come." The vision of her betrayal turned out to be somewhat correct after all, though. Although she could not use her super-sound, Songbird used a simple opera note to crack the moonstones, sending Zemo into a whirlwind of cosmic time/space. In his final words before he was completely sucked into the vacuum, he screamed out that he would never have hurt a world he worked so hard to save. Some of the Army of Thunderbolts, consisting of
Venom,
Lady Deathstrike,
Taskmaster,
Bullseye,
Jester,
Jack O'Lantern join Songbird assembled as the Pro-Registration side's task force to hunt down Anti-Registration heroes at the end of
Civil War #4, but never officially saw any real combat. The Jester and Jack O'Lantern were later killed by the
Punisher. The two were sent to hunt down and capture Spider-Man when he attempted to leave Iron Man's Pro-Registration army. Bullseye, Taskmaster, and Lady Deathstrike were part of the final battle of Civil War fighting alongside the Pro-Registration side, with Taskmaster wounding Mr. Fantastic when he sought to kill
Invisible Woman (a member of the Anti-Registration forces). At the end of the fight, Taskmaster, Bullseye, and Deathstrike were sent to the
Negative Zone prison; but Bullseye escaped before he could be sent, and Taskmaster was freed by
Deadpool en route to the portal. Deathstrike was either released or somehow escaped on her own. She would go on to battle the
X-Men during the events of "
Messiah CompleX", a story arc in the X-Men related books. After the events surrounding the Wellspring, the current team disbanded. MACH-IV and the Fixer were offered jobs from the
Commission on Superhuman Activities. Blizzard was released from jail and left the team. Atlas was de-ionized after his encounter with the Wellspring but left catatonic and trapped in his enlarged state while Smuggler, his suit destroyed, took care of him. Joystick was imprisoned for her traitorous actions during the Wellspring debacle and Speed Demon ran away to avoid arrest. Only Songbird, Moonstone, Swordsman and the Radioactive Man, remained on the team.
Zemo: Born Better In the events of
Thunderbolts: Zemo – Born Better mini-series, Baron Zemo found himself lost in time and in Europe, forced to witness the lives and deaths of the previous generations of "Baron Zemos", while being violently thrust forward in time at random points of his adventures. The journey forward in time was a prolonged "moment of clarity" experience for Zemo, who saw his family's true history and not the rose-colored version his father and grandfather had taught him. When he ultimately returned to the present day, Zemo discovered that a distant cousin had been responsible for his return to the present, though at a horrific cost of causing Zemo to jump forward from era to era every time his cousin murdered a family member who shared the same blood as Helmut. When Helmut discovered that his cousin rescued Zemo just so he could kill his infamous relative, Helmut refused to resist, a move that caused his cousin to attempt to take his own life before Zemo convinced him to put down his gun and stop the cycle of violence.
Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts Thunderbolts #110 featured a new creative team (writer
Warren Ellis and artist
Mike Deodato) and a new roster and direction for the team. The team was formed under the control of Norman Osborn, and the majority of the roster was made up of villains wishing to redeem themselves. The new Thunderbolts roster was as follows: •
Norman Osborn (Leader) •
Moonstone (Field leader) •
Bullseye •
Penance •
Radioactive Man •
Songbird •
Swordsman •
Venom After the Marvel Comics
Civil War event, the new Thunderbolts were tasked with tracking down and arresting individuals avoiding the Superhuman Registration Act. Despite the new line-up, many of the themes of the original series continued; in particular, Songbird's decision to cripple Bullseye in retaliation for the villain crippling the super-hero
Jack Flag, Osborn's own struggle for redemption as he claimed, and the growing friendship between Songbird and Radioactive Man. Moonstone was made team leader, a move that proved to be disastrous and ultimately led to Songbird resuming control over the team and expanding the group's missions to involve regular super-hero missions besides hunting down unregistered super-heroes. Due to lengthy delays towards the end of Ellis's run, several one-shot specials and a
Penance limited series were launched to fill in the gap. The
Penance limited series saw the hero formerly known as Speedball carrying out a complex scheme hatched to gain revenge against
Nitro, the man who murdered his teammates, the New Warriors, which put him at odds with his new teammates on the Thunderbolts. Several specials advanced other plotlines, such as the mysterious death of Songbird's mother and Swordsman betraying the Thunderbolts by allying himself with
