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(no title given)
Last issue in Nick Fury's secret base #20 Home Run beneath the Yankee Stadium the Thunderbolts (Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady), Headsman, Mr X, Paladin and Scourge - Ghost is as often off being intangible somewhere) left Norman Osborn with the captured Fury. They are taking Black Widow (Natasha Romanova) and Songbird to their fates - Melissa Gold to be beheaded and BW to be interrogated.Headsman with his axe is the obvious choice for executioner. Mr X is going to make Widow watch. Headsman apologises to SB for what he has to do. Paladin appeals to their leader Scourge - they're soldiers not assassins. He asks Ant-Man to back him up, but amoral O'Grady as usual is unable to pick a side. Scourge orders Cleavon Twain to do his duty, but instead Headsman buries the axe in *him*.Everyone is surprised to find that Scourge is a cyborg, who shrugs off Cleavon's attack and Cleavon himself. Mr X relishes the opportunity to kill Headsman, who he's been sneering at since he joined (in #132). But Paladin shoots at him. Or to be more precise, past him to shatter Black Widow's handcuffs. Widow leads still-cuffed Songbird out of here at the run, leaving the boys to fight.Now Paladin really does shoot at Mr X, but X impales his shoulder with 1 of his swords. Headsman chops off 1 of Scourge's arms to stop him reaching for a big gun. But Scourge takes the axe off him with the other hand and prepares to execute *him*. Except Paladin empties a magazine into Scourge's back which puts him down. Mr X prepares to kill Headsman with his other sword...... but Ghost finally makes an appearance and electrocutes X's brain. he then turns Paladin intangible so he can pull him off the sword which is embedded in a wall. Paladin doesn't feel anything until Ghost makes him solid again. Ghost also has a plan which will enable them to stay in the Thunderbolts. He shocks unconscious Scourge's head too. He says Mr X and Scourge's short-term memories will be scrambled so they won't remember what happened. And he can use another of his abilities (mentioned in #133) to edit security camera footage to show that Widow used a stun grenade on them all to escape.But miniature Ant-Man has seen it all from his hiding place in a ventilation grill.BW & SB have made their way to the surface, where the Stadium is surrounded by H.A.M.M.E.R. troops. They took Songbird's sonic amplification rig, so she can't use her power to fly them to safety. So Natasha steals a HAMMER truck and they drive away. HAMMER give chase and a helicopter gunship hits them with a missile on the George Washington Bridge. The truck ends up hanging precariously over the side. Melissa tells Natasha to trust her and jump...... and they are scooped out of the air by Mach-IV. Fixer remotely messes with the gunship causing it to crash. And they're all away free. (We don't know how Songbird knew that would happen.)Later the 4 of them are holed up in a derelict building. Melissa thanks Abner Jenkins for the rescue. He says that (after the 3 met up again in #134) he persuaded Norbert Ebersol that they should help her. Fixer makes light of it by saying he couldn't let Abe go go up against HAMMER by himself. Natasha says they've got to get revenge for Norman Osborn killing Nick Fury. (Except she didn't actually witness that happen last issue and in Secret Warriors #8.) But Norb tells them that he's learned that it was only a Life Model Decoy that got shot in the head (as revealed in SW#8) - Fury's still alive (as far as they know).In Avengers Tower Norman Osborn is raking Scourge over the coals for the failure of his 1st mission as Thunderbolts team leader. He lost all 3 of the targets (ignoring the fact that they never *had* Nick Fury, and it was Osborn who failed to hold on to the Warriors who were running the LMD in SW#9).Scourge says he doesn't want to go by the codename Norman gave him (#133). He wants to go back to his real identity. He removes his mask and we see the flag-painted face of the patriotic Nuke. Osborn accepts that and unveils the new team leader. The real Yelena Belova (the other Black Widow) who he has in a stasis tube. (We learned last issue that NO knew all along that the Black Widow on his team was the SHIELD Agent and Avenger Natasha Romanova. He'd been playing her.)


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Return of the Masters part 2: Chance of a lifetime
Last issue Baron Helmut Zemo's Masters Of Evil invaded Thunderbolts HQ. Winter Soldier was brutally beaten, but Kobik the young Cosmic Cube said she'd fix everything. And Bucky Barnes found himself back in his young body in WWII as Bucky the sidekick of Captain America - but with his future memories intact.

Bucky thinks Kobik must have sent him to the past to change it - to stop Cap being frozen and himself from becoming Winter Soldier. Cap (Steve Rogers) finds him and they report for a mission. But along the way Bucky learns that he has recently killed Baron Heinrich Zemo (Helmut's father). This means that the past has already changed because it was the incident with Zemo's drone plane that caused Winter Soldier and Cap's suspended animation.

The mission involves reports of 10-foot armoured giants attacking troops. Bucky will be sent to investigate and then call in Cap and the Howling Commandos to deal with them. Cap protests that he should go with Bucky, but Bucky says it's alright. Bucky gets the impression there's something Steve's not telling him.

That night Bucky finds some suspicious trucks and a barn. Inside the barn he finds some boxes. The boxes emit light which creates the 10-foot giants. Which Bucky recognises as Zemo's androids. They attack and beat him unconscious.

When he awakes he's tied with chains to the infamous drone plane. A young man announces himself as Helmut Zemo and he wants revenge for the death of his father. He says he got the plans for the drone bomb from Bucky's most trusted friend, and now he's going to launch it and Bucky at the allied troops.

Bucky says this won't stop the Nazis from losing the war. But Zemo knows that the war is lost. But Hydra will rise from the ashes. And Bucky is shocked to see Cap join Zemo.

Rogers protests that Zemo is going against the plan to eventually turn Barnes to their side. But Zemo is bent on revenge. Steve makes 1 last gamble to save his friend - he begs him to pledge allegiance to Hydra. But Bucky refuses.

Zemo launches the plane. And it lands amidst American troops and explodes ....

.... but Kobik pulls Bucky out of the scene at the last second. She's angry because he was supposed to join Hydra and then everything would be OK. She explains that Mr Schmidt (Red Skull) got her to change history so that Steve Rogers was brought up belonging to Hydra. Schmidt told her to keep it secret, but she just arranged things so her best friend Bucky could be in the club too. But he messed it up!

Bucky tries to tell her that Hydra are evil but Kobik has been told they're the good guys. Bucky asks her to change everything back, but it breaks young Kobik's heart that her friend is being mean to her. She petulantly threatens to send him back to the drone where he'd die. But Bucky accuses her of ruining everything.

Kobik snaps. We see an X-ray-type image of Bucky surrounded by shattered fragments of his history.

To be concluded next issue, after which the series will allegedly go on hiatus during Secret Empire.


