New Thunderbolts #18 and Thunderbolts #100

[BobMM]

NEW THUNDERBOLTS #18 and THUNDERBOLTS #100 form a two-issue arc that takes place over a couple of hours, except for the framing sequence from #100, which occurs three days later.

NEW THUNDERBOLTS #18 (April 2006) - Alternatively numbered THUNDERBOLTS #99

"The Whole Hole"
Writer: Fabien Niceza; Penciler: Tom Grummett

Appearances -

Radioactive Man
Joystick
Nighthawk
Atlas
Songbird
Photon

Helmut Zemo
Blackout (comatose)
Smuggler (Conrad Josten, unrevealed within Blackout's body)
MACH IV
Blizzard
Fixer
Man-Killer
Swordsman
Moonstone (she is comatose and puppeteered by Zemo, although that is not revealed here)

Eternity (in a flash forward to a potential future)

Notes -

* Photon's gaps in space/time reveal some generic visions from the past, and a pair of specific visions from the future:
1. Helmut Zemo locked in battle with Photon, from TB 100
2. Helmut Zemo and Iron Man (unmasked to reveal he is Tony Stark) shaking hands beneath the Presidential Seal, from the upcoming Civil War.

* Returning from a trip through Photon's gaps in space/time, Atlas says that he saw himself fighting alongside his brother, Conrad Josten (Smuggler).

* Zemo monologues that it was Blackout who his teammates recovered from the Darkforce Dimension (in TB2 17).

Summary -

The Richmond Ranch, upstate New York: The Thunderbolts train at Nighthawk's ranch. Radioactive Man explains Photon's apparent aloofness as follows: "Genis-Vell continues to have trouble tuning his cosmic awareness. He is trying to differentiate between past, present and future, because he can exist in all three simultaneously." At the vision of his own death, Photon wigs out, uncontrollably creating rifts in spacetime which consume Songbird and Atlas. Visions of past/future events appear within the apertures:
(1) A generic view of Captain Mar-Vell in his red and blue costume
(2) A generic view of Genis-Vell in his green Kree soldier uniform
(3) Captain America standing over the body of Heinrich Zemo (Nighthawk identifies this as "during World war II", but it might also be A 15).
(4) Helmut Zemo locked in battle with Photon

R-Man tosses Joystick into Photon's face and, as Photon crashes to Earth, Atlas and Songbird drop out of the time holes. Atlas says that he saw himself fighting alongside his (believed to be) dead brother, Conrad. R-Man qualifies that these are probably "potential futures".

From an unspecified location, Zemo uses the moonstones to monitor the Thunderbolts. He visits his own team: MACH IV, Blizzard and Fixer, who has rigged up a "surprise" related to their newest recruit, Man-Killer. The Swordsman spies on them from a distance, where he sees that Zemo's final recruit is Moonstone.

Richmond Ranch, "an hour later": Photon has not recovered from being knocked out; Songbird and R-Man discuss his situation. R-Man theorizes that Photon's cosmic awareness is more knowledge than he can cope with, and his ability to manipulate photonic energies has grown into a time-warping power that is more than he can deal with. Photon, in a dream state, recalls his resurrection [TB2 4], and realizes that his new self is built from parts of himself from numerous different points in time. This ends in a future vision, in which Songbird witnesses Photon destroy Eternity.

Photon snaps awake just as the team hears a crash outside. They rush out to discover a Hydra skimmer craft crashed into the front porch. Swordsman emerges. His ship was brought down by Moonstone, who appears overhead and destroys the ranch house.

Flashback -

Photon gets help from "someone" to create a coccon. Occurs between TB2 1 and TB2 4. Helmut Zemo helps Photon from behind the scenes.

---

THUNDERBOLTS #100 (May 2006)

"The War at Home"
Writer: Fabien Nicieza; Penciler: Tom Grummett

Appearances -
Songbird
Helmut Zemo
Radioactive Man
Nighthawk
Joystick
Photon
Atlas

Swordsman
Moonstone
MACH IV
Man-Killer
Fixer
Blizzard
Blackout (comatose)
Smuggler (Conrad Josten)
Helmut Zemo

Cable (on a CSA monitor)
Ms. Marvel (on a CSA monitor)

Notes -

* The main story is wrapped inside a brief framing sequence in which Songbird and Zemo review what happened. The story is narrated in the third person, but from Songbird's point of view.

* Gyrich says that "after we sent the T-Bolts after the Avengers [TB2 13-14], Carol Danvers quit and went back to playing super hero..."

Summary -

"Epilogue": Songbird and a shadowed figure (Zemo, as we'll discover at the end of the story) discuss events.

"Three days earlier" and "five seconds" after Moonstone's attack at the end of TB2 18, the Thunderbolts and Swordsman find themselves shunted to a "hostile, alien environment" -- in the Microverse -- where lightning strikes constantly all around them.

On Earth, Moonstone hangs above the smashed Richmond ranch house as Zemo's team draws near. Zemo explains that he used the moonstones to manipulate the comatose Karla like a puppet "for psychological effect...to disorient [the Thunderbolts]."

Commission on Superhuman Activity, Washington DC: Dallas Riordan and Henry Peter Gyrich view a series of monitors. They see Cable atop his floating city, Ms. Marvel lifting a truck, and the Thunderbolts/Zemo battlefield. They express their concerns about working with Zemo, but see no other alternative given "what he's shown them."

At the Richmond Ranch, Zemo explains that he shunted the Thunderbolts to the Microverse, "to a place that will...force them to work together...while also making them question themselves and their allegiances."

In the Microverse, Swordsman explains that Zemo has been "gathering his own superhuman task force." Zemo uses his powers to reach a giant hand into the Microverse to pull Photon and his team back to Earth-normal. Zemo's team insists that Photon has to die to save the universe. Songbird won't accept that. Battle ensues. Dosed with Pym particles by Fixer, Man-Killer briefly becomes Giant-Man-Killer.

Zemo explains that he is responsible for Photon's condition. Flashbacks reveal the moment that Atlas threw Genis into the bay [TB2 1], then add a new shot of Genis underwater, forming his embryonic coccon. Zemo explains ", reaching out between time and space and providing you with photonic matter through which to enhance your chrysalis state...[but] I drew matter from the Big Bang that both began and ends our universe...Each beat of your heart collapses photonic activity in both the past and present." Zemo views flashbacks to Genis' emergence as Photon [TB2 6] and his defeat of Purple Man [TB2 12].

Songbird's team is on the verge of winning when Zemo reveals that Erik's brother, Conrad Josten, is alive, a prisoner in the Darkforce Dimension, and that Zemo will free him if Atlas fights on his side. While the T-Bolts are thus occupied, Zemo shows Photon a vision of "every single potential timeline" where Zemo tries to save Photon: they all end in the complete collapse of the universe. Zemo severs Genis into multiple pieces and distributes the components throughout the Darkforce Dimension.

"Prologue": Continuing the opening scene. Zemo and Songbird stand on what appears to be a distant planet or asteroid, looking at a monument to Genis. (It is next to another monument with a ringed globe upon it -- presumably Mar-Vell's, which I think places the scene on Titan.) Zemo hints that Songbird has been working with him since before TB2 1. They kiss. "My mistake cost Gen-Vell his life," says Zemo, "but from that sin will come our salvation, our redemption, and the chance for the Thunderbolts to save this world!"

Flashback -

Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell)
Helmut Zemo BTS

Genis floats in the bay after being thrown there by Atlas, and forms a photonic cocoon to help him recover from his injuries, with the help of Zemo behind the scenes.