Arnim Zola to resurrect his sister, after realizing that Osborn would not use his cloning technology to resurrect Andrea. Following the events of "Caged Angels" (written by
Christos Gage), and the Penance limited series, and guest appearances in
Moon Knight and
The Amazing Spider-Man, the group was thrust into the events of "
Secret Invasion", when Thunderbolt Mountain was attacked by the
Skrull Khn'nr, who has been posing as
Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell). This happened just as Zola dropped off the newly resurrected (via cloning technology) Andrea Strucker. Barely surviving the fight due to Khn'ner's inability to deal with the implanted memories inside of him belonging to Mar-Vell, the group went on the offensive against the Skrull armada as they invaded Washington, DC. During the fight, Andrea teamed with her brother, Swordsman. Moonstone and Bullseye feared that she was a Skrull spy sent to infiltrate the group. Moonstone then betrayed Swordsman by joining forces with the Skrulls to bait Andrea into revealing herself to be a Skrull. During this, Andrea was shocked to realize that she was a clone, culminating in Bullseye murdering her to save Moonstone. With Osborn's help, Moonstone blamed the Skrulls for Andrea's murder. After the Thunderbolts defeated the Skrull armada attacking Washington, D.C., which included two Super-Skrulls, Osborne begins to play up himself and his team's role as superheroes to the media, making them appear to be the force that is saving the Earth from
Tony Stark's bungling. The Thunderbolts then journey to New York, where they reluctantly aid Earth's heroes in their battle against the Skrulls.
H.A.M.M.E.R.'s Thunderbolts After Songbird gets mad at Osborn for leaving her to deal with a dangerous Skrull who nearly killed her, Osborn and Moonstone agree to get rid of Songbird and the other Thunderbolts whose morals do not match their own. Their plan comes into effect while Norman is in Washington during the
Dark Reign storyline, preparing to assume control over S.H.I.E.L.D. The group has Radioactive Man deported back to China after Norman has his work visa revoked, and Moonstone has Penance sent to a corrupt maximum security mental institution where he would be held prisoner for the rest of his natural life. Moonstone then aids Bullseye and Venom in attempting to kill Songbird, with Bullseye and Moonstone inadvertently and indirectly revealing to Songbird that Norman has given them permission to kill her. Though she neutralizes Moonstone and Bullseye, Venom attacks Songbird on the
Zeus minijet; she barely survives the crash. Bullseye recovers and sneaks up on her after the wreck, but the Swordsman saves her and tells her to run away, while blowing up the downed craft to forge her death in the explosion. Swordsman confronts Norman with the revelation that he is not being offered a position on the "Dark Avengers" team and that Norman had never planned on fulfilling his vow to resurrect the Thunderbolt's deceased sister or to give him a full presidential pardon after his contract with the Thunderbolts ended. Norman ends the confrontation by stabbing and defenestrating him. With Bullseye, Moonstone, and Venom being transferred to Norman's new team, the
Dark Avengers, After Deadpool and Taskmaster thwart the hit, the Thunderbolts then travel to
Madripoor to recruit Mister X as a team member. Osborn then adds a new incarnation of Scourge, whom Norman seems to know. Songbird eventually returns, and he has his team try to kill her. Yelena abandons the team after Scourge takes over, and reveals to Songbird that she is the original
Natasha Romanoff working for
Nick Fury. The two escape, only to end up leading Osborn to Nick Fury. Osborn orders the Thunderbolts to kill Black Widow and Songbird, and shoots Fury himself; however, "Fury" is revealed to be a
Life Model Decoy. After Black Widow and Songbird escape, Scourge is revealed to be the former Super-Soldier
Nuke. Osborn later places Grizzly on the Thunderbolts team at the time they fight the
Agents of Atlas. The fight between the Thunderbolts and the Agents of Atlas rages on as the deadly chemicals cause both teams to retreat. During the battle, Scourge is brainwashed into shooting when he sees Norman Osborn. As the Thunderbolts return to the Cube on Zeus, their pilot informs them that there is an important message from Osborn. Displayed holographically, Osborn informs the Thunderbolts that there is an important assignment he needs them to do in Broxton, Oklahoma, but does not disclose the details. Upon seeing Osborn's face, "Scourge's" programming kicks him and attempts to shoot. The bullet goes right through the hologram and hits Headsman right in the head, horrifying his teammates. During the
Siege storyline, Osborn sends his Thunderbolts to infiltrate Asgard and steal a weapon from the Asgardian armory that will turn the tide in his favor.