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No going back part 2: Should I stay or should I go
The Thunderbolts, with reluctant returnee Songbird, have broken into a SHIELD holding facility to rescue their leader Winter Soldier. They easily deal with the 1st line of defenders and then split up.Mach-X and Moonstone go to disable the secondary generators but take a wrong turn and run into Maria Hill. Mach-X douses her with sleep gas. As she's going under she offers Abner Jenkins a pardon if he'll tell her where Kobik is. Then the duo head off in the right direction.Atlas, Fixer and Songbird want to go down to where Bucky Barnes is held. Atlas breaks into a lift shaft and Songbird uses her sonics to destroy some defences. Then they drop to the bottom. But when Fixer gets the door open they find themselves facing Captain America (Steve Rogers).Back at Thunderbolts' Arctic HQ Kobik, the Cosmic Cube in the shape of a little girl, is amusing herself when she hears something. She dismisses it as a mouse but we see that it is the Ghost phasing through walls.Back at the fight Cap is determined not to let the 'Bolts further 'corrupt' his pal Bucky. Fixer retorts that they work for him to further his cause. Then the lights go out as M&M take out the generators. Norbert Ebersol leaves to get Barnes now that all the defences are down.Rogers is disappointed that Melissa Gold has rejoined her old team of 'villains' after her recent stint with the New Avengers. Atlas saves her from justifying herself by punching Cap through a wall - while apologising because he's a good guy really. Songbird is worried but it takes more than that to harm Captain America.Cap takes Atlas down with a carefully-judged kick to the throat. He also makes a pardon offer involving Kobik - to Songbird, but she strikes back. She says that SHIELD is corrupt and she's not leaving Winter Soldier in their clutches. And Fixer arrives with the man in question, who rejects Steve's hand and exits with the 'Bolts.When they get back to their jet Songbird syas she's not coming with them. But Abner talks her into it because SHIELD will be after her now.Fixer detects tracking devices in WS's cyborg arm. (This is probably why Cap let him go so easily.) They won't have time to extract them before SHIELD finds them. The next page shows the jet leaving, and Cap finding Bucky's torn-off arm on the ground.


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There is no high road part 2: Follow the leader
Last issue, taking Moonstone's claim literally that the 1 with the Moonstone gem should lead the team because she's the most powerful, the little girl/Cosmic Cube Kobik ripped the jewel from Karla Sofen's chest. Now Kobik has the Moonstone power and costume, and Karla is bleeding out.Kobik now claims to be team leader but doesn't understand why nobody follows her orders to play with her. While Fixer and Mach-X try to staunch the bleeding, Atlas stands around helpless and Winter Soldier tries to convince Kobik this isn't a game - Miss Moon (as Kobik calls her) is really dying. Eventually Kobik restores the jewel to its place and Karla revives. And her costume leaves Kobik and gradually rebuilds itself around Moonstone as the stone repairs the damage to her body.This all takes place in an abandoned warehouse in Georgia. Bucky Barnes is the Man On The Wall, inheritor of Nick Fury's job of protecting Earth from alien threats. He's organised this incarnation of the Thunderbolts to help him. Last issue Fury's system alerted them to an alien threat here, and they arrived to find the warehouse full of cocoons similar to those created by the Terrigen Cloud to produce Nuhumans. But Fixer's analysis indicated that they were different from that.Now Fixer continues his investigation with a drill. But the cocoon responds by opening, and a large alien steps out and grabs him by the throat. Still-coughing Moonstone blasts the alien to make him drop her team-mate. But other cocoons crack open and other aliens emerge, all different. Battle commences. And more cocoons start to crack.A lot of aliens mob large Atlas and submerge him. But he grows to super-giant size, bursting through the roof. He picks up 2 aliens and hurls them away. Bucky/WS complains that they are supposed to be containing the threat, not spreading it. So Erik Josten treks off to retrieve them, and Bucky sends Mach-X to help. Atlas finds the aliens menacing a couple of boys. He splats 1, and Mach-X arrives to shoot the other.They get back to find the team have killed the other awake aliens, and no more cocoons have burst. They did this without the 'help' of Kobik because WS didn't trust her judgement. Now they follow Moonstone's original suggestion and burn all the other cocoons.But then a flying vessel appears and a bunch of Inhumans emerge led by Crystal, who demands to know what they've done.


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No going back part 3: Stray signals
We begin in a forest with some weird voices talking about starting a transmission and returning to their queen mother for her nectar. We might think the voices come from some insects until we see a stone tower.Last issue Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier had to leave his cybernetic arm behind when the Thunderbolts rescued him from SHIELD. Now in their HQ Fixer has built him a replacement, with the TBolts' lightning symbol instead of the Russian star on the shoulder. Bucky finds it lighter, and gyros make his aim steadier. Also when his gun runs out of bullets he gets an automatic reload from within the arm. It has a built-in punch dagger and fire-burst. And it can be removed for upgrades or for special-purpose replacements.Meanwhile Abner Jenkins/Mach-X has been showing Melissa Gold around the new HQ.  Ex-TBolt Songbird helped them on the rescue mission and may be staying because that action has made her an outlaw..Bucky explains the new team's raison d'etre to her. The original Nick Fury besides being head of SHIELD was also the Man On The Wall, defending Earth against threats from outside (as revealed in Original Sin). Before he died Fury passed the job on to Barnes (OS again). Later Bucky detected that SHIELD were using a Cosmic Cube Kobik (in Avengers Standoff) to imprison supercriminals. When that all fell apart he recruited some ex-TBolt escapees to join him in the MOTW job.Bucky takes Melissa to another room where Erik Josten/Atlas is working out, and is glad to have his old friend back. Karla Sofen/Moonstone is also there and the women renew their enmity. (They were both together a long time in the team. They vied for leadership. And Moonstone tried to get Songbird killed.)Bucky also introduces her to Kobik who is in the form of a little girl. Melissa and Kobik bond. Bucky says 1 of their jobs is to keep the 'girl' safe from SHIELD and other folks who want to use her. Erik says that Bucky and Fixer have them well hidden - Winter Soldier has years of experience keeping off the grid. But we see the Ghost (as we saw last issue) lurking in a shadow half-phased into the floor.Fixer calls them together because he's detected an alien transmission. Everyone suits up for action, and Kobik wheedles her way onto the team. Moonstone has a coughing fit. Mach-X explains that Karla 'died' recently (#2).The transmission site turns out to be the tower (which I think is a crashed spaceship) in the forest. But the team get trapped by an energised net that even Atlas can't break out of. Their captors are reptilian alien Zn'rx, including 1 in a War Machine-like armour. They are marooned on Earth and are trying to get in touch with their Queen Mother who will undoubtedly destroy all pathetic humans.Fixer has heard enough and he just turns off the Zn'rx energy net. Then they all fight. Winter Soldier and Mach-X take on the armoured reptile while everyone else deals with the foot soldiers. Moonstone bristles as Songbird gives her a command/advice. Melissa gloats that Karla isn't in charge. Sofen retorts that at least the boss isn't Norman Osborn, and Gold has to agree with that.The aliens are soon vanquished. The 'Bolts switch off the signal beacon and strip the spaceship of usable technology. They tie up the Zn'rx and leave them for SHIELD to take into custody.Back at HQ the once more-than-friends Abner and Melissa catch up. Abe apologises for getting Melissa into this mess, but she thinks this is a better gig than she expected - according to SHIELD Bucky and co were terrorists. She'll hang around to see more. Abe thinks things are finally looking up.


