THE MASTERS OF EVIL:
-The Masters of Evil go way, way back to
The Avengers #6 in The Silver Age (1964), being a fairly simple concept- one villain from each of the Avengers springs forth to beat them up- Baron Heinrich Zemo (a retconned character who was supposed to be an old recurring Captain America foe) formed the squad with the Black Knight (Nathan Garrett), the Melter, and the Radioactive Man. Zemo would go on to be a recurring Avengers foe, and one of the plotlines of the early days were his non-stop attempts to kill Cap and the Avengers. He teamed up with Thor foes Executioner and the Enchantress, then empowered a young Simon Williams as the (then) one-shot villain Wonder Man, but all of these attempts failed (Thor sends the villains through a space-warp the first time, and Simon dies saving the Avengers in the second). Then, barely a year after he'd debuted, Zemo was killed in a rockslide of his own making, and that was the end of the first generation of Masters.
There were two short eras for the Masters after this point- in 1968, four years after the team first appeared, Ultron formed a new group under the guise of "The Crimson Cowl" with Klaw, the Melter, Radioactive Man & Whirlwind, along with a new Black Knight- Dane Whitman, who joined the team in order to betray them. MUCH later, in 1982, the goofy mad scientist Egghead formed a team with the original Moonstone, Scorpion, Tiger Shark & Whirlwind. He would make another attempt with the Shocker, Beetle & Radioactive Man replacing Scorpion & Whirlwind.
Under Siege:
-Probably the most successful version of the team started in the classic 1987 story
Under Siege, in which the original Baron Zemo's SON appeared, forming a new team in order to gain ultimate revenge on the Avengers. Baron Zemo II assembled a murderer's row of jobbers, elite villains and one-offs alike to invade Avengers Mansion- over a dozen super-villains complete with the Wrecking Crew, Absorbing Man & Titania, Mister Hyde, and some un-used guys like Screaming Mimi, Yellowjacket II, Blackout, Black Mamba, the Fixer, Grey Gargoyle, Moonstone I, Whirlwind & Goliath.
Written by Roger Stern, Zemo's elite squad harrasses the Avengers over a few days, then invades the Mansion. Mr. Hyde cripples Jarvis for fun while Cap & Black Knight can only watch in horror, then Zemo tears up Cap's personal belongings right in front of him (including the only picture of Cap's mother). Hercules is drugged, then lured into the Mansion, where a gang of a half-dozen ultra-strong super-villains jumps him and beats him nearly to death, sending him in a life-threatening coma. The only thing saving the heroes is the Wasp's timely intervention with some unlikely heroes (Scott Lang & Dr. Druid), as well as the Big Gun of the A-team, Thor. This story was AWESOME, and featured some of the worst, most personal hits the team's ever taken (Jarvis was mauled, and the entire Mansion destroyed, not to mention poor Cap!), and Stern credits it as the one fans most compliment him for.
Unfortunately, after this TREMENDOUS high, the fifth era of the team would prove one of it's poorest. Doctor Octopus for some reason invades Avengers Mansion with a motley crew of former members (Creel, Titania, Shocker & Yellowjacket) and some REALLY god-awful '90s-type jobbers like Jackhammer (of "The Power-Tools" non-fame), Oddball (of "The Death-Throws" non-fame), Gargantua, Powderkeg, and a loaner from fellow Job Squad (The Serpent Society), Puff Adder. This team found no Avengers, but got beaten up by The Guardians of the Galaxy instead.
THE THUNDERBOLTS:
-So this was an interesting comic book series. It debuted in 1997, a product of the Post-Onslaught-era of Marvel, when the Avengers and Fantastic Four were dead, leaving nobody as the "main" heroes of the Marvel Universe (since Spidey & the X-Men were most often seen as outlaws or troublemakers to the public). So in their place, a new team of heroes was created- The Thunderbolts! Created by Kurt Busiek (yet to take over the
Avengers book) and Mark Bagley (post-
New Warriors and
Spider-Man), they seemed to be a pretty mediocre team, not unlike DC's failed Power Company years later (also done by Busiek). Pretty generic powers, some silly names and late-90s-ish stuff going on...