Luke Cage's Thunderbolts A brand new team of Thunderbolts appears in the aftermath of "Siege" as seen during the
Heroic Age storyline. He tells the Thunderbolts that they can serve him if they can escape from the Raft. Though Crossbones is more than willing to oblige, the rest are suspicious. As it turns out, it was a setup to test the team and the Raft's security measures. They are then deployed to deal with a group of
Asgardian trolls. After killing two of the trolls and capturing the third (who turned out to be a girl named
Gunna who was raised by trolls), the group is reprimanded by Cage for the death of the two trolls. The Thunderbolts are sent out to search for a group of missing S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, who turn out to be mutated by the
Terrigen Mist. After slaying the mutated S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and sealing off the cave, the Thunderbolts return to the Raft for a check-up. The check-up reveals that Crossbones has not been mutated by the Terrigen Mist and that MACH-V will be out for weeks. The facility is soon visited by the staff and students of
Avengers Academy. After getting Thunderbolts introduced to the students, the prison's power grid suddenly shut down due to an
EMP, allowing the Raft's inmates to escape. Together with Warden Walker (U.S. Agent) and the staff of Avengers Academy, the Thunderbolts manage to detain all escaped prisoners. Some of Hank Pym's students attempted to get to Norman Osborn, so Luke Cage reprimands them. During the
Shadowland storyline, the Thunderbolts are assigned to rescue a young boy who is held prisoner by the
Hand, and bring down their stronghold. While fighting the ninjas, Fixer is stabbed, while Songbird is taken down, giving
Moonstone the opportunity to do things her way. Following the discharge of Crossbones, the Thunderbolts end up getting
Hyperion as a new member. He betrays the Thunderbolts while they are split up, destroying Man-Thing's lower body and legs with his atomic vision and leaving Moonstone and Songbird to drown while he takes the com device which controls the nanites in each Thunderbolts member. Hyperion activates it on Juggernaut to test it after the latter had saved the two drowning members, and Juggernaut responds by fighting back. Moonstone and Ghost join in to help Juggernaut, upon which they take down Hyperion. They let Man-Thing touch him after a fallen Hyperion shows fear in front of them. The Thunderbolts next recruit
Satana as his replacement when Luke Cage and Doctor Strange discover that the Raft is susceptible to magic. With recent events involving the Thunderbolts, the team's advisory committee approves the creation of a Beta team, the Underbolts. As the Thunderbolts head toward a new mission in Eastern Europe, Songbird, Mach V, and Fixer select candidates of Raft inmates, with the chosen candidates being
Troll,
Shocker,
Centurius,
Boomerang and
Mister Hyde. After the mission in Europe as seen during the
Fear Itself storyline, Juggernaut gets infected with nanites by Cage, who erroneously thought that he will attack the others. Juggernaut is left at the Raft while the alpha and beta teams go on a mission in Iraq, as zombies emerge from the area. In that moment, a Worthy hammer falls inside the prison and is taken immediately by Juggernaut (who also feels the calling of Cytorak). The hammer ends up transforming Kuurth: Breaker of Stone, who ends up destroying the Raft, which led to most of its inmates escaping. The alpha and beta teams are called back to the raft to capture and control inmates, and work to clear the rubble. During the process, Centurius manages to find the controls for the beta team's nanites and disable them. The beta team decides to wait for a better time to escape, as they reason that more heroes may be on the way to help the raft. Meanwhile, Moonstone restores order to the partially collapsed women's wing of the prison, as Ghost helps the warden avert a crisis in a section of the prison where a malfunctioning failsafe is suffocating inmates. Crossbones, an ex-member of the Thunderbolts, with the help of another inmate, escapes the raft in the chaos. After order is restored, the alpha team, including Songbird and Mach V, is sent to subdue Juggernaut/Kuurth, with the beta team and Fixer held in reserve. To the team's surprise, Man-Thing becomes uncontrollable and teleports away before they fight Juggernaut. Satana explains that he has reached the "next stage" of his evolution, but before she can finish explaining, Juggernaut arrives. The team tries to free Juggernaut from the hammer's influence, but fail and he escapes.
Thunderbolts Throughout Time Upon being sent back in time to the World War II era, the Thunderbolts members end up passing themselves off as the American Thunderbolts when they end up helping the World War II era's versions of Captain America and Namor. As Centurius adapts the name of Doc Century for this time period, the American Thunderbolts continue their fight with the Nazis and the
Human Torch androids that were created by Baron Heinrich Zemo. From then on, the book focuses on the team in the present (Luke Cage, MACH-V, Songbird, Ghost) versus the Underbolts team in the past (Centurius, Satana, Troll, Boomerang, Moonstone, Fixer). Eventually, jumping around in time, the team encounter themselves as the original Thunderbolts (1997) and ends with the renaming of the title into
Dark Avengers, although the storyline carries through.