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There is no high road part 5: What we do best
Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier walks into the underground Thunderbolts base in its new home in the Arctic. The team has a rare quiet time after their fights with pod aliens, Inhumans and the Squadron Supreme in the 1st 4 issues.But then he picks up a news report about the latest precog vision of the Inhuman Ulysses (at the end of Civil War II #5). It says that Spider-Man (Miles Morales) will kill Captain America (Steve Rogers). A whole load of superheroes saw the vision but they disagree about how these visions should be treated, especially after the death of Bruce Banner, so they haven't arrested him. Rogers himself voted to let him go.Bucky isn't going to let Steve get killed - again. So he heads out to do something about it himself, letting Fixer know he's going on the way out. He sets the jet on stealth mode autopilot and checks his weapons. Suppressing memories of his lover Black Widow when he was a Russian assassin.On the ground in New York he's still in contact with the plane. Its AI guides him to the new Spider-Man's latest sighting. And he is troubled by how easy it is to slip back into assassin mode. But consoles himself that his motive is pure.He has Spidey in his sights. He's using tranquilliser darts because he only intends to capture him and keep him captive until the vision is passed. But Miles' spider-sense warns him, and he dodges the bullets and swings to their source.They fight, and Barnes is unprepared for this SM's camouflage ability so Morales gets in lots of free punches. But Bucky catches on and detects his foe's position by the raindrops bouncing off him. However catching Spidey doesn't stop him fighting.When Miles learns that the other guy is here to stop him killing Cap he protests that he would never do that. But Bucky's taking no chances. His Winter Soldier training takes over and he beats Spidey into submission - but still managing to stop short of killing him.But then SHIELD arrive to arrest Barnes. And Spider-Man zaps him with a Venom Blast. And a horde of SHIELD Agents pound him unconscious. When he awakes he's  shackled in a cell.


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No going back part 1: Not what we planned
Maria Hill, acting Director of SHIELD, comes to a high-security holding facility to see Bucky Barnes, captured in #5. But he won't tell her where the Cosmic Cube (in the shape of a little girl) Kobik is.The rest of the Thunderbolts, including Kobik, have learned of their leader's capture and are planning to spring him. Fixer explains that when he erased all their SHIELD records in #1 he also infected the SHIELD network with a virus that tells him everything that's going on so he knows where Barnes is.Kobik is particularly eager to go rescue her friend, but Mach-X says she's got to stay behind because SHIELD want to capture and use her power. Kobik offers to just use her power blow the base up and whisk Bucky to safety, but Abe Jenkins is concerned about becoming even more wanted than they already are. Fixer agrees it's a bad idea, but because SHIELD might be able to track her energy signature back here.Moonstone thinks they should just let Barnes stew - he didn't trust them enough to tell them what he was doing. But the others outvote her - he's 1 of their own.Abe suggests they need help from someone who's familiar with SHIELD - so he calls his friend and ex-Thunderbolt Songbird who's enjoying the freedom of her recently-pardoned status on a beach.Meanwhile Maria Hill is considering her next move when she's informed that Captain America (Steve Rogers) has turned up to see his ex-partner Winter Soldier. Bucky explains the circumstances of his capture. In #5 he went after Spider-Man (Miles Morales) because of the prediction by Ulysses (Civil War #5) that SM was going to kill Cap. Bucky of course was only going to capture Spidey. But Steve is just angry about his 'interference'.They also disagree about Kobik. Cap thinks she's too dangerous to be on the loose. Bucky believes she's a victim not a threat, and he reminds Steve that she made him young again (CA: Sam Wilson #7). He doesn't trust SHIELD with Kobik, but Cap asks if he'd trust her with him.Songbird and Mach-X are flying together to their destination. Melissa Gold tells Abe that she isn't rejoining the team. And she's not doing this for them, or even for him. She wants to get back at SHIELD (for the events in the recent New Avengers issues).The other 3 Thunderbolts have flown in the Thunder-Jet (which Winter Soldier sent back on auto-pilot). When the other 2 join them they greet Melissa as a friend, even Karla Sofen. But Songbird still hates Moonstone (not least because Karla tried to have her killed her in #126-127 of the original run).Songbird says she knows all about the design of the holding facility. Fixer plans to use his tech to kill their power including the backup generator, but she counters that all the doors will failsafe locked. Atlas and Moonstone would be able to break through the inner doors, but the outer ones are Hulk-proof. Moonstone bemoans the loss of her power to walk through walls.Melissa has an alternative plan. She'll use her sonic power on the voice-activated lock to an outer door and get them in. Then Fixer can cause havoc in the computer system while the others smash their way to Bucky. But 1st she dons a hooded cloak because she doesn't want to be recognised.She duly gets them inside, but then they come up against a feature she doesn't recognise. Devices scan them (which previously checked that Hill wasn't an LMD or any other kind of imposter). They don't recognise the Thunderbolts (because Fixer erased their records). But they do recognise ex-SHIELD agent Melissa Gold. Bang goes her anonymity and her non-criminal status. Abe welcomes her back to the criminal fraternity.Fixer cuts the base power and they prepare to fight their way in.


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Return of the Masters part 3: Broken toys
In #10 Baron Zemo and his new Masters Of Evil found the Thunderbolts' Arctic base and captured Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes. Last issue Kobik, the little girl who is a Cosmic Cube, took her friend Bucky back to the WWII past to show him the new version she created during Avengers Standoff. Lots of events didn't happen the way he remembers them, and most importantly his mentor Captain America/Steve Rogers was an agent of Hydra. Kobik hoped that Bucky would join Hydra too, and then they could continue to be great friends.  When it didn't work that way she had a tantrum.

Now outside the base semi-conscious Atlas is freezing to death. His friend Jolt returned from Counter-Earth in #10 and now she jolts his heart back to work. They stagger back to the base and find it busted wide open with Kobik hovering in the air and screaming/crying.

Bucky drops from the sky at the feet of Zemo and some of his villains. Which now includes Fixer and Moonstone who have switched sides. Bucky and Zemo start to fight.

The other 2 Tbolts, Mach-X and Songbird, are surrounded by Wrecker and his Wrecking Crew. As they fight Mach-X tries to convince the villains that they can't trust Zemo. But then Thunderball breaks Songbird's ribs.

Kobik has whipped up a whirling storm which has already whisked Klaw away. Whiplash saves himself by tethering his whip to the ground, and Man-Killer is hanging on to his foot. But he kicks her free and she gets zapped by a bolt of lightning.

