THUNDERBOLTS #122-125 (2008): Secret Invasion

After the chaos of the last story arc, the team is back in the field with Songbird serving as field leader and Moonstone using her training as a psychologist to assess the team for Osborn.

For their first mission since the internal reorg, they go after Swarm.  Despite Songbird’s warning that Mac Gargan is no longer in full control over the symbiote, Osborn deploys it and…

…It eats Swarm.

Okay.  I was worried whether I’d like this after Warren Ellis departed as writer but so far, so good.

Andreas Von Strucker has been on the team as Swordsman, and in this story his dead sister is resurrected as a clone with amnesia.  There are concerns about whether she is there to convince her brother to quit the T-Bolts, but Captain Marvel shows up and attacks Thunderbolts Mountain.

And quite easily defeats the team.

Osborn must have read the recent, very good Captain Marvel miniseries, because he knows the dude is a skrull. 

After a skirmish and conversation, Mar-Vell flies away.  It seems like a pointless interaction, but it actually shows Norman’s manipulative skills (because he is able to get Mar-Vell to confess that he’s a skrull) and also his ability to capitalize on situations, since Osborn uses this as an excuse to unleash the Thunderbolts on Washington DC, saying that no superheroes can be trusted anymore because they’re all skrulls.

The battle for DC is great. 

The skrulls shapeshift into the Thunderbolts’ worst nightmares (like they create a bunch of Spider-Men to fight Osborn). 

The T-Bolts each get a solid action moment.  And they team up with the rest of the super-community.

And they emerge as heroes.

Osborn even takes a little stolen valor.

Nice.

Iwo jima.

After this, a new creative team takes over the title.