Red Hulk's Thunderbolts A new team composed of
Red Hulk,
Deadpool,
Elektra,
Agent Venom, and
Punisher debuted as a part of
Marvel NOW! major relaunch. Written by Daniel Way with drawings by Steve Dillon. This incarnation is not a government-sponsored team. Red Hulk has obtained Samuel Sterns' body and hooks it up to a machine that emits red gamma radiation onto Samuel Sterns. Deadpool later finds
Samuel Sterns' as a Red Leader with no apparent powers as he expresses his view that the Punisher will not be pleased. Punisher finds Red Leader's body and shoots him between the eyes, disrupting whatever plans Red Hulk has for Red Leader. Red Hulk brings the Thunderbolts along to deal with gamma technology on the island of Kata Jaya, where the technology was supplied by the Leader's brother,
Madman. During the fight against Madman, Red Hulk took the Leader to a pipeline that feeds Gamma energy to Madman's lab. Red Hulk then absorbed the energy himself and then forced fed it to the Leader, bringing him back to life. Red Leader is revived, but does not possess his prior intellect. The Thunderbolts get into the Madman's bunker and learn that the Leader hid his intellect on the internet. Madman confronts them and Leader promises to unlock his intellect to his brother, but after whispering one secret word, his brother drops dead — his brain not being able to handle all of the information. The team then follows leads for the supplies of the gamma radiation technology to Kabul to discover Elektra's brother Orestez Natchios is creating an army of
Crimson Dynamos powered by gamma radiation. Elektra runs off with her brother and claims to have killed him, but Punisher realizes she was lying and kills him himself. During this fiasco, the Red Leader secretly gains access to the internet and downloads his intellect from the internet despite his body not being able to physically contain it (he suffers from profuse nose bleeds). The Team decides that they cannot do only missions for Red Hulk, as none truly trust him, so a system of give and take missions is developed, in which the team does a mission for General Ross, then a mission for a random member. The first random name pulled for a member is Punisher, who chooses a mission to take out a crime family in New York. The story arc takes place during the crossover event
Infinity. It turns out the Leader purposefully tricked the team into letting him pick the next mission, since he had no skin in the game, so he can escape. He was not expecting an alien invasion. While trying to escape the team's submarine, Red Leader begins to get his brain siphoned by
Supergiant of Thanos'
Black Order, but is saved by Red Hulk. He reluctantly releases
Mercy and is forced by Red Hulk to trick her into destroying the Black Order's flagship. Afterwards, Red Leader starts having visions of how to kill every member of the Team, but determines that something is wrong with his plan; there was an unseen variable that stopped him from succeeding. That variable presents itself mainly in the form of Abigail Mercy, who joined Ross's Thunderbolts team as a condition for her release.
Ghost Rider joins the team to stop Mercy, who is getting too powerful to control, but inadvertently drags the team to hell. Leader negotiates a contract with
Mephisto to put him back in power of the Underworld by overthrowing the current leader of hell,
Strong Guy, who gave up his soul to save his love. Strong Guy throws the fight, so the Thunderbolts escape, and Mercy is dragged to hell. Deadpool's name gets pulled next for a mission, and he wants to kidnap actor
Ryan Reynolds, but Venom asks to be given the mission, as he is leaving the team. He wants to let the symbiote take over and have the team fight it, which they do, to reassure him that if he were to lose control of the symbiote, there would be someone who could stop him. The team then travels to a haunted swamp in
Honduras to find an ancient artifact. The Leader is the only one who can translate the ancient language. During the boat ride, the Leader whispers something cryptic from an ancient language, and Johnny Blaze loses his powers and is killed by a tentacled monster. The Leader then betrays the team by promising their river guide to help ambush the team, but then double-crosses him and alerts the team, who quickly dispose of the ambushers. Leader then tricks the team into entering the secret temple via booby trapped entrance. Ross survives and finds the power of the temple, an infant