Jolt zaps Tiger Shark as Atlas tries to talk Kobik down. Fixer realises the Cube is starting to tear reality apart. He thinks he may be able to figure a way to fix things.

The Wrecking Crew beat on Mach-X while Wrecker prepares to kill Songbird with his crowbar. But then the Ghost phases out of a wall and sticks a bomb on his back. We learn that he's here to hack Fixer's computer system, but he can't do that if this battle destroys everything.

Winter Soldier wins his fight with Baron Zemo. But then Moonstone zaps him in the back. This is a bit much for Fixer, but Karla says Bucky's tactic of befriending Kobik didn't work. She's too dangerous to leave loose.

Atlas somehow has Kobik in a force bubble. Jolt is trying to siphon off her energy but there's too much. Fixer has created an array of force projectors which he fires at Kobik. There's a large explosion. Kobik says she just wanted everyone to be happy. And then she explodes.

Zemo KO's Bucky and gathers his remaining crew. The Wrecking group break free of some rubble and claim Mach-X is dead. (Although I think I saw him being blown free with Songbird.) Fixer has bad news for Zemo - the Cosmic Cube has broken into pieces and the fragments have been widely scattered. Zemo orders him to track and retrieve them. Atlas also survived. Zemo welcomes him (back) the the MOE, and the eternal follower Erik falls in line. He gets to carry the unconscious Barnes.

After they've gone Songbird struggles out of a snowdrift. But she can't find Mach-X, so she trudges off into the snowscape. Behind her Ghost phases out of the snow. He finds and pockets Jolt whose energy body has shrunk.


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There is no high road part 4: Tip of the iceberg
Abner Jenkins/MACH-X considers his position. His time with a previous incarnation of Thunderbolts had turned him from a villain into a hero. Later he worked with SHIELD and wound up helping run Pleasant Hill, the 'prison' for supervillains in Avengers: Standoff. After the prisoners' revolt he escaped with some other ex-Thunderbolters who assumed he had been an inmate too. Winter Soldier took control of them as his new team, and Abe wonders which side of the law he's now on.His buddy Erik Josten/Atlas has no such qualms. He's just impressed by the secret base Bucky Barnes has provided them with.Fixer calls a meeting to show them a news report in which SHIELD has publicly declared them terrorists. Moonstone suggests Bucky call his pal Captain America to set things straight. Bucky says he's tried several times but can't get through (we saw 1 attempt in #1, and last issue Cap couldn't contact him either). Barnes asks Fixer if he's jamming signals - Fixer says no, but he will now if Winter Soldier's going to be contacting Avengers! The little girl/Cosmic Cube Kobik tries to act nonchalant.Fixer is serious, if they want to remain free to do their leader's Man On The Wall job countering alien threats (like the pods they investigated in #2 which led to the confrontation with the Inhumans last issue). He wants all Internet/comms activity banned unless it's heavily encrypted.SHIELD are doing forensics on the site of the #2-3 events, but all the Agents are KO'd by the speedster Blur of the Squadron Supreme. He is joined by Dr Spectrum and Nighthawk, who is interested because the aliens in #2 might be connected to the alien conspiracy he's been investigating (in issues of the Squadron's title).Reports that the Thunderbolts possess an extreme superweapon (actually Kobik) are also relevant the the Squadron's prime directive - to neutralise planet-threatening stuff. Spectrum tracks the energy of the TBolts' departing aircraft, and Nighthawk calls in Hyperion and Thundra to join them.To Atlas being on the run is just like the 'good old days'. He's more concerned about losing access to Facebook and Internet games. But MACH-X doesn't want to be a criminal again - while he was in the earlier Thunderbolts he surrendered to the authorities and went to prison to wipe his slate clean. He notes that SHIELD hasn't named him as a member of the new team, so maybe he could quit now.Erik is understandably upset about his pal leaving. He reminds him of how SHIELD (via Kobik) brainwashed the villains in Pleasant Hill into believing they were ordinary folks leading ordinary lives. Now he's left with conflicting memories of a family that never existed.They and Karla Sofen are interrupted by Hyperion literally dropping in to the room. Karla armours up as Moonstone and tries to psych him out by reminding him how the previous team beat him in their #153. But it's not the same Hyperion. Fixer and Winter Soldier arrive to join the fight.But then Thundra and Dr Spectrum enter through the hole Hype made in the roof. Abner tries to suggest they talk before fighting, but at the same time hitting Spectrum in the face. Blur zooms in and retaliates. And Nighthawk somersaults in and demands they hand over the stolen weapon. Bucky and Kobik both know he means her.There's a chance that Abner might get his wish. But then Moonstone zaps Spectrum (she seems to be getting all the knocks) and Hyperion reacts angrily. Nighthawk sends Blur to take the little girl to safety so they can unleash their abilities without worrying about her. Blur grabs Kobik but she freezes him to immobility.By now MACH-X has got his armour on too, and the fight starts in earnest. Moonstone sees the Thunderbolts losing and asks Kobik to do something. But Bucky had forbidden the 'girl' from hurting people. But on the other hand her friends are getting hurt. So she does do something.The Squadron Supreme suddenly find themselves in a hole in the ground where the Thunderbolts' base used to be. And the base reappears at the North Pole. Kobik says the Squadron won't find them here. But Abner Jenkins is still not sure this is where he belongs.


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[Assistant]
There is no high road part 1: Power and control
Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes recruited Atlas, Fixer, MACH-X and Moonstone as his new Thunderbolts team from the ruins of the Pleasant Hill prison (in the Avengers: Standoff event). (Abner Jenkins/MACH-X wasn't actually a prisoner - he was 1 of the staff.)He leads the group in a raid on a SHIELD installation. Since Standoff he no longer trusts SHIELD, and the 'Bolts are here to destroy the info SHIELD has amassed on the super-community. (And copy some of it for themselves.)Fixer's tech gets them in, but they're faced with a bunch of Guardsmen. Most of the team play nice, but Moonstone uses a combination of psychological attack and lethal force.When Fixer has dealt with the data MACH-X leads them to an aircraft in which they can escape. After Atlas has knocked a hole in the wall big enough to fly through.When they return to their secret underground base in New Mexico they are greeted by Kobik, the little girl who is really a Cosmic Cube and was used by SHIELD to keep the PLeasant Hill inmates 'sedated'.We learn that Bucky is still Nick Fury's replacement as the Man On The Wall who guards the Earth against external threats. He saved these guys from PH to help him do that job. The SHIELD intel they've taken will update Fury's old files.Kobik overhears the team bitching about their rubbish hideout. Next morning they wake to find that she's transformed it into their dream home. Bucky thanks her, but warns her it's not safe to use her powers because SHIELD might be able to track her.Fixer integrates the data and applies his own programs to filter and cross-relate the result. He derives a ranked threat list, and the biggest signal come from Georgia. Nick Fury's files say it matches the comms of certain aliens.The team fly to investigate, leaving Kobik behind again. But the 'little girl' materialises in the plane, and they agree to take her along.What they find when they get there is a building full of things similar to Inhuman Terrigen cocoons. But Fixer says that isn't what they are. MACH-X and Moonstone want to destroy them all but Bucky wants to investigate further.This triggers a head-to-head clash between Karla Sofen and Bucky. Karla thinks she should be leader because she's the most powerful. Bucky points out it's only her Moonstone gem which gives her that power. She responds by challenging anyone to try and take it from her.Unfortunately Kobik takes her literally. She rips the gem out of Karla's chest and transforms herself into a mini-Moonstone (seemingly taking half of Sofen's armour as well).


