Thunderbolts #29
The Fundamental Force
When Graviton returned and offered the people of San Francisco to join his new floating society, the Thunderbolts came out to stop them. Defeated, the team is taken prisoner by Graviton, leaving only Jolt and Charcoal — who disobeyed orders to remain behind to follow the team — to figure out how to save their friends before they are put to death.[1] While Jolt wants to rush in, Charcoal convinces her that they need to come up with some kind of plan otherwise they’ll just get captured as well.
Graviton, meanwhile, has returned to his floating city. There he gets an audience from three women who chose to be part of his harem. As the women fawn over him, Graviton thinks how greatly things have changed since he was merely Frank Hall, a scientist trying to create teleportation technology. This current scheme came after the Thunderbolts’ Moonstone said he was directionless during their last encounter. While this current plan is more ambitious than anything he has done before, he suddenly stung with a nagging feeling that this isn’t enough.[2]
At that same time, Jolt is using a pay phone to call both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four for help. Unfortunately, both teams are away on other missions and there is nobody to answer their calls.[3] When Charcoal suggests the Heroes for Hire, Jolt reminds him that they recently broke up.[4] Suddenly, she gets inspiration on who they can go to for help.
Back inside Graviton’s fortress, the Thunderbolts and Archangel find themselves trapped in a cell protected by a gravimetric barrier to keep them all trapped inside. Regardless, Hawkeye tries to charge through the door, only to be flung back by opposing gravity. That’s when Atlas brings up that someone other than himself mended his costume prior to this mission and asks who was responsible. Nobody owns up to it and Moonstone silently wonders if this was the work of the same person who left her a key when she was recently a prisoner of the Masters of Evil.[5][6] With no way out, Hawkeye suggests that they get some shut eye while they can, figuring an opportunity might present itself later.
While the others are sleeping, Songbird wakes Hawkeye up and wants to think him for everything he has been doing for the team, particularly saving her life during their earlier fight with Graviton. To repay this, she kisses him on the lips. Clint pushes her away because she is in a relationship with Mach-1, even thought he is currently in jail.[7] Clint knows how Melissa gets attached to people and is flattered, but doesn’t want a romance with her. Despite that, he tells her that they can be friends and look out for one another. As the two hug, Moonstone walks by, leaving Clint to wonder how much she saw of what just happened.
At that moment, at Seagate Prison, Abner Jenkins — aka Mach-1, aka the Beetle — is told he is being transferred to another facility. He is taken to the prison helipad where he finds two members of the Committee on Superhuman Activities: Henry Gyrich and Val Cooper. Gyrich tells Jenkins that they have a job for him.[8]
By this time, Jolt and Charcoal have traveled to Cardiff-by-the-Sea, where Hallie intends to contact the area’s resident hero, Machine Man. To get the robot’s attention, she has Charcoal write Machine Man’s model number in flame in the night sky.[9] This gets X-51’s attention and he greats them by using his telescoping neck to poke his head up into the sky via the chimney of a house down below. He extends the two young heroes an invitation into his home. When they arrive, they are greeted by Machine Man’s human ally, Gears Gavin. This is because Machine Man is currently in the process of some maintenance that requires massive disassembly and will take days to complete. Once inside, the pair explain why they have come. While they discuss things inside, nobody is aware that Machine Man’s home is being staked out by a pair of SHIELD agents.[10]
Meanwhile, Graviton has brought Moonstone to his private chamber to discuss his goals. He asks her what he thinks of his new kingdom and offers her a place to rule by his side. Although this would usually play into her desire for power, Karla surprises herself by rejecting the offer and laughs in Graviton’s face for having such a juvenile and pathetic master plan.[11] This enrages Graviton that he decides to put her to death alongside the rest of the Thunderbolts. At dawn, Graviton pins the Thunderbolts and Archangel to a wall so his Sky Raiders can execute them. However, before he can give the order, Gaviton is ambushed by Jolt. This creates a distraction long enough for Charcoal to pass along devices created by Machine Man that negate Graviton’s powers. This allows the Thunderbolts to finally break free and fight back.
This enrages Graviton who still manages to hold the team at bay. When Moonstone then attempts to use her psychology skills against Graviton she fails to manipulate him. Instead, she enrages him further and to the point where his body suddenly transforms into pure gravimetric energy, the ultimate expression of his power!
Recurring Characters
Thunderbolts (Hawkeye, Moonstone, Songbird, Atlas, Jolt, Charcoal), Graviton, Abe Jenkins, Archangel, Henry Gyrich, Val Cooper, Machine Man, Gears Gavin
Continuity Notes
This all happened last issue. Hawkeye had registered Jolt and Charcoal to attend high school in Thunderbolts #27. He ordered them to remain behind because their classes were more important. Jolt’s reluctance to return to high school is due to the fact that it reminds her of her old life before her friends and family were all killed in the Onslaught incident. See Thunderbolts #33.
Graviton’s origins are briefly recounted here as they were told in Avengers #158-159. Moonstone convinced Graviton that he needed to think of a direction in life during their last battle which took place in Thunderbolts #17. Go figure that only thinking with your dick eventually becomes unsatisfying.
At the time of this story the Avengers were bust fighting the Wrecking Crew and Doomsday Man in Avengers (vol. 3) #18-20 while the FF have been off on an extended trip across space, time, and dimensions starting in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #13 and they won’t be back until issue #21 of that series.
Charcoal mentions the time that the Heroes for Hire and Thunderbolts worked together, that was in Heroes for Hire #7. However, at the time of this story the group had just recently disbanded in issue #19 of their series.
Atlas’ costume was mended between Thunderbolts #25 and 27. Issue #25 is also the same story where Moonstone was left a key. This is the handiwork of the Ogre, who has been living in the facility that is now Thunderbolts HQ dating back to X-Men #28. See Thunderbolts #33 for those details.
When Archangel suggests that the Thunderbolts have magic elves living in their headquarters, Atlas jokingly asks if his sense of humor was what got him booted out of the X-Men. In reality, Archangel took a leave of absence when he and Psylocke were injured by Sabretooth in Uncanny X-Men #328 and Sabretooth Special #1. While he has had a reserve status and helped the team since, he won’t be fully pulled back onto the team until Astonishing X-Men (vol. 2) #1-3.
As explained in Thunderbolts #21, Songbird has had a long history of becoming co-dependent on others. This became a much larger problem when she joined up with the team in Thunderbolts Annual 1997. Through this, she entered into a relationship with Mach-1 on that began in issue #3. More recently, Abner agreed to turn himself over to the authorities to serve out a sentence for a murder he committed in Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #3. See Thunderbolts #22-23.
The two agents want to use Jenkins to go after crooked industrialist Justin Hammer. See Thunderbolts #33-36 for the details on this operation.
Here, Jolt recounts how Machine Man is a sentient robot that was originally created to be a military weapon. See Machine Man #1 for all the details.
SHIELD wants to apprehend Machine Man so they can cannibalize him for parts for their brand new Deathlok program. See Uncanny X-Men #371, X-Men (vol. 2) #91 and Annual 1999.
The reason that Moonstone is acting uncharacteristically is because she is being influenced by the personality of the original wielder of the Moonstone gem. This began when Moonstone started having strange dreams in Thunderbolts #18. Later she started behaving more altruistically, starting in issue #25. The dreams are of Kree a warrior named Ajes’ha who wielded the Moonstone centuries before it ended up in Karla’s possession. See Thunderbolts #45-46.