celestial head. The Leader attempts to drink the Celestial's blood, but this causes his brain to explode. One of Ross' former squadmates, Mancuso, is waiting for him and powered by the Celestial. Mancuso warns him that if Ross continues his selfish ways he will be forced to use his cosmic powers to kill him. Ross realizes that he pushes his team too hard and constantly endangers them, so Mansuco teleports them back to before the briefing. Ross decides not to travel to Honduras. Much later, the team tracked down
Doctor Faustus. The
Punisher wanted to kill him for murdering all the children in a high school. Red Hulk stopped him and wanted to recruit Faustus, but the Punisher does not like the idea and quits the team. While going to the refrigerator at his safe house, the Punisher found a bomb with a note saying, "You don't quit on us. You're fired." Angered, the Punisher believes Red Hulk set the bomb and began hunting down his former teammates. He snipes the Leader and Faustus. He decapitates Deadpool, who is not angry and flattered that Frank found him a threat. He steals magic regalia from
Bloodstone and depowers Ghost Rider, but Johnny Blaze is glad to be freed of the demon. Punisher cannot bring himself to kill Elektra, but does confess that he killed her brother. She then admits she knew he would kill her brother. Punisher then uses a customized
Hulkbuster armor with a special gun that depowers Red Hulk temporarily. During a gruesome hand-to-hand combat between Ross and Castle, Hawkeye and his new team of Avengers arrest both of them. It is later revealed that Red Leader was alive and set the bomb, knowing the Punisher would come after each member of the Thunderbolts and set a Life Model Decoy to fool the other Thunderbolts. The Avengers and Thunderbolts return to Kata Jaya and arrest the Leader, who is their new dictator. Ross then decides to disband the team. The annual takes place before the team disbands and follows the team as they work with
W.A.N.D., S.H.I.E.L.D.'s paranormal research department, to take down an out-of-control Doctor Strange.
Winter Soldier's Thunderbolts The
Winter Soldier formed his own Thunderbolts team following the events of the
Avengers: Standoff! storyline, which consists of
Fixer,
Atlas,
Moonstone,
MACH-X, and
Kobik. Winter Soldier, Kobik, and MACH-X helped Fixer, Atlas, and Moonstone evade S.H.I.E.L.D. In exchange, they agree to form the Thunderbolts with the mission to make sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. never uses the Kobik Project again. Over the course of this 12-issue run, Bucky's Thunderbolts team clashes with the All-New Inhumans, Squadron Supreme, mysterious alien invaders, and others. They also frequently test the limits of Kobik's reality-bending cosmic powers. The girl is the one who magically manifests the team's arctic headquarters and even resolves Fixer's time travel-loop conundrum that has lingered since the "Thunderbolts Throughout Time" storyline. Following the "
Civil War II" event, the team reunites with
Songbird as they rescue Bucky from an altered, secretly fascist Captain America. She remains with the team, briefly reigniting her romance with Abe Jenkins (MACH-X). In the lead-up to the "
Secret Empire" event, Zemo attacks the Thunderbolts' base with the latest incarnation of the Masters of Evil. As that confrontation begins to unfold, Jolt is transported back from Counter Earth just in time to save Atlas from arctic exposure. Later, Zemo makes a nefarious offer to the original Thunderbolts members: give in to their darker natures and join the new rise of Hydra... or die. Abe and Melissa reject the offer, but Fixer, Moonstone, and Atlas ultimately leave the ruins of the HQ with Zemo's Masters of Evil. In the aftermath of the destruction, Songbird scours the snowy horizon for Abe, who is presumed dead. Ghost, who has been spying on the Thunderbolts for some time, rescues a pocket-sized Jolt, who has shrunk due to her power exertion during the battle with the Masters of Evil.