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[Assistant]
Return of the Masters part 1: Bonds unbroken
Months ago a beam of energy containing a human figure bounced of some satellites near the sun. Now that beam approaches Earth.

In the Arctic Thunderbolts HQ Erik Josten/Atlas is feeling antsy. He goes out for a walk in the snow but it doesn't do any good. He's alright when he's given a job to do by Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (or before that by Baron Zemo or Hawkeye) but he doesn't like inaction. He wishes his young pal Jolt were here - she could always cheer him up.

Fixer has forbidden the use of mobile phones for security reasons. But Erik thinks a few rounds of Candy Crush can't do any harm. However as soon as he turns the phone on he hears the voice of sometime-TBolt and friend Man-Killer (but she spent more time fighting them as a member of 2 of the Masters Of Evil teams). She now appears through a portal with another MOE team, homing in on his phone's signal.

Katrina van Horn asks Erik to (re-)join them (he was part of an earlier group, and of course the Tbolts themselves started off as a disguised MOE) or else ... . But the threat decides him to fight them instead. He uses a tactic he's been taught against a large group - keep dodging around so they get in each other's way. Atlas' version involves using his shrinking and growing power. Until he runs into Man-Killer's fist when human-size. Then the rest of them kick him while he's down.

Then the bolt of energy arrives, scattering the baddies, and out of it steps Jolt. She immediately takes stock of the situation, turns back to energy and carries Josten's limp body a long way away. Dazed Erik can't believe it's really her, so she explains how the Young Allies sent her back from Counter-Earth as electricity. She bounced of various satellites on the way but got trapped in Earth's magnetic field when she arrived. But she somehow detected Erik thinking about her and zeroed in on that. But now Atlas has lost consciousness.

Back at the portal Baron Zemo steps through to join his minions. Van Horn explains what has happened, but Zemo doesn't care that Atlas has escaped. He left his phone behind and the HQ door open.

Inside Karla Sofen/Moonstone is worrying at something like a sore tooth while Abe Jenkins/Mach-X and Melissa Gold/Songbird are bickering over a supply run to get clothes for newbie Melissa. Karla goes to see Norbert Ebersol/Fixer about a previous supply run that Abe and Erik did (#6). She and Bert were left with Kobik the young girl Cosmic Cube. But she thinks she's missing a few hours from that day. Fixer is sure he can remember everything but he'll check his internal logs.

Bucky is in his room brooding over his latest encounters with Steve Rogers/Captain America (#7-8) and Black Widow (in her #9-10) when he gets a text from Erik's phone. He rushes out to tell Josten off for breaking security - and is ambushed by the MOE.

Fixer and Moonstone confront Kobik about their missing time. Mach-X and Songbird come to see what all the shouting is about. Kobik is about to tell them how the pair were being bad to her when there's a sudden power failure. When the backup kicks in they find they have been joined by Zemo.

Kobik is very angry because Zemo attacked her (Avengers Standoff: Assault On Pleasant Hill Omega). He was angry then because she'd imprisoned him, along with the Thunderbolts and many others, in a living dream/nightmare. But now he has another plan. He drops a ball which he says is a miniaturised containment device devised by Erik Solvig. And it expands to entrap her painfully in a force bubble.

While Bucky is outside fighting the MOE, the Baron offers the others a job. They were all part of the other MOE that he turned into the original TBolts. He draws on the bond between them to ask them to abandon Winter Soldier's battle against alien invasions and join his team again - with the power of Kobik at their command.

At this point the MOE drag in a beaten Bucky Barnes - an example of the alternative to accepting his proposal.

Songbird gives her answer with a blast of sound that breaks the device (I think) controlling the forcefield. Freed Kobik freezes everyone but herself and Bucky - and she uses her power to heal him. Then the others unfreeze. Abe sides with Melissa and they run off to get Jenkins' armour. Kobik's power has unleashed a maelstrom - until she vanishes with Bucky.

Zemo sends Wrecker and some others after Mach-X and Songbird. He assumes that Fixer and Moonstone are on his side - but Norbert doesn't sound so sure.

Bucky seems to wake up as his teenage self in WWII.


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There is no high road part 3: Mistakes were made
The team have just destroyed a load of alien pods that resembled Inhuman Terrigen cocoons. But the Inhumans detected them too and now Crystal and friends attack because they believe it is really new Inhumans who have been killed. And she's not listening to reason.Naja takes on Moonstone who's still recovering from being 'killed' by Kobik last issue. Flint picks Atlas and Gorgon tackles Winter Soldier. Crystal easily repulses Mach-X but he fights back. So she gets Grid to disrupt his hi-tech armour. Meanwhile Fixer tries to invade the Inhumans' ship controlled by Swain.Giant Atlas uses Flint to bat Naja away from Moonstone. Bucky Barnes wrecks Gorgon's 'wheelchair'. Fixer succeeds in taking control of the ship and orders the Inhumans to surrender, which they do. He messes a few bits up so it'll take them a while before they can get it running again. Crystal still doesn't believe WS when he tells her the pods were aliens not Inhumans. But the Thunderbolts leave anyway.Crystal reports back to Medusa. Grid and Swain say the cocoons may not have been Inhumans but the Queen doesn't (want to) believe their original scan was wrong. She contacts SHIELD with a recording of the conflict and demands they hunt the criminals down.Maria Hill calls in Captain America (Steve Rogers) because of Bucky's involvement. And in the recording she recognises the young Cosmic Cube Kobik, which makes it imperative they catch these guys. Cap asks to be allowed to go it alone. Hill allows him to try, but SHIELD will be hunting them as well.Back at their base the team discuss the mission, Bucky reads Kobik a bedtime story, and Moonstone tries to recruit Fixer into a plan to manipulate the 'little girl' to their own ends. But Fixer thinks she's too dangerous to let live.