And then that first issue came out, after a guest-shot in a
Hulk story. Standard super-hero stuff and they save the day, right until the very end: when it was revealed that the ENTIRE TEAM- Citizen V, Atlas, etc., were actually the MASTERS OF EVIL is disguise, with BARON FREAKING ZEMO as their leader "Citizen V", using the "Thunderbolts" as a cover story to allow them to operate in broad daylight and gain massive power while all the "good" heroes were dead! To say this was shocking was an understatement.
Wizard Magazin basically blew its wad over it, and fans still talk about it to this day as one of the greatest swerves in comic history. It's rather unsurpassable in these days of supreme internet coverage, and was greatly helped by the fact that these characters were all minor-league.
Something about those C & D-leaguers, y'know? Everyone who's visited my threads has noticed I have an absurd fondness for these types of guys, even when they out-and-out SUCK, because they often have great potential. Writers of guys like Batman & Nightwing are HEAVILY limited by the almighty Bat-editors, who are answerable to the heads at Warner Bros. themselves, who won't take kindly to massive changes in their most marketable gimmicks. Even the Avengers are given to tight controls, and the
Teen Titans book has been ruined time and again by various editors undercutting the writers' wishes (alongside crappy writing in general) by killing and un-killing certain characters, and forcing people into different books.
But D-Leaguers? They're fine and open to any and all use. Want to kill someone like Blackwing or Zzzax? Go ahead! Because these guys are so minor, the storytelling options just FLY open. It's what can make teams like X-Force and X-Factor more interesting than the big-league X-Men. And so
Thunderbolts was perfect- every character other than Zemo was a minor-league nobody villain who was almost completely forgotten about. The villainous Giant-Man guy? Moonstone, a sub-par generic female villain, so minor even Mark Gruenwald didn't bother to flesh out her character in his
Captain America book when he was able to use her? The Beetle? These guys were total blank slates, easy to write over, change and alter the personas of, and IT DIDN'T MATTER. This freedom can create some of the best stories in comics.
(of course, modern writers like to do that with MAJOR HEROES these days, but that's neither here nor there)
The History of the Book:
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Thunderbolts seems to have a pretty small, but quite vocal fanbase, who really liked these characters, and hated what eventually became of most of them. It went on as "Fake super-heroes for a while", before a Stockholm Syndrome-type of thing went on, and the age-old "Falling in LOVE with you wasn't part of the plan!" trope (replacing "you" with "being a hero") came into play, resulting in a team of repentant (and semi-repentant) super-villains trying to make their way. Busiek's always great for plotting, and you can't ask for a more comic-booky art style than Bagley, who's truly one of the greats for shear colourful, crisp art and expressive faces. Fabian Nicieza took over a bit later, and he's one of my favourites of writing minor-type storylines with D-leaguers very well- a truly under-rated guy at times.
Having finally read the first trade, it definitely holds up- these utter nobodies were turned into really fascinating characters. Zemo was a megalomaniac and utterly brilliant, but arrogant and temperamental. Moonstone, a psychologist, was manipulative and evil as hell, and constantly searching for power of her own, even while advising Zemo as "Meteorite". Goliath loved his run so much as the handsome "Atlas" he easily reformed, while the broken Screaming Mimi completely became repentant as the adorable "Songbird". And loser villain the Beetle mooned over Songbird as tech-hero "MACH-I", going through his own mess. The blankest character was probably "Techno" (the former Fixer), because he was just a science-obsessed nutjob anyways.
The twists and turns were excellent. When a rookie hero named Jolt comes along, she's immediately beloved and comes off really well as a great "Young Hero" archetype- and her very presence on the team (Zemo recruits her on Moonstone's urgings- a way to get the public on their side, since Jolt seemed likeable and charming) completely throws a wrench into the works. Moonstone tries to manipulate her, sure, but... does she ACTUALLY have the motherly feelings she claims to have, or is that all an act? MACH-IV & Atlas immediately act as "Big Brother" figures as well, and by the end of things, Jolt has led half the team to LEGITIMATELY reforming and acting as heroes!
Along the way, they meet a NEW Masters of Evil, led by a new Crimson Cowl (Justine Hammer), and add Charcoal to their roster (a character invented by a fan who won a contest). MACH-1 falls for Songbird and sorta vice-versa, creating our big "Will They; Won't They" story, and Atlas forms a relationship with the mayor's aide, Dallas Riordan.
