New Thunderbolts #17

[BobMM]

NEW THUNDERBOLTS #17 (March 2006) - Alternatively numbered THUNDERBOLTS #98

"Bad Blood"
Writer: Fabien Nicieza; Penciler: Tom Grummet

Appearances-

Radioactive Man
Atlas
Songbird
Joystick
Nighthawk
Photon (Genis-Vell)

Blackout (comatose)
Smuggler (Behind the scenes, somehow contained within Blackout)
Swordsman (revealed here to be Andreas Strucker)
Helmut Zemo

Henrique Gallante (Asylum II), off panel?

Notes-

* Swordsman narrates: "[Purple Man] made me want to be a Thunderbolt...I never found out why. All I know is that weeks ago I woke up as if from a bad dream." That awakening would have occurred right after the Purple Man's defeat at the end of TB2 12.

* Swordsman notes that he "tracked the movement of a dozen agents from the fallen [Hydra] regime to this long-abandoned site. Baron Wolfgang von Strucker lost the civil war for control of Hydra. Rumor has it, for this failure, he was killed."

* Zemo says to Andreas: "[It was I Who] sent Killgrave after you...Instructed him on how to mold you...", all prior to TB2 1.

* Zemo pronounces to von Strucker: "While you were engaged in your trivial little civil war [a reference to Enemy of the State], a pact was made to disenfranchise you from control of Hydra. A man was used as a pawn -- crafted by science and the supernatural to become a flawed, but genetically accurate, copy of you. Manipulated to create the illusion of consolidation within your ranks...They used your disappearance in battle against the Thunderbolts [after TB2 6] as the opportunity for Gorgon to assume control of Hydra."

Summary-

The Swordsman narrates the recap page, briefly discussing his (purely metaphorical) relationship to the original Swordsman, and his training at the whim of Purple Man.

Moscow, "three days ago": Andreas tends to his weapons in a hotel room. He recalls:
(1) Andrea - in a generic scene of her with a glass of wine
(2) Purple Man - in his underwear, also with a drink - more details below
(3) Wolfgang von Strucker - crossing swords with Andreas, from TB2 4

Novosibirsk, Russia, "now": Swordsman plows through goons at a Russian Hydra facility. Having dispatched the men, Swordsman uses his mutant power, channeled through his sword, to blast open a door. Within, he finds a man floating in a regenerative tube.

Brooklyn, New York: The Thunderbolts look at the rubble of their HQ (wrecked in TB2 16). Nighthawk offers one of his upstate ranches for the team's temporary use.

Manhattan: The location is not pinpointed; it may be the Wiley Institute for Debilitative Mental Health, in which case Henrique Gallante is off-panel nearby. MACH IV, Fixer and Blizzard battle an unnamed human figure wrapped in darkforce and manage to calm him down. (The figure will later be revealed as Blackout who, though dead, somehow contains Smuggler.)

Russia: Swordsman briefly recalls how the man in the tank crushed Swordsman's dreams when Swordsman was a child. Swordsman bursts open the bank and von Strucker revives. Swordsman finally reveals himself to be Andreas Strucker. The reunion is interrupted by the arrival of Helmut Zemo, who remonstrates Andreas for "flaying the skin off [Andrea's] corpse and tanning it into leather so that [Swordsman could stay in contact with it and] maintin [his] mutant powers."

von Strucker interrupts the fight to understand why Zemo came to rescue him. Zemo explains that he wants von Strucker's help for a long term plan, then uses the moonstones to pop the two of them away from the scene.

Flashbacks -

Appearances: Purple Man, Swordsman off panel
Swordsman recalls Purple Man, in his underwear and with a drink. This occurs somewhere during the period that Killgrave controlled Andreas (after A/TB 6 and before TB2 10), but otherwise is hard to pinpoint. The single-panel flashback only shows Purple Man, but since it's Andreas' recollection he must also be present.

Appearances - Andrea Strucker, Andreas von Strucker, Wolfgang von Strucker
Swordsman recalls his childhood. He and his twin sister Andrea play in a field, while the shadow of their father, Wolfgang von Strucker, looms over them.

Appearances - Helmut Zemo, Andreas Strucker, Purple Man
Zemo and Andreas look at the Purple Man, who is encased within the energies of the moonstone. The implication is that this occured at the beginning of the process of "molding" Andreas, which would place it between A/TB6 and TB2 1.

Appearances - Gorgon, Gorgon's elderly female associate, Wolfgang von Strucker copy
Zemo uses the moonstones to generate an image of an alternate von Strucker (the "flawed, but genetically accurate copy" mentioned in the notes above) in the presence of Gorgon and an unidentified elderly woman. This is the alternate "Wolfgang von Strucker" who was part of the Enemy of the State storyline.

Appearances - Wolfgang von Strucker
An injured von Strucker is recovered from his crashed escape pod by Hydra goons. Follows TB2 6.

Appearances - Andrea Strucker, Andreas Strucker
As children, the twins run playfully across a field.