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Monkey business
This month's issue begins with Monica Rambeau (Spectrum) in bed with her lover Adam Brashear (Blue Marvel) in his seabed Kadesh Base HQ in the Pacific Ocean. She's still getting used to having a human body again and is now struggling with the commute to New York for the Thunderbolts. She uses her powers to switch to her uniform and borrows his jacket again (she's been wearing it in the previous issues). Before she goes he asks her to say "Hi" for him to their mutual friend America Chavez. He hopes that *she*'s recovered from their recent shared cosmic adventure (the Defenders: Beyond mini-series, not quite finished yet). Spectrum zooms off at lightspeed ...... and lands in Central Park where Hawkeye (Clint Barton) is turning an outdoor meeting into an impromptu training session. Clint welcomes her with a pat on the shoulder. Power Man (Victor Alvarez) appears to be ignoring him but is actually reading up on the history of the place to bolster his chi power. America is a bit dismissive but Gutsen Glory thinks a good soldier should obey orders. (Persuasion and Eegro The Unbreakable aren't present.)Hawkeye says they'll play a game. He slams an arrow on the ground which emits concealing smoke and then tells them the object is for them to tag him before he tags them. And a rain of blunt arrows heads towards Gutsen and Chavez. GG's instinct is to grab 1 but it emits a burst of light and sound and Clint says he's now tagged. America takes to the air to get away but more arrows tag *her*. Power Man dodges those aimed at him but 1 of them's a boomerang arrow which hits him in the back of the neck. Monica is confidant Clint won't get *her* but he says he already tagged her with an arrowhead when he greeted her.PR Helen Astrantia turns up with Persuasion (Kara Killgrave) from a photo-shoot for KK's new line of perfume. Eegro is with them, and the small monster is wearing a specially-made suit. Helen objects to the classic Hawkeye mask Clint has added to his costume because she wants their faces exposed to inspire public trust. She runs down their schedule:- Power Man has an interview with Iron Men fitness mag. Clint is booked on J Jonah Jameson's podcast (which he never agreed to). But then she gets a call for the team to attend a problem elsewhere in the Park, but she gets America Chavez to transport them there via 1 of her star portals to make a dramatic entrance.They arrive at the Park zoo which has been taken over by the Russian Super-Apes. They have broken free from their Red Ghost master and now demand freedom for all animals. A police team is there already and they intend to subdue the apes with tear gas. Spectrum thinks it's a good plan and the TBolts can apprehend them afterwards. But Hawkeye wants his team to get all the kudos and Persuasion offers to parlay in her rusty Russian.She meets with Igor the baboon who shapeshifts to imitate her, but only as a distraction while Peotor the orangutan uses his magnetism to affect Gutsen Glory's somewhat metal body and also cause Hawkeye's trick arrows to attack Power Man. Igor punches Persuasion into a police car while Glory's weapons system launches grenades at Eegro, destroying his new suit. Chavez is in battle with Miklho the gorilla when her powers choose that moment to go on the fritz again and *she* gets thrown through a wall. Spectrum is met by a monkey named Yaroslav who absorbs her energy and directs it at Eegro. Eegro suggests using his so-far-unrevealed ultimate attack. Clint and Helen order him not to because it would kill many humans too. Power Man tackles the gorilla but the police launch their gas grenades. Apes and humans all start to retch. Eegro KO's the monkey with a finger-flick.The Daily Bugle has a field day with the TBolts' incompetence. Helen tells Mayor Luke Cage that people still love Eegro who has signed over all merchandising rights to Thunderbolts Inc as long as he isn't sent back to Monster Island. Finance lawyer Harris Hutchley is finalising the contract but the proceeds should pay for damage the team does. But Cage is beginning to regret his idea of redeeming the Thunderbolts name.Clint was going to debrief the team but Monica sent the others home. However Guts is still here too because she's not his CO. The other 2 get into an argument about Hawkeye's leadership 'skills'. Glory tells them they're both as bad as each other. Clint doesn't take charge effectively but Monica shouldn't disrespect her team leader. He says he took this job to finish off his tour of duty working with Avenger pros, but they disappoint him.America and Victor are taking the subway home when she collapse on the floor.In his apartment Clint calls his ex-wife Bobbi Morse (Mockingbird) for moral support.


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Your mind knows what it really wants
Kara Killgrave (Persuasion) is promoting her new line of perfume Enticement on a talk show. Eegro accompanies her. She relates how she was initially ashamed to have inherited the purple skin and persuasive power from her villainous father Purple Man. But then she realised she couldn't hide who she was and decided to redeem her family name. Eegro says he offered to wear a skimpy outfit too to promote the goods but the company declined his offer. The host says that Eegro dolls and toys are selling like hotcakes, and Kara tells the audience that all proceeds go to fund the Thunderbolts. Eegro gets a laugh when he interprets that as paying for the damage their leader's mistakes cause.We look in on that leader Hawkeye listening to the program which continues with Eegro saying that the team had a rocky start but now they've learned to trust each other in the field. And we discover Clint Barton's naked ex-wife Bobbi Morse trying to entice him into not responding to an emergency call. (Both of these things should tip us off that we're in Clint's dream.) But he answers the call.Next we see Melter and Whirlwind holding some innocent bystanders hostage for a million dollars. Hawkeye turns up with Gutsen Glory, Power Man and Spectrum. But Hawk is wearing his original outfit including the mask PR Helen Astrantia forbade him to wear last issue. Spectrum is in *her* original Captain Marvel duds. PM (Victor Alvarez) has on PM (Luke Cage)'s original costume. And GG looks more like Cable of the X-Men. Hawkeye's explosive arrow knocks down Melter. Monica Rambeau frees the hostages as Victor distracts Whirlwind until America Chavez star-teleports in and judo throws him. To complete the confusion she, who sometimes goes by Miss America or Ms America, is dressed like the WWII Miss America (Madeline Joyce). Melter has recovered but surrenders to GG's big gun and Hawkeye's arrow.The actual Luke Cage, these days Mayor of New York, congratulates Clint and Monica on the team's current winning streak. The duo, now in their proper TBolts uniforms, praise each other. But then Monica and Luke turn on Clint and suggest that these days he's a walking disaster. However Helen and legal rep Harris Hutchley tell him to stop worrying and get on with the job. Cue a montage of battles with the team in their odd costumes again, including Persuasion with a teen look reminiscent of her Alpha Flight days. Eegro just looks like himself.Hawkeye now holds a press conference. The press begin by asking questions which bolster his ego, except for 1 about him secretly wanting to run the West Coast Avengers not the 'Bolts. Then his old girlfriend Black Widow flummoxes him by asking about the damage he caused while disguised as Ronin (in New Avengers vol 1), and whether he deserves all his 2nd chances after all the times he's screwed things up. Clint opines that he's just been lucky, even coming back from the dead once (after Scarlet Witch killed him at the end of Avengers vol 3). Bobbi (in costume this time) asks if that's the Barton luck or the Barton curse? Helen interrupts again to tell him to stop worrying about consequences because they have a new emergency.A large disc-shaped spaceship hovers over NY and drops Terminus to the ground. The huge alien robot starts killing the team until only Hawkeye is still standing.Then we look in on reality where last issue saw America collapse in a subway train. Victor as Power Man is giving her artificial respiration when the paramedics arrive. They ask why the superhero didn't fly her to hospital. He only has time to tell them he can't fly before he too collapses. Helen is having no luck contacting any of the team and has gone to Hawkeye's apartment (for which she has a key because the place came with the job). She enters and finds Clint hovering in midair over his bed with his back arched in a spasm and a blue glow in his eyes.