Punisher: War on the Streets After losing custody of
Frank Castle in the fledgling country of
Bagalia, Baron Zemo and
Jigsaw flee to New York City. There, Zemo approaches Mayor
Wilson Fisk in hopes of joining forces and finally taking revenge on the Punisher. Fearing a public relations disaster, Fisk reluctantly agrees, but is promptly dismayed when Zemo reveals a new team of Thunderbolts at a mayoral press conference. Zemo's new Thunderbolts team includes: •
Citizen V (Baron Zemo in disguise) •
Moonstone •
Ghost •
Fixer •
Radioactive Man • Jigsaw (in disguise) Mayor Fisk and Citizen V announce to a cheering crowd that the Thunderbolts will work with newly arrived U.N. forces (who are actually Zemo's disguised Hydra soldiers) and a covert team of NYPD officers to rid the city of Punisher. Zemo and his team surprise Frank Castle once, but are thwarted by Black Widow. Moonstone and Mayor Fisk ultimately goad an over-confident Zemo into confronting Punisher again, and "Citizen V" musters a rousing speech to rally spooked Hydra agents. The Thunderbolts then clash with Castle again—but discover that the vigilante has reluctantly partnered with a team of other street-level operatives, including Black Widow, Moon Knight,
Rachel Cole, and even Frank's old Thunderbolts teammate, Ghost Rider. The battle is fierce, and even though Frank shoots down Fixer (or possibly a robotic copy) and corners "Citizen V," Jigsaw intervenes... and the Thunderbolts escape with Rachel as a hostage. As they flee, Zemo challenges Frank to come retrieve her... alone. The ploy doesn't work. Punisher and Zemo battle at Fisk Tower. Before Frank can kill Zemo, Ghost intervenes. Calling Zemo "a third-rate fascist with an inherited army," Ghost tells the defeated Zemo to return to Bagalia and wire him his money. Punisher wards Ghost off, and Zemo meets Mayor Fisk on the roof, hoping to rally a comeback. Instead, Fisk tells Zemo that he's in over his head. At the touch of Ghost's hand, Zemo is seemingly vaporized. Fisk thanks Ghost and tells him that they will discuss "the details of their arrangement" later.
Mayor Wilson Fisk's Thunderbolts When the symbiote god
Knull encircles the planet in symbiote goo and sets out to destroy every living thing on Earth, Mayor Wilson Fisk decides to put together his own team of superpowered operatives to beat back Knull's creatures and save the city. He secretly meets with eight of these operatives, all known criminals who have been working in the city without Kingpin's blessing: •
Taskmaster •
Mister Fear •
Batroc the Leaper •
Rhino •
Star (Ripley Ryan) • Ampere • Snakehead To pay Kingpin back, these criminals must escort Star (current keeper of the
Reality Gem) into battle to kill Knull, but to do that, they first need to make contact with a man Kingpin believes can help turn the tide against the god. Only one of the criminals, Incendiary, opts to take his chances in jail instead, but when he's taken out of the boardroom by Kingpin's guards, he's immediately shot. The remaining seven criminals then promptly agree to Kingpin's plan. Despite objections, this team will be called "The Thunderbolts" (because Kingpin owns the copyright). The team sets out into the city and is promptly attacked by a giant Symbiote Dragon. Snakehead is devoured, but Mister Fear and Star are able to fell the Symbiote Dragon. The team learns that there is a limit to Star's cosmic powers (leaving her tired after battle), and when Ampere exclaims that the team is doomed and he's leaving, Mister Fear murders him. Taskmaster, de facto team leader, scolds Mister Fear, but the team helps themselves to Ampere's electric gauntlets, giving Taskmaster and Batroc's abilities an extra kick. Taskmaster cannot keep Rhino from walking away from the team. Then he shortly makes the call not to help the Manhattan Defenders battle more symbiote creatures. As the dwindled team slinks away from the scene, they're attacked by a symbiote creature that's possessed Ampere's corpse and, before they know it, are being chased by a horde of ravenous symbiotes. The team escapes to a fishing boat—nearly leaving Batroc behind—and finally reach their destination: The Ravencroft Institute. Inside, they find the man Kingpin believes can defeat Knull: notorious supervillain and former Thunderbolts leader
Norman Osborn. Norman Osborn and the Thunderbolts make their way through Ravencroft amidst the Symbiote attacks where they joined up by Figment,
Foolkiller,
Grizzly,
Man-Bull, and
Mister Hyde. While noting that Sentry would've been able to fight Knull, it was noted that Knull defeated him and absorbed the Void. Osborn then leads the Thunderbolts into retrieving Sentry's corpse so that it can be used as a nuke to destroy Knull's lair on top of the Empire State Building, with it being a suicide mission. Foolkiller was taken over by one of the Symbiotes and was killed. Taskmaster used Figment's abilities to make it look like the Thunderbolts sacrificed their lives to pull off the mission. After Mayor Fisk broadcasts the Thunderbolts' sacrifice during the fight against the Symbiote invasion, the Thunderbolts arrive and blackmail him into raising their pay and giving them further missions once Knull is defeated.
Devil's Reign During the "
Devil's Reign" storyline, Mayor Wilson Fisk sets up the expanded Thunderbolts units to help crack down on superhuman vigilantism while partnering up with Senator Arthur Krane of the Friends of Humanity and other benefactors. These Thunderbolts units are tasked to assist the NYPD and take down the superheroes. Moon Knight is the first to be apprehended by
Agony,
Electro,
Rhino, and
U.S. Agent.
