To few men's ruin, but to all men's fear..."
Thunderbolts is a fictional antihero team published by Marvel Comics. Created in response to the disappearance of the big name heroes like the Fantastic Four and The Avengers as a result of the Onslaught Crisis Crossover and the aborted Heroes Reborn reboot, the team is initally presented as a new group of colorful heroes who swoop in to protect the people from danger. However, it is soon revealed that they are in fact former members of the Avengers' archfoes, the Masters of Evil, led by Baron Zemo. Their plan is to use the hero ruse to win the trust of the people, so that Zemo will be granted the Avengers' old security clearances, letting him use them to perfect a master plan for domination.
It isn't long before Zemo's plan falls apart, along with the team, as a few of them discover that Good Feels Good and some others find other reasons to rebel; the remaining members are soon led by former Avenger (and fellow former villain) Hawkeye to seek redemption for their past misdeeds. The team broke up after a crossover with the Avengers, but it was created again with a new line up afterwards.
As a result of Civil War, the team became made up of newer and deadlier villains, such as Venom (III, originally the Scorpion) and Bullseye, working for the government under the leadership of Norman Osborn, ruthlessly hunting superheroes who try to elude the Super Registration Act.
During the Dark Reign after Secret Invasion (2008), Osborn is promoted to the head of all government superheroes, "officially" disbanding the Thunderbolts but retaining some members as his personal off-the-books black ops team. However, he also has villains (including some ex-Thunderbolts) pose as heroes again, only this time as the Avengers themselves in the series Dark Avengers. In parallel, he also assembles a new version of the Thunderbolts... as another off-the-books black ops team, comprised of Paladin, Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady), Headsman, Ghost, Scourge (better known as Nuke, a Daredevil foe) and Black Widow (Yelena Belova), who is later replaced by Mr. X once it's revealed that she's not Belova but Natasha Romanoff in disguise.
At the start of the Heroic Age, following Osborn's downfall, the Thunderbolts are now the Raft (Super Villain Prison) inmate rehabilitation project. Led by Luke Cage, they are a team put together to try to set a number of villains on the path to redemption while giving a place to those who already have switched sides. The initial lineup includes a number of ex-Thunderbolts who are now heroes (Songbird, Mach V, Fixer), some of Osborn's former crew hoping to use it as a way to earn good publicity (Moonstone), the criminally insane (Crossbones), those who are caught in the Heel–Face Revolving Door (Ghost and Juggernaut), and their transportation (Man-Thing). Just before the Fear Itself event, a second "Beta" team of Raft inmates was introduced.
The series became the new Dark Avengers series when, with the Thunderbolts lost in time, members of Norman Osborn's second Dark Avengers team are recruited to be the new Thunderbolts, all analogues to established Avengers: Ragnarok (the clone of Thor that Iron Man created in Civil War), Trickshot (Hawkeye), Ai Apaec (Spider-Man), Toxie Doxie/Dark Scarlet Witch (Scarlet Witch) and Skaar (Hulk). The series lasted fifteen issues after the rebrand, ending at issue 190.
A new Thunderbolts series was released December 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, initially written by Daniel Way with Steve Dillon on art, and Charles Soule took over as writer with issue 12. The series was about a new team brought together by former long time Hulk nemesis and recent Avenger, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross aka the Red Hulk, with the initial line up consisting of Agent Venom (Flash Thompson), The Punisher, Elektra and Deadpool.
A new team of Thunderbolts returned for the All-New, All-Different Marvel initiative in 2016, this time led by the Winter Soldier. This team was virtually the same as the original line-up with two exceptions: the aforementioned Winter Soldier replacing Citizen V and Kobik, the Cosmic Cube-turned little girl first introduced during Avengers Standoff.
During King in Black, it was revealed that Mayor Wilson Fisk had purchased the name of "Thunderbolts" and used it to create a new team to act during the Knull invasion. Another team was created in Devil's Reign to enforce Fisk's anti-vigilante law.
Once Fisk was ousted from power, Luke Cage replaced him as Mayor but found that Fisk had made it very hard for any superheroes other than Thunderbolts to operate, so he calls on his friend and fellow former Thunderbolt leader Hawkeye to take charge of a new team. Unlike most Thunderbolts teams of villains and anti-heroes, this is a purely heroic team.
The following year, the Winter Soldier formed his own new team of Thunderbolts (based on the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie) as a black-ops squad.
A Thunderbolts movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was announced at San Diego ComicCon 2022 for a 2025 release after being foreshadowed in previous entries, especially Black Widow (2021) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This incarnation of the team is comprised of Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, and Taskmaster from the former; Bucky Barnes and U.S. Agent from the latter; and Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Notable appearances of the Thunderbolts
- Thunderbolts Vol 1 (1997–2012)
- Avengers/Thunderbolts (2004)
- New Thunderbolts (2005–2006)
- Thunderbolts Vol 2 (2013–2014)
- Thunderbolts Vol 3 (2016–2017)
- King in Black: Thunderbolts (2021)
- Thunderbolts Vol 4 (2022–2023)
- Thunderbolts Vol 5 (2024)
Thunderbolts provide examples of:
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Ever since Warren Ellis got his mitts on them, Thunderbolts is essentially Marvel's take on the Suicide Squad.
- Retool: Sometimes it is just small tweaks, other times it is full blown revamps, but Thunderbolts' basic premise or direction is usually always changing at some point to find new ways to get its casts together.
- Those Wacky Nazis: Zemo named the team in such a manner to mock the Avengers, a moniker that would be, in his own words, "Crypto-Fascist...but friendly." with stormtroopers and blitzkriegs on the brain.
- Villain Protagonist: Each incarnation of the team includes at least some villains who are playing as heroes either to atone or for their own personal reasons. Whether they reform for real later on depends on the character and the run.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The basic charm of the series (there's basically an example at every issue). The cast always includes a hero who has been a villain all his life up until 5 minutes ago, or a former villain who is playing hero for the wrong reasons (like the thrill of the action, or because everybody else in the gang is doing it, or because the government forced them to). Old habits die hard, so don't expect them to follow the "how would Captain America do it?" book (or expect them to fail while trying). Even when Zemo saved the universe from destruction (you can't ask for something more black & white than that), he resorted to blackmail in the middle of the fight.
- C-List Fodder: For King In Black: Thunderbolts, Kingpin assembles a team consisting of Taskmaster, Mr. Fear, Rhino, Batroc the Leaper, Star, Incendiary, Ampere and Snakehead. The last three, all new characters despite being treated as established ones, all die within the first issue. When Taskmaster decides to name the prisoners they rescued from Ravencroft (all of whom are C-list most of the time) Thunderbolts, the only one who gets taken over by symbiotes and killed is Foolkiller.
- Evil Hero: In Devil's Reign, Fisk recruits a number of supervillains into the Thunderbolts, and sends them to assist the NYPD while cracking down on superhero activity.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: In the King in Black tie-in, Wilson Fisk tells the supervillains he assembled that they can either join his Thunderbolts team or go to prison. When Incendiary picks the latter, Fisk makes it clear that by "go to prison" he meant "be summarily executed" — which prompts the other villains to immediately sign on.
- Shout-Out: The team's debut in King in Black is a massive nod to the Suicide Squad, with a number of supervillains being press-ganged into serving a corrupt authority figure on threat of death.Mister Fear: The whole squad... It's suicide... We're a Suicide Team!