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New York's ... finest?
Hawkeye (Clint Barton) is practising his archery at a range. Afterwards he calls Wonder Man in LA to suggest reviving the West Coast Avengers. He's not thinking of the team Kate Bishop (the other Hawkeye) recently led but the originals (including Scarlet Witch, Tigra and Vision). When Simon Williams mentions Mockingbird Clint has to admit that it's awkward between him and his ex-wife Bobbi Morse these days. And when Simon asks about it being an official Avengers team he also has to admit that the Avengers have sort-of disowned him since his pretty-criminal methods (in the Hawkeye: Freefall mini-series). (But he still works with Black Widow and Winter Soldier as seen in Natasha's recent series.). Then he gets a call from Luke Cage, and has to admit that he doesn't keep up with the news and so didn't know he'd been elected Mayor to replace Wilson Fisk (Kingpin) (Devil's Reign #6). And Luke wants him to run a new Thunderbolts team.Clint goes to a meeting in the Mayor's office where he meets Helen Astrantia (PR) and Harris Hutchley (Legal) who are working on the Thunderbolts Project. During his Mayorship Wilson Fisk outlawed superheroes in NY except his own Thunderbolts team of villains (some super-chars, some human troops) (as seen in the Devil's Reign event and the DR: Villains For Hire mini-series). In the DR: Omega 1-shot Cage discovered that he couldn't persuade the City Council to repeal that law because too may citizens supported it. So he concentrated on arresting the Thunderbolts members for the crimes they had committed. And now he tells Clint he intends to replace them with his own team, to reclaim and redeem the name of the team they had each run at different times. As Mayor he can't head the team himself so Clint is obviously the best choice for the job.Barton accepts when he's assured that doesn't mean he has to arrest heroes. And he mentions that he's been talking about getting the West Coast Avengers back together. But Helen tells him they've already chosen the rest of the team using an algorithm to get the best mix:- America Chavez (the powerhouse), Power Man (the brick), Persuasion (the mentalist) and new guy Gutsen Glory (the loner). Clint approves of Chavez because he worked with her in Kate Bishop's WCA. Helen describes her abilities as flight, super-strength, endurance and inter-dimensional teleportation, plus she appeals to the LatinX demographic. Luke chose Victor Alvarez, the current young Power Man, because he wanted to see his own old super-id in the spotlight. Victor's super-strength come from the chi of his surroundings, and NY's cultural melting-pot gives him all he needs. Harry says Gutsen Glory's origin and powers are classified (even from Clint) but Helen points out that the public (and this comic's readers) like a man of mystery. Clint recognises Kara Killgrave (Purple Girl, daughter of Purple Man) but Helen says she's called Persuasion these days, and that's her power. Clint muses that they haven't got any energy or elemental powers - a lightning power would surely suit the brand Ms Astrantia is promoting.Just then an aide bursts in to tell them that the Thunderbolts are on the loose. But it's not their team but Fisk's super-powered goons who were arrested but have escaped from their prison transport. Helen lists them as Electro, Whiplash, Taskmaster, Agony, Abomination and U.S. Agent. Barton grins at that last name. Behind the scenes he changes to his supersuit and weapons and meets the team face-to-face because the next scene is ...... America Chavez porting them through 1 of her star portals to the site where the escaped felons are holed up with 3 hostages and surrounded by police. (All but Chavez have the lightning bolt symbol somewhere on their costumes.) Electro (Francine Fry) is keeping them at bay with electric blasts, which also disrupt communications. Hawkeye starts to discuss a plan of attack but Chavez pre-empts him by taking to the air and taking Power Man with her. They enter through the window Electro's been firing out of, knocking down her and Whiplash (Anton Vanko without his whip). PM then takes on Agony (Gemma Shin with a Venom clone symbiote that looks more like Carnage) while America spars with Taskmaster until he empties a clip in her face - which just makes dents.The 3 heroes still outside are attacked by Abomination who smashes through a wall. Gutsen Glory brought a big gun which he fires, knocking the villain down. He calls it a Particle Rupture Laser but it takes 10 minutes to recharge. So he tosses 2 Subdual Grenades not caring that he's within the 15 metre safe range. He's about to follow with a Capture Grenade but Abomination is on him before he can throw it. It ends up 'capturing' a police car. Hawkeye's still trying to get his 1st arrow in play when Persuasion tells Abomination to stop beating on Gutsen and makes him punch himself repeatedly in the 'junk'.After congratulating each other they spot another perp trying to escape. Hawkeye does get an arrow in this time - an explosive arrow which brings down US Agent. Clint Barton wants revenge for a beating John Walker gave him (way back in Avengers West Coast #64, and probably for some other things too). So he puts an arrow in the back of his shoulder and then starts hitting him with his bow. But USA grabs him by the throat until GG stops him with some tranquilliser darts.Then the fight between Power Man and Agony erupts into the street. America throws the limp forms of Taskmaster and Anton Vanko through a star portal and then steps through herself carrying the 3 hostages. But Electro's up again. An electroblast knocks down everybody including her own teammates. And then she absorbs even more electricity from Gutsen Glory. But suddenly Spectrum (Monica Rambeau) swoops down and carries her into the sky. There's a lot of lightning and then she returns with the drained villain. Clint asks Monica if she'd like to join the team, just as a large amount the building the villains had been in collapses.Later Clint has taken Spectrum to see Mayor Cage. But Luke is angry about the property damage which will make the public think the new Thunderbolts are as bad as Fisk's team of villains. (And as bad as all the heroes that have been wrecking the city repeatedly fighting villains and each other.) He also berates Barton for beating up John Walker who he'd been *told* (off-panel) had been undercover for the FBI in Fisk's team and was part of the police escort *not* a prisoner. Clint says it slipped his mind. But he wants to propose Monica as an energy-slinger for the team. Luke worked with her before in the Mighty Avengers. Cage says he'll consider it and dismisses Barton.When the 2 are alone Cage reminds Rambeau that she turned down the offer to lead this team (in Devil's Reign: Omega), so why did she just steal their thunder? Monica replies that she'd hung around to keep an eye on them in case things went wrong. And Electro was going to hurt innocent bystanders so she had to step in. Luke says her sense of responsibility shows why she was his 1st pick for team leader (so much for Hawkeye being the obvious choice - Cage is learning how to be a politician fast). She says she still doesn't want to lead another team but she agrees to be on the team to help. Luke thinks Clint means well but isn't leader material.Meanwhile Power Man and Guten Glory are hanging out. Young Victor worries that he didn't make a good enough 1st impression. The older man is cleaning his big gun and tells him to just evaluate the flaws in his performance and do better next time. After PM leaves GG suffers an electric spasm and complains "No. Not now. Not yet."Meanotherwhile Persuasion steps out of a long shower to find America Chavez sitting morosely on a bench. She leaves her there and we see America try to generate a star portal which fails and makes her be sick.Mrean3rdwhile Hawkeye with his typical array of wound dressings tries to tell himself that he's still got what it takes. But his image in a mirror persists after he goes away, and it gains glowing red eyes and an evil grin.


