Thunderbolts Week: A Justice Like Lightning Primer

Nearly thirty years ago, Justice Like Lightning first struck as Thunderbolts #1 debuted in 1997. In the wake of Onslaught, the Marvel Universe was in a period that felt a little dangerous and new. The series promised new heroes to help, but it changed the Marvel Universe forever.

Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts debuts on Friday (yeah, no kidding, that snuck up on us too!), and here at Comicon, we wanted to look at one of the most interesting Marvel franchises as we prepare for the movie. Unlike groups like the X-Men, Fantastic Four, or Avengers, there are about five distinct versions of teams called Thunderbolts. So let’s take a look at each!

Masters of Evil gone good (Thunderbolts #1-75, New Thunderbolts #1-18, Thunderbolts #100-109)

In the wake of Onslaught, the only heroes left on Earth were the X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk and a bunch of random B-listers scattered across the globe. The Fantastic Four and Avengers were assumed dead. In their stead rose the Thunderbolts- Citizen V, Atlas, Mach-1, Meteorite, Songbird, Techno and Jolt!

In actuality, the Thunderbolts were the Masters of Evil, led by Baron Zemo. Seizing the opportunity left by the deaths of the Avengers, Zemo created the team to gain the public’s favor. His intention was to turn on them and the goodwill to seize power and take over the world. What Zemo didn’t count on was the team deciding they LIKED being heroes and putting effort into reforming.

After the Avengers returned and helped the team defeat Zemo, Hawkeye quit the Avengers to lead them for a time until they eventually disbanded. They were re-formed shortly before the Civil War event, then disbanded again.

This version of the team would eventually return in the series third volume led by the Winter Soldier in the lead-up to Secret Empire.

Norman Osborn’s kill squad (Thunderbolts #110-142)

After the superhero Civil War, Norman Osborn created his own team of Thunderbolts as Colorado’s team in the fifty-state initiative. The group consisted of the worst of the worst villains in the Marvel Universe, such as Bullseye and Venom, as well as longtime members Radioactive Man, Moonstone and Songbird. They acted as a squad of hunters, hunting down and arresting/disabling/worse heroes that refused to register for the Superhuman Registration Act. They were also Osborn’s wetworks team, doing dirty deeds for the longtime Spider-Man villain.

In the wake of Secret Invasion, the line-up changed, but they remained Osborn’s black ops squad. This group was much darker and violent, but still kept the same basic idea. This is also the point that the first of the movie Thunderbolts joined the team as Yelena Belova enlisted. This group was disbanded after Osborn’s defeat during the Siege event.

(This same basic concept was used for a squad during the Devil’s Reign event, except they were organized by the Kingpin.)

The Raft (Thunderbolts #143-183)

Following Osborn’s arrest, Maria Hill, Luke Cage and John Walker allied themselves to allow villains in the Raft to go straight under Cage’s leadership. At this point, the team basically became a Marvel-ized version of the Suicide Squad. Besides Cage, the team featured Juggernaut, Crossbones, Moonstone (probably the franchise’s most consistent member at this point), Man-Thing, Shocker, Troll, Boomerang and Mister Hyde. Songbird also returned to the team to help Cage keep the unruly villains under control.

This is one of the longer lived versions of the franchise and had a wild variety of stories that also ultimately kind of faded into obscurity.

(Interestingly, a similar basic concept followed the Fisk Thunderbolts, which were remarkably similar to the Osborn Thunderbolts.)

Thunderbolt’s Thunderbolts aka the Red Thunderbolts (Thunderbolts Volume 2 #1-31)

Probably the first version of the team that was reasonably close to the movie version we’re seeing this week, though the line-up is vastly different.

Thunderbolt Ross- at this point the Red Hulk- formed a team in the wake of the Phoenix Five takeover. This group of antiheroes and vigilantes were intended to eliminate and stop threats that other groups weren’t willing to. Basically, doing bad things for good reasons.

This incarnation featured the Red Hulk, Elektra, Deadpool, the Punisher, Agent Venom and Ghost Rider. It’s also the only version of the team to not be revisited down the line. Yet.

The Revolution/MCU Inspired* (Thunderbolts Volume 5)

Technically the current incarnation of the team. This is basically the MCU synergy team. It takes the mission of the Red Thunderbolts, adds all of the Black Ops and spy badass heroes of the last decade plus (including basically the entire cast of the movie except Ghost), and sets them loose on the sort of big threats that other heroes don’t think of.

It’s a bit more of a spiritual successor to the Secret Avengers than it is to any version of the T-Bolts. It also clearly had at least a little intent to have something resembling the movie team in bookstores for the movie synergy. It’s a great concept.

And as for the future? It looks like the upcoming New Thunderbolts* is a bit of a mixture of the Red Thunderbolts and the Bucky-led Revolution team. Regardless, it looks like fun, even if it’s a long way from where we started.