Thunderbolts #21
Thunderbolts #21
Title: "Trust”
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Penciller: Mark Bagely
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colors: Joe Rosas
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Songbird tries to scream a bubble around
Hawkeye to catch him, but winds up shielding Hawkeye from the
others’ attacks. Hawkeye tells them that they have a lot to
learn. For example if you are being attacked by numerous people
to let them get in each other’s way. Hawkeye takes a sound
disrupter arrow and sticks it into Songbird’s bubble. The
feedback shocks Songbird. Hawkeye flips and shoots a few arrows
off. One arrow explodes into goop on Moonstone’s face.
Another blasts onto Atlas’ chest. Songbird finds herself
surrounded by a web. MACH-1 chases Hawkeye while shooting rubber
bullets at them. Hawkeye tells the others that they need to use
their surroundings and then if they are overpowered to find a way
to use their opponents’ powers against them. Hawkeye leaps
onto MACH-1’s back. Hawkeye discovers that MACH-1 flies by
line of sight. He steers MACH-1 into a tree. Atlas says that he
wasn’t hurt by Hawkeye’s arrow and there isn’t
anything else Hawkeye can do to him. Hawkeye shoots a gas arrow
into Atlas’ mouth. Jolt says that she has had enough. She
says that Hawkeye may be an Avenger, but that he can’t mess
with her team. Jolt leaps at Hawkeye with electrified fists.
Hawkeye dodges. Moonstone just pulled the goop off of her face
just as Jolt misses Hawkeye and hits her. All the Thunderbolts
are ready to kill Hawkeye, but 
Hawkeye calls
time and says that the five minutes are up. Jolt says that
Hawkeye isn’t even winded. Hawkeye asks if they are ready to
listen. Atlas and Songbird still want to pound him, but Moonstone
says that a deal is a deal.
Hawkeye says that he is on their side this time. Hawkeye says that he knows how they feel if only a little. Hawkeye says that he started out as a villain, but that Iron Man saw some good in him and recommended him for membership in the Avengers. Hawkeye says that when he found out about their scam that he saw red. He says that he thought there was a chance when the Bolts said that they would stand trial after turning against Zemo, but then they ran. Hawkeye was furious and wanted to find the Bolts and run them in, but then he remembered about how he was misunderstood and wondered if they were telling the truth. Hawkeye decided to go the Commission of Superhuman Activities (CSA) and made a proposal. Hawkeye says that he would infiltrate the Bolts, and if they were up to no good he would take them down, but if they really are trying to redeem themselves then they would get that chance. So Hawkeye dug out the Dreadknight’s uniform. Hawkeye proposes that he lead the team like he did the West Coast Avengers and he would try to help them get pardoned. Moonstone thinks to herself that she wouldn’t have chosen this path, but that Hawkeye doesn’t seem too bright. MACH-1 says that it would be to good to be true to have an Avenger leading the team. Jolt tells someone to pinch her. Atlas says that as long as Hawkeye is being straight with them. Songbird freaks and says that she can'’ believe that they are listening to him. She says that they can go to jail, but that she isn’t listening. Songbird flies off. Hawkeye is about to take her down, but MACH-1 says that it won’t help convince her. He tells Hawkeye to let him go talk to her. Hawkeye doesn’t want two of them on the run, but MACH-1 says that if they are supposed to trust Hawkeye that he is going to have to trust them. Hawkeye lets MACH-1 fly after her.
At the Loveless Motel outside Flagstaff, Arizona, Gayle Rogers knocks on Dallas Riordan’s motel room. Gayle starts to introduce herself, but Dallas interrupts and says that she is the network shill that is trying to convince people that the Thunderbolts might be heroes. Dallas says that the Thunderbolts ruined her life personally and professionally. Dallas says that she has no interest in talking to Gayle. She says that she has been visiting her father and that she invites them to go talk to him since he would probably just shoot them. Dallas says that she just wants to go somewhere that she can start over. Gayle says that the public deserves to hear Dallas’ side of the story, but Dallas slams the door.
Songbird has been flying and screaming for an hour venting her frustration. As she flies through the town she is knocking over cars and being generally destructive. Suddenly Songbird is confronted by the National Guard. They start firing on her to keep her suppressed until the helicopters arrive. Songbird asks the helicopters if they want a piece of her. MACH-1 flies up behind Songbird and covers her mouth. He asks her if she is trying to get killed. MACH-1 starts to fly away from the fight, but his suit suddenly goes on the fritz and he and Songbird fall through the roof of a warehouse. Songbird calls MACH-1 a moron. She looks out and sees the National Guard has the building surrounded. Songbird screams and fills all the holes in the warehouse blocking off the National Guard. MACH-1 tells Songbird to talk to him now. He says that he only wants to help. Songbird says that Abe really means that even after the way that she has been treating him. Songbird starts to tell her tale.