Doctor Octopus accompanied the NYPD and
Homeland security to the Baxter Building to do a full investigation on the weapons of mass destruction that might be located there. Reed Richards and Susan Storm are apprehended, but Susan manages to get a Code X7 off to Human Torch and the Thing, who evacuate
Franklin Richards and
Valeria Richards.
Shocker apprehends Darkhawk, but is subdued by Luke Cage and Jessica Jones when he tries to get them to surrender. At the Rand Corporation, Danny Rand is attacked by the NYPD, with Crossbones leading them. Rand was later mentioned to have been apprehended. At the Daily Bugle, Taskmaster and
Whiplash do a hostage situation to draw out
Spider-Man. They badly beat him up and leave him for the NYPD on the streets below. After a confrontation with Mayor Fisk, Elektra is hunted by
Kraven the Hunter.
Serpent Society members Coachwhip and Puff Adder appear as members of the Thunderbolts when they were targeting
Spider-Woman. At the time when the Thunderbolts managed to apprehend most of the Purple Children, Jessica Jones and the
Champions tried to rescue them, only to be repelled by the Thunderbolts' latest member
Abomination. The recruitment of Abomination was the result of Rhino leaving the group as he believed hunting children crossed the line. Following Kingpin's defeat, Mayor Luke Cage deals with the remainder of the Thunderbolts units that were loyal to Kingpin with help from Spectrum. A public relations specialist named Helen Astrantia has been tasked to reframe the Thunderbolts. She and Mayor Cage plan to ask Hawkeye to lead the Thunderbolts since Black Knight, Falcon, Mockingbird, Spectrum, and Wasp do not want the job.
Hawkeye's Thunderbolts Hawkeye is eventually chosen to lead the Thunderbolts with
America Chavez,
Power Man, Persuasion, and a new character named Gutsen Glory, whose background and how Helen Astrantia obtained his services are classified. Their first mission has them apprehending Abomination, Agony, Electro, Taskmaster, and Whiplash, who broke out of a prison transport and were holding hostages. Hawkeye takes on U.S. Agent, who claims that he is still working for the government. Most of its members are defeated as Spectrum shows up to defeat Electro. In a discussion with Mayor Luke Cage on whether she wants to stick around and help the Thunderbolts, Spectrum states that she'll think about it. After Cage and Hawkeye's press conference regarding the fight with the escaped prisoners and U.S. Agent, Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts are dispatched by Helen Astrantia to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art to deal with a creature inside it. The Thunderbolts have difficulty with the creature until Spectrum joins the fight. The creature surrenders and introduces itself as Eegro the Unbreakable from Monster Isle. Later that day, Helen persuades Hawkeye to take Eegro the Unbreakable in as the latest member of the Thunderbolts, as Spectrum decides to join the group. After spending a night with
Blue Marvel, Spectrum joins the Thunderbolts in a training mission in Central Park as Helen Astrantia arrives straight from a perfume photo shoot with Persuasion and Eergo the Unbreakable as she states to Hawkeye that he will not need to wear his mask. Then she dispatches the Thunderbolts to the
Central Park Zoo, which has been taken over by the Super-Apes who have declared themselves free from
Red Ghost. They are now led by a powered-up chimpanzee named Yaroslavi. The Super-Apes give the Thunderbolts difficulty until the police unleash knockout gas in the area. As Mayor Cage and Helen talk about the latest bad press about the Thunderbolts, Gutsen Glory mentions the flaws that Hawkeye and Spectrum have while America Chavez and Power Man ride the subway until America collapses. Later that night, Hawkeye makes a call to Mockingbird. Persuasion and Eergo the Unbreakable are interviewed on a talk show about Persuasion's perfume and the Thunderbolts, as Hawkeye has spent the night with Mockingbird as a guest. Later that day, the Thunderbolts face off against Melter and Whirlwind, who are holding hostages until the Thunderbolts defeat them. Hawkeye is later interviewed where Black Widow, Mockingbird, and Helen Astrania are present. The Thunderbolts respond to an attack caused by
Terminus as Hawkeye hears a voice in his head taunting him. Meanwhile, the EMTs respond to America Chavez's collapse as Power Man performs CPR. When Helen goes to Hawkeye's apartment to check up on him, she finds Hawkeye floating above his bed with his eyes glowing. As Hawkeye has a vision of him and the Thunderbolts being zapped by Terminus, it is shown that
