Thunderbolts vol. 2 #11

Title: “House of M”

Writer: Fabian Nicieza

Penciller: Tom Grummett

Inker: Gary Erskine

Colors: SotoColor’s J. Brown

Editor: Tom Brevoort

The Valhalla, a research facility in Colorado, Private Vell is part of a interdiction unit fighting against Strucker’s group. Vell watches in awe as Ms. Marvel fights against the Radioactive Man. She asks Radioactive Man why he has joined Strucker. She asks why he is wasting his potential. Chen Lu says that she speaks of potential of the human race, but that their status quo will doom them to extinction. Strucker tells Ms. Marvel that she is a traitor to her own kind as he blasts some of the Kree with his Satan’s Claw. Strucker’s children join hands and blast away at the Kree. Andrea says that there are too many of them. Andreas tells her to keep fighting and that they can’t let their father down. Vell pulls his weapon against them, but hesitates. Suddenly Flashback leaps onto Vell. A bunch of Flashbacks from other times start to surround Vell, but then Vell senses time and space as if it were a tangible thing. He gets a glimmer of somewhere… somewhen else. Flashback freaks out as his powers don’t work this way. Vell see the world as it should be… as it will be again. He sees himself as someone powerful and important… someone who will determine the fate of the universe. He screams… not only from the surge of cosmic awareness, but because in the vision he was not saving the universe… he was destroying it. Vell falls from the air and Ms. Marvel asks him what happened. She asks where Flashback went. Captain Atlas vaporizes Strucker. The Kree tell Andrea and Andreas to surrender. The two of them are about to start fighting when Major Erik Josten, leader of the Howling Commandos, shoots them both in the head.

As they clean up, Josten asks Ms. Marvel what the deal with that Kree private was. She says that she doesn’t know yet. She says that something happened when Flashback attacked him. She asks if he knows that he is Mar-Vell’s son. Erik says that he knows and that Mar-Vell would have never let himself get ambushed like that. Vell hears Erik’s words and they hit him like an emotional punch. The doctor says that there are unknown photonic energies coursing through Vell’s body. Vell barely hears them and wonders why that vision would change the way he sees everything. He wonders why none of this seems real to him now. Ms. Marvel tells Erik that Strucker claimed to be part of the Human Underground Resistance. Josten says that Strucker didn’t care about the HUD. He says that Strucker was just a terrorist. Ms. Marvel says that some think that there is a fine line between being a terrorist and a freedom fighter. Erik tells her not to let anyone hear her saying that. She says that she is just trying to be objective. She says that it would be foolish to deny that baseline humans have a justified fear of becoming extinct. Erik asks what the answer is. Ms. Marvel says that she guesses that they just keep fighting for what is right. Erik asks who defines what is right.

Ms. Marvel leaves without saying goodbye to Vell. Vell wonders if she doesn’t like him because he reminds her of his father or because he doesn’t. Vell thinks to himself how his father told his mother that nothing happened between he and Ms. Marvel, but that he can feel himself in the moment when their lips pressed together. He feels their very nearly consummated passion. He feels her on his lips and his father’s longing in his gut.

Ronan says that “innocent until proven guilty” seems excessively lenient. Killgrave tells him that there are ways around that. Killgrave takes Ronan to a room filled with a few of the greatest scientific minds. The room of geniuses is monitoring all the recent tetra spatial energies. They say that much photonic energy should be ambient and not isolated into such a self contained area.

Erik Josten and Dum Dum Dugan walk together. Dum Dum says that they can’t scuttle the meeting with Forge and that it would draw too much attention to them. Josten says that they can’t let the mutants do this. Dum Dum tells him to quiet down. They walk past two sentries and Dum Dum asks if he didn’t teach Josten patience. Josten says that he did, but that it was pretty ironic coming from Dum Dum. Josten holds up a vial of Kree blood for Sanders. He says that Sanders better be able to do this. Sanders says that Josten has hidden him and his super speed in plain sight for a reason. He says that Josten wants a bio-agent that will let them kill every Kree on the planet, but that it might be moot since the Intel that Jenkins just brought him makes it look like all reality might fall apart.

The Kree and the human soldier bond. Vell is left out of it as usual and turns within. He sees another strange combination of what was and what might be. He sees his father doing things he never did and himself carrying on his legacy though he never did that either. Vell shouts that he doesn’t know what is happening to him. He flies up. Ronan says that was Vell, but asks what the light trail behind him is. Forge says that the energy readings must have been coming from him. Forge says that Vell isn’t using his propulsion boots to fly. Ronan orders the others to follow him.