When she was just a little kid Melissa’s mother was arrested for robbery. This wrecked her father as Mimi, Melissa’s mom, was planning on running away with another guy. Melissa refused to admit that her mother was really in jail. When Melissa’s father turned abusive Melissa ran away from home and starting calling herself Mimi after her mom. Mimi thought that she could find her mother somewhere out there and that everything would be alright. But Mimi never found her mother and the streets were cold and hard so “Mimi” became cold and hard as a way to deal with it. Mimi isn’t a split personality, but rather a way of thinking. Mimi fell in love with a guy named Mike. Mike was a jerk, but it didn’t matter because she didn’t “need” him. One day Mike got busted for having some stolen goods in his house. Mike laid it off on Mimi. The frame up stuck and Mimi went to jail. It was in jail that Mimi met Marian Pouncy or, as she was known as a female wrestler, Poundcakes. When they got out Poundcakes got her a spot with the Grapplers. Mimi got cybernetically enhanced when the other Grapplers did. For a while it felt like a family, but then the Grapplers expanded in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Foundation. When Titania and Letha were killed by Scourge of the Underworld Mimi decided to go out on her own, but instead she found herself in Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil busting Moonstone out of jail. After that Mimi teamed up with Angar and Mimi was in love again. Angar got killed and that is when Zemo came to her to join the new Masters of Evil. She said that she knew right away that Abe liked her, but she was afraid of being abandoned again and kept her distance. Abe eventually won her over with his kindness and comforting. Melissa found that she didn’t need Mimi anymore, but then Zemo exposed them as villains instead of the heroes they were pretending to be. So she decided that because she tried to care again that it all fell apart, and so she became Mimi again. She says that she could handle it all except that Abe loved her no matter how much she shut him out, and now with Hawkeye’s offer she feels like it might be hope again and she couldn’t bear to be wrong again. Melissa cries and Abe holds her. Abe says that no matter how hard she pushes that he isn’t going to abandon her.
Hawkeye is worried that he just let Screaming Mimi and the Beetle get away, but Moonstone tells him to relax. MACH-1 calls in to the cabin. He says that they are fine, but that they are kind of stuck. MACH-1 says that they are in a warehouse. He says that it is easy to spot because it is the one surrounded by the National Guard. Abe says that his suit is on the blink and Melissa is overextended. Atlas wants to go smash into the place, but Hawkeye says that if they want people to think that they’ve reformed that they can’t go picking fights with the authorities. Hawkeye has a plan.
On the south side of town the Thunderbolts find an abandoned building slated for demolition. Once Jolt makes sure that nobody is inside it Atlas and Moonstone tear it apart. The National Guard is called in to help. The commander says to leave a small group behind to guard the two they have cornered. Once the bulk of them moves out attention starts to wander. Hawkeye has Songbird give him an opening. Hawkeye flies in on his atomic steed and flies out with MACH-1 and Songbird on the back. A photographer on the ground is snapping away pictures as they fly away.
The next morning at the Thunderbolts’ cabin. Hawkeye says that he heard a lot of talking last night and asks if they have come to a decision. Moonstone says that they have decided to accept, but wants to be sure that this is official. Hawkeye mumbles as he thinks about how when he went to the CSA that they told him that he must be out of his mind. Gyrich told him that there was no way that they would sanction that, and that if Hawkeye did go to the Thunderbolts that Gyrich is going to charge Hawkeye with being an accessory to their crimes after the fact. Hawkeye lies and says that it is official, but that he has one condition of his own. Hawkeye says that they can work past crimes like robbery, fraud, and conspiracy, but that there are some crimes that are too great to redeem yourself from. Hawkeye says that MACH-1, the only known murderer in the group, has got to turn himself in if this bid for redemption is going to work.
Traitor’s rating: 9.5 out of 10
What a story and what great art. Even though not much actually happens within the pages of the book a lot is said. Melissa’s story is fantastic. It really helps flesh out what might have been the weakest character on the team. I love Hawkeye being the team leader and it finally feels, for the first time since issue 12, like the book is moving in a direction. Mark continues to shine in this issue. If you feel like I need to say more great things about him please go read a few of my other reviews. There is only so much you can say to praise him.