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Credits
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Quick Summary--"The Whole Hole"At the Richmond Ranch in upstate New York, the Thunderbolts (Songbird, Atlas, Radioactive Man, Joystick, and Photon) and new associate Nighthawk are sparring with each other as a training exercise. Photon is not participating and Radioactive Man explains that Genis is still having trouble adjusting to his cosmic awareness, which allows him to see the past, present, and future simultaneously. Suddenly, Photon cries out, "I don't want to die!" and opens multiple "spatial apertures" (holes in time and space) around the team. Through these apertures, Nighthawk glimpses past events involving Zemos and Captain Marvels. Songbird sees a future in which Helmut Zemo and Iron Man are shaking hands beneath the seal of the President of the United States. Atlas enters a reality in which he is fighting alongside his brother Conrad, the Smuggler. Joystick kayoes Photon and the apertures close, returning the various T-Bolts to the present. Radioactive Man assures them that what they've seen are only "potential futures," not sure things. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, we see that Helmut Zemo has been spying on the Thunderbolts using the power of his moonstones. We also see that it is Blackout that the Fixer's team rescued from the Darkforce Dimension (in #16-17). Zemo promises the silent Blackout that he will soon "see the light and be freed from the madness of others." Zemo goes to check in with the rest of his team (the Fixer, MACH-IV, Blizzard), and we learn that they have also recruited Man-Killer. Man-Killer has been outfitted with some kind of "surprise," which she worries may make her crazy "like it does everyone else." (Thoughts on that below.) We also see that Zemo has taken custody of a glowing woman who looks an awful lot like Moonstone (who was catatonic when we last saw her). Across the street from Zemo's hideout, the Swordsman (Andreas Strucker) is spying on Zemo. Zemo, somehow aware of the Swordsman's presence releases the glowing woman to battle the Swordsman. Back at the Richmond Ranch, Songbird and Radioactive Man discuss Genis's condition. Radioactive Man says that Genis is trying to understand what has happened to him, but that his mind cannot cope with the enormity of his condition. Songbird touches Genis's face, and unwittingly gets drawn into Genis's mind, where she sees a series of events from his perspective-- being attacked by Atlas, someone creating a cocoon in which he could mend, putting himself back together with parts of himself from the past and the future, and eventually destroying the world. Songbird relays this information to the rest of the team. Joystick offers to kill Genis to keep him from destroying the world. Songbird says they should keep Genis sedated until they figure out what to do. She considers calling the Fantastic Four or the Avengers for help. Suddenly Genis awakes, screaming that "the holes" are "eating away" at him, cutting him apart. At the same time, a Hydra skimmer craft crashes into the front porch of the ranch. The team rushes to investigate and finds the Swordsman, claiming that he's come to warn them about something that Zemo is doing. The Swordsman is interrupted by a huge blast of energy from... Moonstone! [To be continued....]
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Up next: Issue #100! |