Finally, however, the jig is up- the Thunderbolts are "outed" as former villains, and their reputations are ruined. Baron Zemo is done away with, but Hawkeye of the Avengers, himself a former crook, finds sympathy for them and risks his own reputation in order to lead the team. And while Moonstone attempts to manipulate him, too, she finds herself drawn to his legitimate admiration for her intelligence and skills, and now even SHE'S reforming! Various teammates are thought-killed by Nomad, now the Scourge of the Underworld. Then we meet some MEGA-threats- Count Nefaria and Graviton, but under-utilized super-heavyweight baddies, were given a new lease on life here.
It was really a masterful look at people who are really messed-up, short-sighted and full of poor decision-making skills, but still try to do the right thing. Or the wrong thing, in the cases of Zemo, Techno & Moonstone. It's a testament to the writing of the book that nearly all of the redesigns and attitude changes stuck- Atlas, Songbird, Techno & MACH-IV stayed that way. It also turned Moonstone into a "big star" as far as villains go, even as later writers undid her reforming and made her a straight-sociopath again. Unfortunately, both Jolt & Charcoal were lost to time, and various bad decisions hampered the book.
It took me YEARS to read the early series, though- I think I flipped through it back in the day once or twice, but I completely missed out on the entire thing. It's not that I was uninterested- I was just out of comics COMPLETELY at that point in time. I got into comics in the early-90s on a big level (after being that kid who tried to join in on comics discussions, but didn't really know what it was about because I didn't have many), around the early days of the
X-Men adjectiveless series, right before the Image X-odus. I stuck around for about three or four years (
X-Men &
X-Force had hit the 30s & 40s by then) before dropping out due to lagging interest. I still LIKED comics, but I'd basically grown out of them, and it was long before the Trade Paperback market exploded. In the early 2000s, I got back into comics in a BIG way, as I finally started collecting
Wizard Magazine and got onto the WizardWorld Boards, where I did some research and found out about all sorts of old storylines I'd missed (something called
Watchmen, you say? That might prove interesting. Oh, a book called
The Dark Knight Returns is okay? I'll check it out!).
So I missed out on the
Onslaught saga (I Byrne-stole some books off the rack, ie. just read them there in the store, so I KINDA knew what was going on),
Heroes Reborn, etc., and so this entire run of
Thunderbolts was lost on me.
Later Runs:
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Thunderbolts flew high for a while, but as time went on, people stopped reading the series. It just kinda lost that special spark without Busiek & Bagley at work, and things kind of over-complicated themselves. Various members seemingly died, relationships fell apart, and more. A
New Thunderbolts book, also by Nicieza, was clever in parts and fairly well-drawn, but got WAY too convoluted, to the point where even reading it twice answered few questions- it involved Baron Zemo, a Cosmic Cube, reality altering itself, and more. This team also messed up Genis-Vell into a crazy person who was killed by Atlas for interjecting himself into the Songbird/MACH-3 couple, then reborn into a new form, and more. Speed Demon, Joystick, Radioactive Man & Blizzard also joined the team, creating some fun stuff with Joystick in particular- a bit of that old "Thunderbolts Feel" came through with the happy-go-lucky thrill-seeker, there.
In any case, things kinda fell apart with Genis dying again, Zemo saving the world, Zemo and Songbird HOOKING UP (ew, no!), and more. During a Q&A at the Edmonton Comic Expo, Nicieza explained that his purpose with the story was to do the one thing that hadn't been tried in the first
T-Bolts run- REFORMING ZEMO. Perhaps forgetting that since one of Marvel's top heroes, Captain America, has only TWO villains, perhaps reforming one of them would be a temporary measure, at-best.
A HORRIBLE run featuring a bunch of super-villains fighting in some kind of Fight League failed miserably (featuring none of the T-Bolts cast), and Zemo's Thunderbolts would then be hired by Tony Stark during
Civil War to collect super-villains (something Zemo had already been doing in secret for weeks). We also got another bunch of books written by Warren Ellis and others, showing ACTUAL super-villains under the government's control doing stuff during the whole
Civil War crisis. That one I actually loved- it featured some of the darkest, snidest villains ever, Norman Osborn cracking wise and being intelligent while secretly going nuts ("I still remember THIS particular costume- smells like death, blondes and victory"), and more. When Osborn was put in charge of all America's superheroes, he formed a new Thunderbolts as an assassination squad- Black Widow, The Ghost, Paladin, Headsman, Ant-Man, Grizzly, Mister X & Scourge (the former Nuke).