Nightmare is responsible, as he plans to use America Chavez's powers to access the Multiverse and take over its respective waking worlds. While noting that he wanted to torment Hawkeye again, he changed his plans and started tormenting the Thunderbolts while planning to take advantage of America. Following nightmares about
Dormammu and the
Mindless Ones,
Thanos, the Marvel Zombies, and Galactus, America breaks free and frees the other Thunderbolts members from their nightmares. As the Thunderbolts fight Nightmare, Eergo the Unbreakable unleashes his ultimate attack that involves him growing as he smashes Nightmare. As Nightmare gets back up, Persuasion uses her powers to mind-control Nightmare into going to sleep. After the fight, Helen Astrania is told by America that Nightmare was dropped into a dimension where he will be asleep for a long time. Though she does mention the budget problems when it comes to shrinking Eergo the Unbreakable back to his normal size, much to his dismay. The next morning, Hawkeye is doing some archery when he is visited by Mayor Luke Cage, who states that Hawkeye is on probation and expects more from the Thunderbolts. Cage then takes his leave, stating that he will see Hawkeye on Monday. Then Hawkeye calls up Mockingbird and asks if she wants to go out for coffee since she is in town. He gets a positive response and states that he will see her soon.
The Revolution's Thunderbolts Following the events of the
Captain America: Cold War storyline, Bucky Barnes becomes the Outer Circle's New Revolution and inherits the shadowy organization's decades of valuable intel after dissolving it. With these resources at his disposal, the Revolution meets with
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (later revealed to be a
Life Model Decoy of the original) to form a new Thunderbolts team to eliminate the
Red Skull and his enterprises. The two recruit the
Destroyer and
Red Guardian to raid the Red Skull's base in
Argentina, where they succeed in killing his host body and propagandist mouthpiece
Aleksander Lukin. When the Red Skull's fortune is acquired by Wilson Fisk, Revolution, and new recruits
Black Widow and
White Widow infiltrate a party hosted by the
Hellfire Club and leave the Skull's
Nazi gold trapped in an inaccessible pocket dimension. Afterwards, Fontaine discovers that in response to the Red Skull's setbacks, Nazi spies in the
U.S. Government plan to destroy the Red Skull's remaining secret base in
Latveria to cover to his escape; the preemptive strike could potentially start a
World War while giving the Red Skull a chance to come back stronger than ever. Revolution recruits
Shang-Chi to intercept
U.S. Agent and
American Kaiju in
Hong Kong, both of whom were tricked by the Red Skull's agents in the
United States Army into destroying his Latverian hideout. Red Skull remotely forces American Kaiju to go on a rampage in the city, but he is subdued by Revolution with assistance from U.S. Agent, who joins the Thunderbolts to enact revenge on the Red Skull. After
Doctor Doom dismisses Barnes' warning of the Red Skull's plans and denies him entry into Latveria, the Thunderbolts infiltrate the country and attack the Red Skull in his secret bunker. The Thunderbolts fight the Skull and his forces long enough for Doom to arrive and attack them with a powerful energy blast for trespassing into his territory. The Thunderbolts teleport at the last minute, resulting in Red Skull getting killed by the blast instead. Infuriated for being proven wrong and more so for being used by the Thunderbolts, Doom angrily contacts Barnes, but ultimately lets the team go after Barnes mockingly calls Doom himself "a Thunderbolt."
Thunderbolts: Doomstrike During the "
One World Under Doom" event, Doctor Doom retaliates against Bucky by destroying his hometown of
Shelbyville and framing him for the attack. As he assumes control of the rest of the world, Doom reveals his own version of the Thunderbolts called the Fulgar Victoris. This team is led by
Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (in a new Citizen V alias) and consists of original Thunderbolts Atlas, Fixer, and Moonstone, as well as a cyborg of
Abner Jenkins called MACH-Doom. With help from the last remaining original Thunderbolt,
Songbird, plus U.S. Agent, Sharon Carter, Captain America, and
Ghost Rider, Bucky discovers a Doom plot to steal a major cache of
vibranium—and ultimately defeats Valentina and her team trying to carry it out. It's Fixer who eventually defects to Bucky's side in the end and he activates the "Doombot Protocol Fixer Omega Daffodil" to shut down the Doombots running the vibranium heist. Bucky then goes on to lead a new team, the
New Avengers. ==Members==