Thunderbolts #1-4

Thunderbolts #1-4

Originally released in 1997

Written by Kurt Busiek

Art by Mark Bagley

With a trailer for the Thunderbolts coming out yesterday, I figure it's as good of a time as any to look into the original comics.  All I know about this going into it is the twist at the end of the first issue, so I'm curious about how the situation progresses from there.

In the aftermath of the Onslaught event, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four vanished and were seemingly killed. (From what I've read, Marvel wanted to update them for the 90s and make them more popular; it didn't work out, though when the teams were brought back, it was used to get rid of some unpopular changes like Iron Man being a teenager or the Wasp being an insect-like woman)  Nature abhors a vacuum, however, and a new superhero team steps in to take their place.

The Thunderbolts quickly make a name for themselves - over the course of these first four issues, they take on the Wrecking Crew, a new Masters of Evil team, Arnim Zola, and the Mad Thinker.  Even Black Widow, one of the few "surviving" Avengers, praises their work, and they earn a lot of public goodwill for repairing the Statue of Liberty after the Wrecking Crew damage it.

However, as I hinted at earlier, there's a shocking secret surrounding the team, which starts when Citizen V, their leader, takes off his mask at the end of the first issue.

Once his mask is off, he puts on his original mask for the grand reveal:

The Thunderbolts are, in reality, the Masters of Evil, taking advantage of their enemies' absence to take over their role in the public consciousness and gain access to military facilities and other benefits that the Avengers would normally get.

However, about half of the team slowly starts to become accustomed to the praise that comes with the superhero lifestyle.  Moonstone, who's firmly not in this camp, realizes that it could happen and warns Baron Zemo, who brushes off her concerns.

Mach-1/Beetle (who does turn good, as seen in Superior Foes of Spider-Man), Songbird/Screaming Mimi (who becomes a full-fledged Avenger at some point), and Goliath/Atlas (who is nice to kids; I'm not sure if he fully turns to the side of good, though) seem to be wavering, even this early on.  Moonstone gives some pretty valid reasons why they'd switch sides, and I like that this series shows that even the Masters of Evil can become better people with the right push.

By issue 4, Moonstone is clearly scheming against Baron Zemo, presumably wanting the leadership role for herself.  A teenager who was experimented on by Arnim Zola, who goes by the codename Jolt due to her electric powers, makes a name for herself in the battle with Zola, and Moonstone convinces Zemo to let her join the team because of the good publicity that it would bring. (forcing Zemo to keep up the heroic act at all times is likely her main reason for suggesting it, since he'd likely blow a fuse sooner or later)

This series is off to a good start.  It's nothing like the premise of the MCU version, where the members are anti-heroes at best or sympathetic villains at worst, but the team has had many incarnations and interpretations over the years.

Zemo's endgame is left a little unclear - he wants the sort of access that the Avengers had, but he presumably has a specific goal in mind - and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the team will react when they find out what it is.  Between Moonstone's desire for power, Fixer's self-centeredness, and the other team members enjoying their time as heroes, I'm guessing the team will rapidly fall apart once Zemo makes his move, but I'm curious about how it's going to happen, or if it will go in an entirely different direction.