Thunderbolts #55
Thunderbolts #55
Title: “Does Anyone Remember… Humus Sapien?”
Writers: Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Patrick Zircher
Inker: Al Vey
Colors: VLM
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Humus Sapien stands outside the wreckage and remembers how he first heard the whispered call of the Earth. It was quiet at first but as he got older she started to scream. For a long time everything was quiet, but then hours ago he woke up to hear the screaming again. He brushes a flower and remarks at how though she is scarred that she still creates life. The mountain shifts because it formerly housed a home of steel and electricity.
A family of three falls over dead at home. Humus Sapien’s power flares again and two people in Russia drop dead.
Hours ago when he awoke Humus Sapien was attacked by Charcoal. Ogre tries to shout out not to engage the boy, but Charcoal wasn’t listening. Humus Sapien blasts him with geospatial reality altering energy. The boy that Melissa was talking to last issue drops over dead. Songbird wonders if she did this with her power, but knows that it came from the reality ripples. Jolt tells the SHIELD guys that Ogre knows this base and that he can be trusted. Citizen V corrects her and says that Ogre could be an asset, but that considering how he probably feels about them right now that they shouldn’t exactly trust him. Fixer says that some information about their opponent might help. Fixer says that Humus Sapien’s energy output crosses the entire spectrum of the planet’s energy wavelengths. Leila’s Beetle armor suddenly disappears, but Meteorite catches her. Fixer says that the kid has billions of different signatures as if every being on the planet is powering him.
The Arabian Knight dies and falls from his magic carpet.
Ogre starts to tell Citizen V about Humus Sapien when HS’s reality waves hit the main support braces. Mount Charteris collapses.
It has been hours since then and Humus Sapien is still wondering what the Earth wants of him. He thinks that the “blight”, or life, cannot be trusted. They can’t help but be a plague on her. He thinks about doing to the blight what he did to those inside Mount Charteris.
Inside Mount Charteris, Scream waits patiently for the others to recover while it remembers what pain and death were. He wonders if they are dead and hopes that they aren’t because he likes them. Scream doesn’t know them by name, but only sound. It can sense that Citizen V holds some terrible secret, but not what the secret is. Scream looks over as Fixer has his tech pac dig him out of the rubble. Fixer then has the pack form a cast over his left forearm. Ogre wakes up next. Citizen V, Jolt, and the others all wake up. Citizen V tells Fixer and Ogre that he would appreciate it if they would put an end to their little spat and focus on HS-1. Citizen V asks what their plan of action is. Ogre suggests that they plan on dying.
Karla is looking for Graviton. She finds him in a new costume and asks why. Graviton that in light of new beginnings that he thought it was appropriate. Graviton thanks Karla for all of her help growing physically and emotionally. Graviton says that he is ready. Karla asks if he is sure, but Graviton is already gone. M’Reel says that Graviton has already begun the task of saving the planet.
At Seagate Prison, Hawkeye is manacled to Mentallo’s other three inmates: Plant-Man, Headlok, and Cottonmouth. Hawkeye and the others start to walk to the dock to be taken to Ryker’s.
Avengers Mansion, Dallas Riordan meets with Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man. Wanda says that she was sorry to hear of Dallas’ injuries from Captain America. Dallas says that it was her own fault for assuming the life, and that she just didn’t have the passion for it. Wanda asks why Dallas wanted to meet with them. Dallas says that Wonder Man is made of ionic energy the way Erik was. Dallas says that she has been having dreams about him and keeps hearing his voice. Dallas asks if Erik is trying to come back to life. Simon says that it is possible, and that if his return is like his that Erik will need an emotional anchor. Wanda says that Dallas has to decide if she loves Erik as much as he does for her.
HS-1 thinks about whether or not you can change your destiny. He thinks of how they kept him imprisoned, but then remembers that they also kept him from killing.
Inside Mount Charteris, Ogre starts to tell the story of Humus Sapien. Sonny Baredo grew up outside of Pittsburgh. At the age of fourteen Sonny’s entire family died on the same day. Professor X and the X-Men came to Sonny to try and help him deal with his powers. Sonny was placed in a foster home while Xavier tried to negotiate Sonny’s release. Factor Three kidnapped Sonny there. They took him to Mount Charteris and hid him from Xavier’s “prying mind”. They studied Sonny for the next few years as he began to change. Sonny became Humus Sapien, the next stage in human life. He was now an amalgam of human and Earth. Citizen V asks if that is when they froze him. Ogre says that is when they decided to push him even further. By the age of eighteen HS-1’s powers had fully manifested themselves and he could deconstruct the atomic structure of anything that wasn’t “sympathetic” to the Earth. It was then that they decided HS-1 was too dangerous and put him on ice. Ogre realized that Sonny drew his powers from every life force on the planet.
Humus Sapien is outside remembering the day his powers killed his entire family. A tear runs down his cheek.
Ogre says that every time Sonny uses his powers a random life is ended. Fixer says that he probably should have mentioned that earlier. Ogre and Fixer start to fight. Citizen V tells them to stop or he will cut off their tongues. They think about how they might be able to cut Sonny’s link to the Earth.
Humus Sapien decides that he doesn’t want to be this way anymore.
Charcoal and Jolt try to power up the
stargate, but they can’t do it alone. Citizen V says that
the V-Battalion is reporting that there have been twenty hour
hundred deaths in the last four hours. Sonny returns and says,
“Over… two thousand?” Sonny asks for help stopping
this. Citizen V says that the only solutions are getting him off
the Earth or asking him to commit suicide. Sonny says that he
doesn’t want to die, but that he can’t live like this.
He says that “she” doesn’t give him a choice. Ogre
tells 
Sonny to use his
power to fuel the stargate and escape her call. Sonny powers the
stargate up and others start to get sucked in. Conrad anchors
himself, and Charcoal holds Leila. Leila tells Charcoal not to
burn her this time. Ogre tries to apologize to Sonny for
accelerating his powers. Sonny says that his powers were killing
people before he met Ogre, but that if he hadn’t boosted
them that he wouldn’t be able to escape the planet now.
Sonny flies into the portal. Ogre decides that this isn’t
right and follows him through.
Suddenly the destroyed Mount Charteris starts to shake. Fixer says that this isn’t because of the stargate. He says that he is picking up an energy reading and then says, “Oh… crap”. Graviton flies right before the Redeemers. Graviton says that they are not the Thunderbolts. He said that he had hoped to use their bodies as the first bricks in his new world. Graviton asks them which of them would like to die first.
Traitor’s rating: 7 out of 10
The story falls short to me. It’s not a bad story. It’s a touching story, but I just think that for the build up of what was inside the third chamber that this story was very anti-climactic. I said in the review last issue that the unknown was possibly better than any of the known possibilities because of what it could represent. Well I didn’t really think that the “threat” would just choose to exile itself. Not particularly exciting action for a comic book. On the plus side Graviton is back, and I hope we get to see Karla’s true colors soon. At the very least there seems to be movement within the title again.
Zircher continues to impress. I think that he is a great penciller and that his work is only shadowed by the fact that Bagely’s work on the book was so synonymous with the title itself. Like I said I look forward to the main characters coming back into focus.
RETURN TO THUNDERBOLTS: TRAITORS