Later, Steve Rogers gets Luke Cage to form a new team, with The Ghost, Moonstone, Juggernaut, Crossbones (who's intended to get the others to gravitate to Cage by being such an ass) & Man-Thing. The Red Hulk leads his own team later on, with
Preacher's Steve Dillon drawing everyone as "normal guys", which was kinda weird in Rulk's case. This team eventually splits up over the expected personal problems of putting the Punisher on a team with other crazies, and largely dealt with the Leader as the big foe. The Winter Soldier leads a team that only lasts twelve issues, and Baron Zemo later creates another one to fight the Punisher.
All in all, every run after the first one comes off as totally bizarre- like Marvel just finds great name value in the
Thunderbolts title, but only half the books really have any kind of link to the original- it's just a bunch of random ideas TITLED
Thunderbolts, sometimes keeping the "ex-villains" thread. That it also suffers from modern-day replaceable creative teams and has no consistency at all doesn't help.
Later Masters of Evil:
-The Post-
Thunderbolts era utterly changed the Masters, and kind of turned it from an "Every 5+ years or so" team into a random band of jobbers. The Crimson Cowl's version of the team initially just had a band of pathetic jobbers: Cyclone III, Flying Tiger, Klaw, Man-Killer and Tiger Shark, but soon expanded into a RIDICULOUSLY huge roster drawn from Busiek's encyclopedic knowledge of every stupid villain in Marvel's history: Aqueduct, the Bison, Blackwing, Boomerang, Cardinal, The Constrictor, Dragonfly, The Eel II, Icemaster (from a HOSTESS CAKE ad!), Joystick, Lodestone, Man-Ape, Quicksand, Scorcher, Shatterfist, Shockwave, Slyde, Sunstroke & Supercharger. This team attacked the Thunderbolts, but the heroes managed to sneak into their base and beat the vast majority of them in a series of guerilla attacks that made the villains look like utter dunces. There was even a contest to name them all and find the issues in which they debuted (unsurprisingly, the winner was the guy who does the "Appendix to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" bios that I could NOT stat half these guys without!- and even HE didn't get all the names! One guy was from a frickin' HOSTESS CAKES ad!
The Cowl tried again with Black Mamba, the Cardinal, the Cyclone, the Gypsy Moth, Hydro-Man, Machinesmith & Man-Killer, but again went nowhere. Zemo attempted to form a team to get Atlas to quit the Thunderbolts at one point, too.
The Shadow Council:
-Brian Michael Bendis created a "Shadow Council" in the Evil Nation of Bagalia that opposed S.H.I.E.L.D. in the
Secret Avengers book. Led by Max Fury (a Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury turned evil), it's mostly a Jobber Army taking up every villain possible- Princess Python, Vengeance, Whiplash, Black Talon, The Brothers Grimm, Carrion, The Constrictor, Crossfire, Diablo, Firebrand, Griffin, Killer Shrike, Lady Stilt-Man, Pink Pearl, Bi-Beast, Madcap, The Ringer and even the friggin' SQUID!
Baron Zemo later forms another squad via the sentient Cosmic Cube known as "Kobik", adding Atlas, Fixer & Moonstone, but they quickly join the evil Captain America's HYDRA. He also recruits the Young Masters into the squad officially, as he takes over some of the operations in Bagalia. By now, Madame Masque is his right-hand woman and Daimon Hellstrom is their "Magic Guy" for whatever reason.
Recently, Lightmaster set up his own group of pretenders- he and Titania, Absorbing Man, the Wrecking Crew, Mr. Hyde, Blackout I & Whirlwind were beaten by the Superior Spider-Man and his "Superior Six". Madame Masque also formed a version in the recent
West Coast Avengers book featuring Eel, Graviton, Lady Bullseye, MODOK Superior, Satana, and Kate Bishop's parents Derek and Eleanor Bishop.