Thunderbolts '97 #[nn]

History

Written entirely by Kurt Busiek, who had co-conceived the Thunderbolts secret with editor Tom Brevoort, the annual arrived in August 1997 — slotted by the reading-order guides between issues #4 and #5 of the ongoing series — giving Busiek room to flesh out backstory that the monthly's breakneck pacing had no space for. The anthology structure brought in an unusually large artistic roster: Mark Bagley, Tom Grummett, George Pérez, Gene Colan, Ron Randall, Darick Robertson, Chris Marrinan, and Bob McLeod each handled individual chapters, with the wraparound cover (itself a collage of vintage cover images from the characters' histories) designed by Bagley. The issue was produced in the immediate afterglow of the Thunderbolts' celebrated debut and the Onslaught event that had cleared the Avengers and Fantastic Four from the Marvel landscape, giving Busiek the narrative justification for why Zemo's gambit could ever have seemed credible to the public.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Kurt Busiek; pencilled by eight artists including Mark Bagley, George Pérez, Tom Grummett, Gene Colan, Ron Randall, Darick Robertson, Chris Marrinan, and Bob McLeod — the first and only Thunderbolts annual from the original 1997–2003 series.
• Presents the in-universe 'secret origin' of the Thunderbolts for the first time, showing how Helmut Zemo assembled the Masters of Evil into their hero identities after the Onslaught event wiped out the Avengers and Fantastic Four from public view.
• Contains the death of Angar the Screamer (David Angar), shot during a bank robbery alongside Screaming Mimi — the event that triggers Melissa Gold's recruitment into the team and her transformation into Songbird.
• The Fixer's reconstruction of Screaming Mimi's destroyed larynx using schematics derived from Klaw's sonic horn is established here, providing the technical origin of Songbird's sonic carapace powers.
• The Thunderbolts' first public act — stopping a breakout at the Vault prison involving the U-Foes, Mandrill, Radioactive Man, Armadillo, Orka, Kaine, Speed Demon, and Hydro-Man — is depicted in flashback, retroactively establishing their heroic public debut.
• The issue also reveals that Moonstone (Karla Sofen) escaped the Vault breakout rather than being stopped; MACH-1 and Techno subsequently tracked her down, and Zemo recruited her as the final original member of the team.
• Features a wraparound cover by Mark Bagley whose background is composed of actual cover images from past issues of Avengers, Daredevil, Captain America, Spectacular Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, and Micronauts — visually summarising each team member's villain history.
• The lead origin story was reprinted in Thunderbolts (Vol. 2) #100 (May 2006) and has been collected in Thunderbolts: Justice Like Lightning (2001), Thunderbolts Classic Vol. 1 (2011), and the Thunderbolts Omnibus Vol. 1 (2021).

Cast · 40 characters

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