Vell feels the emotions of those around him. He also feels Rick Jones and recalls a time when he wasn’t just his father’s friend, but his friend as well. Vell crashes into a graveyard. Genis looks at the headstone he fell in front of and sees that it is Rick’s. It tells him that he died in a tragic accident. Vell shouts and asks why this all feels wrong.

Dugan asks what that was. Forge says that it was as if for one second everything collapsed and then expanded again. Josten says that even Magnus isn’t that powerful. Ronan says that it was his private and that according to their healer that Vell has become a spatial conduit. He says that they have to find him soon or the entire universe might disappear in the blink of an eye. Ronan takes off into the air. Josten says that they have to send some cover out and that they can’t depend on the aliens to save them. Forge sarcastically says that would be as bad as depending on mutants. Killgrave says that after everything that has happened that the mutants will walk around with a giant chip on their shoulders. He says that maybe they should look at Vell, not as a threat, but as an opportunity.

Sanders presents two poisons to Josten and Dugan. He says that one accelerates their metabolism causing organ failure and heart attacks. He says that the second slows them down to a state of hibernation. He asks how they plan on delivering them.

As they drive, Jenkins tells Josten that he hasn’t even tested it yet. He says that he could wind up flying into a mountain. Josten says that if it works he will be able to fly through a mountain. Abe says that he didn’t think they would be tipping their hand so early. Josten says that they don’t have a choice and that the only way to survive is to start fighting back.

Vell senses the mutants, Kree, and humans alike coming to destroy him. Ronan tells Vell to let them help him and that he is bisecting time and space for five hundred kilometers around him. Vell thinks to himself that he sorry, but that their whole world is wrong and that every fiber of his being is trying to make it the way it should be. He says that he is sorry as an explosion occurs. Vell stands before Rick’s grave and tells him to tell him why this feels right. He asks what if this reality is worse for the planet, but better for him. Josten blasts Vell from his Atlas-Class Sentinel. He tells Vell that the only hope he has of survival and that is to help the Human Underground Resistance. Vell tells Josten that his plans of annihilating the Kree in order to make an alliance with the Shi’ar, so that the Shi’ar will wipe out the mutants for them. He says that it won’t matter and that you can’t stop evolution. Josten hits Vell and says that he is not a part of this. He says that he won’t let him come between humans and mutants and screw this up. He says that this could be their last chance of survival. Josten goes back and forth between his Atlas Sentinel armor and the actual Atlas. He asks what is happening to him. Vell says that he is caught between what is and what should be. Vell says that he is a better man on this world, but that he exists in a worse situation. He asks Josten which he prefers. Josten tells him to shut up. Vell hits Josten and says that if he survives this that Abe is going to have to figure out a way to cut the pain receptor link. Vell says that he knows Josten can kill him, but that he might accelerate his powers causing all reality to cease. He says that if he uses the bioagent that slows down his metabolic rate that it might save them, but that his plot against the Kree will be exposed. He says that Josten will be executed for treason and the underground resistance will collapse. He says that if the world is restored that he will live as a deeply flawed man of weak and wavering principals. On this world the dies with honor, a hero to billions, even as hope dies. He tells Josten that the choice is his. Josten asks why Vell doesn’t decide if he is so powerful. Vell says that he thinks that his decisions have always been wrong. He says that he thinks he chose this reality to avoid responsibility. Josten tells Vell that life is responsibility. He says that he isn’t going to risk every life on the planet just to advance his cause. He says that Vell’s father would have understood that. Josten shoots Vell with the metabolism slowing agent.

Vell is in a catatonic state. Ronan tells Forge that it is ironic and that if they hadn’t developed a biotoxin against his people that Vell might have destroyed the world. Forge says that they didn’t do it… the humans did. Ronan says that to them they are all humans and leaves.

Forge says that Josten was just found driving a stolen vehicle outside Phoenix. He asks Dugan if he has any idea how he got there. Dugan says that he doesn’t and that Josten has been AWOL for hours. He asks if he knows anything about this sentinel arm. Dugan says that he doesn’t. Killgrave says that it is rumored that the Human Resistance was trying to attain sentinel technology to use against them. Forge asks Killgrave why he refers to them as “us”. Killgrave says that he has always considered himself a mutant with the power of persuasion. Forge says that would be a very dangerous power. He tells Dugan to find out what he can about Josten. He says that it would be a shame for him to be found as a traitor, but that it would be even more a shame if Josten dragged Dugan down with him. Forge leaves and Dugan tells Killgrave that he didn’t have to out Josten. Killgrave says that sometimes the best way to pull the strings is to play the part of the puppet.

Traitor’s rating: 6 out of 10

So?

This issue is a little better eight months down the line, but right now it just seems like a whole lot of nothing… so much like the rest of the House of M.

Review and picture by the Leader

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