Thunderbolts #4

Title: “A Shock to the System”

Writer: Kurt Busiek

Penciller: Mark Bagely

Inker: Vince Russell

Colors: Joe Rosas

Editor: Tom Brevoort

The Thunderbolts fly towards Doctor Doom’s castle. Hallie asks about Dr. Doom, but Citizen V says that is the castle that she described. Hallie says that it is the castle, but she is just intimidated by the prospect that it is Doom. Citizen V says that they will bring him in.

Moonstone thinks back on the story Hallie told them. About how she and many other children were orphaned and buried during the Onslaught fight. Hallie dug her way out and became somewhat of a protector to the younger children. She would forage for food in abandoned apartments and comfort the little ones. Eventually the Rat Pack caught up to her and captured her along with all the other children. Hallie is experimented on. She never sees her tormentor’s face, but she overhears him saying that there is something special about her and the experiments give Hallie special power. Finally Hallie used her powers to escape, but when she came looking for the Fantastic Four she found that they too were killed against Onslaught. Songbird gets Hallie a costume so she can get out of her rags. The team takes off to find Hallie’s captor.

On the flight over, Moonstone thinks about how all the Thunderbolts reacted to Hallie’s story, and how once again they seem to forget that they were only pretending to be heroes. Moonstone privately tries to warn Citizen V that all this attention might effect the team who were mostly rejected outcasts. Zemo says that Moonstone might be a psychiatrist, but that he is a Zemo and will keep control of his team.

Now above Castle Doom Citizen V instructs Hallie to remain on the Thunderjet in the circle pattern that he has put the autopilot on. Citizen V tells her that the red button will take her home if she needs to push it. Jolt agrees and the team jumps out of the jet. Jolt waits until they get far enough away and then jumps out of the jet to join the Thunderbolts. Citizen V says that he thought he told her to remain behind, and Jolt says that is why she didn’t argue and just waited until it would be more inconvenient to take her back than to go on with her. Atlas tells Citizen V that she is a teenage girl and is going to do what she wants anyway. The team makes it into Castle Doom, and MACH-1 says that they can’t be going up against Doom or they never would have gotten this far uncontested.

Out of earshot of Jolt, Citizen V asks Techno to do something that will win them more popularity by finding a way to televise the upcoming battle. Techno shows Citizen V his miniature floating cameras. Citizen V says that he will tell Techno when to turn them on.

The team starts looking for life signs and immediately run into a pack of monsters. Jolt freaks out and leaps into the monsters demanding to know where her friends are being held. Atlas tells Jolt to leave some of them for the professionals, but she isn’t listening. Meteorite suspects that she knows what happened to Jolt’s friends and tells Citizen V to only use the flat of his blade and not to kill any of the monsters. As the fight MACH-1 is engulfed by one of the monsters that seems to be of a gelatinous type. Songbird saves him and discovers a new use for her powers. She encases MACH-1 in a bubble and expands it off him to get him free. Citizen V is impressed with Jolt’s energy. Citizen V tells Atlas to knock down the wall where Techno was getting the strongest life readings. Atlas plows through the wall.

Behind the wall stands Arnim Zola. Zola apologizes to them as they were probably expecting someone else, but he and his experiment have been taking over the place in Doom’s absence. Citizen V tells Techno to turn his cameras on. Citizen V tells Zola that they have vowed to bring him down for capturing and tormenting children from Manhattan.

The television stations start receiving the transmission from Castle Doom and put it on the air. People all over the city gather around watching. Dallas Riordan gets an urgent message that the mayor wants to be linked to this operation as people are clamoring for the Thunderbolts. Shortly, Dallas Riordan appears before the press and says that the mayor will be making a recommendation to the United Nations and to the Federal government that the Thunderbolts receive the same type of clearance that the Avengers and the Fantastic Four enjoyed so that they might better protect the people.

Back in Castle Doom the fighting continues. Jolt is grabbed around the neck by a monster with tentacles. Atlas punches the monster off and tells Jolt that she has to be a little more careful. Atlas says that he had a sister once, and that Jolt kind of reminds him of her. Atlas says that he isn’t going to let anything bad happen to Jolt while he is around.

Arnim Zola sees that the Thunderbolts are more than a match for his monsters. Zola says that he had hoped to find a way to duplicate the process that happened to Jolt, but instead he heads for higher ground. Zola activates the castle’s ultimate defense- the Bio-Liths. The walls and floors start to come to life. Techno cracks Zola’s computer files and discovers that the walls and floors have implants, and that Zola is controlling them. Techno traces the power source and has Songbird and Meteorite destroy it. Citizen V tells Zola to admit that he is finished, but Zola says that he is far from finished. Zola releases a mist and all the various monsters morph into one giant monster.

Jolt finally realizes that the monsters were all her friends. She says that is what would have happened to her if she hadn’t been different. She says that they are her friends and that she won’t hurt them. Jolt says that she promised to keep them all safe, and she apologizes to them. Jolt says that they can kill her if they want, but asks that if they are in there that they fight Zola. Suddenly the monster’s many eyes begin to cry. The monster destroys itself.

Citizen V asks Zola who he is working for. Zola says that he did this out of his own curiosity. Jolt yells at Zola asking how he could do this for no reason. Zola says that he did it for science, and warns Jolt that his body has defenses if she is planning to kill him. Jolt says that she wouldn’t sink to his level, and that he is going to jail for what he has done. Around the country people watch Jolt’s speech on television. The media finds where the Thunderbolts are and start asking Citizen V about Jolt. Citizen V is stymied because he didn’t realize the impact that Jolt made. Moonstone tells Zemo that the press love Jolt, and that turning her away will only make people ask why. Citizen V decides to offer Hallie membership right there. Hallie accepts and says that she will be called Jolt. Moonstone begins to think of ways that Jolt’s membership could turn things to her advantage.