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Communication issues
New York Mayor Luke Cage has set up a new Thunderbolts team of heroes to replace the villain team that Wilson Fisk had. The team members were hand-picked by PR  consultants but Cage made Hawkeye their leader. Last issue's mission to recapture some  escaped members of Fisk's team was successful but our team didn't follow Clint Barton's orders (or even wait for him to give any).Clint turns up after 10:00 at the office bearing coffees to learn that he's late for a 9:00 pre-press review with Helen Astrantia (PR) and Harris Hutchley (Legal), and a 9:30 Press Conference. Mayor Cage has been stalling the Press so Barton will just have to go in now and wing it. The 1st question is why Hawkeye is qualified to lead the team. He reminds that he led the West Coast Avengers, the New Avengers and the Secret Avengers (curiously he doesn't refer to the original Thunderbolts team). The Press of course have never heard of the Secret Avengers. They bring up the times when he's operated outside the law, and also him beating up US Agent last issue (Clint claims he thought he was 1 of the villains) and the team destroying property (stuff happens). Cage interrupts to point out that the team rescued hostages from Fisk's thugs. Clint answers the distrust of vigilante superheroes by saying that the TBolts are officially sanctioned - but no this doesn't give them carte blanche. Then he ruins it by trying to crack another joke.Luckily at this point the team is called out on an emergency. Hawkeye, Gutsen Glory, Power Man and Persuasion travel to the scene with Helen Astrantia in a SWAT van because America Chavez isn't there to provide 1 of her star-shaped portals. Spectrum also isn't with them because her contract's not been approved yet. They get to the Metropolitan Museum Of Art to find its been mostly evacuated but smoke/fumes coming out of the main door. Hawkeye tells the others to follow his orders *this time*. Persuasion suggests they just get her close enough to use her Purple Power (name subject to change) to make the bad guy to surrender.They detect his heat signature plus 4 others (which makes it another hostage situation) in the room hosting Here Be Monsters, a display of the sculptures of Alicia Masters. And inside they find 4 kids cheering on a small 'monster' with green hair and arms like volcanic rock melting Alicia's statues of monsters such as Fin Fang Foom and Orrgo. Hawkeye asks the children to move away and Persuasion tries 'persuading' the villain but only gets a headache. Clint fires an arrow which gets melted, and tells Power Man to get the dwarf away from the kids. Victor Alvarez tries but gets punched out through the roof to land outside in front of a teacher begging Helen and Met Security to save her 4 students. Those students stop Gutsen firing his big gun, and Kara Killgrave is babbling in the same language as the little monster.We avert our eyes and look in on America Chavez in the Washington Heights apartment of her Aunt Marta. She's still suffering from what she had last issue and has just woken up and vomited. But she now answers the load of urgent calls from Helen and flies to the Met ...... where Gutsen Glory fires his gun anyway without causing much damage to the foe. Hawkeye figures that Persuasion and the dwarf are mindlinked when they say the same alien word at the same time. He hopes this will open a window for peace talks. But Chavez chooses this moment to zoom in and fly the little monster through a wall, and then batter him with 2-fisted jackhammer punches. The kids are still trying to protect their 'friend' who now names himself Eegro The Unbreakable and surrenders in English.Kara recovers and says that Eegro learned the language from their mind-link. He compliments America on her strength - almost enough to make unleash the Ultimate Attack. Clint clams things down and introduces the team. Eegro says he came here from Monster Isle to see his own statue. But when he discovered there wasn't 1 he started destroying the others - which the fight has helped him achieve.Eegro then leads the Thunderbolts and kids outside to get the adoration of the people. The teacher thinks *he* saved her kids, who get selfies with him. But Gutsen won't let the children fire his laser. Victor is in the SWAT van convinced he messed up again so Clint gives him a pep talk.Afterwards back at the base Helen announces that Eegro will be their newest member, to the disgust of Clint and Victor. She reminds Clint that he's only the field leader, hiring and firing is part of her and Harris' job. They want Eegro because he has kid-appeal. Spectrum turns up in time for the team photo. Monica Rambeau commiserates with America about this being a step down from their days in the Ultimates, but Chavez says things have changed since then (see the America Chavez: Made In The USA mini-series).After the photo-shoot Clint and Monica share beers from the office bar, and she tells him she agreed to be on the team to make sure he didn't mess up *too* much. He thinks she's joking but we know from last issue she isn't.There's an epilogue with 2 joggers in Central Park that evening. 1 of them gets killed by a blast from a Russian-speaking ape who declares the Park now ape territory.


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[Assistant]
Back on target
Last issue the giant robot Terminus apparently killed the rest of the Thunderbolts leaving only Hawkeye alive. But the gang had different costumes, and in reality their PR Helen Astrantia found Hawkeye in a coma.Now Terminus faces them all alive (except America Chavez who's not here) but they all now have their regular costumes (except Clint Barton who's still in his original Hawkeye duds). A voice in their heads tells them how they're all failures. They ask for death and Terminus makes their own powers kill them all.But then we discover that Nightmare is behind it all and he has Chavez captive. Their 'suicides' fuel him, and now he wants America's power to create portals to other dimensions so he can feast on multiversal suffering. He makes the other Tbolts experience being mocked by their more successful versions from last issue. America is dissed by her sister and both versions of her 2 mothers as well as her own WWII Miss America version from last issue.Nightmare looks in on a world where Super-Skrulls have invaded, another where Dormammu and his Mindless Ones run rampant, a 3rd where Thanos leads an army of zombie or cannibal Earth heroes, and a 4th where Galactus destroys the world. Meanwhile he tells America (and us) what's been going on. He'd been feeding off Clint Barton's insecurities for a while before he had a major go at him (in Avengers: No Road Home #2-3). But then he stuck with him when he returned to Los Angeles (West Coast Avengers (2018) series) and Nightmare saw America Chavez and realised what he could do with her. Since then he's worked to undermine her self-confidence.America has continued to face Miss America but now she summons the resolve to defeat her and she shatters all last issue's versions of the Bolts like glass. The proper team are all up and assembled and Gutsen Glory, Power Man and Spectrum attack Nightmare together. Clint gives Eegro permission to unleash his Ultimate Attack so he grows (and Clint gets the joke) as big as a skyscraper and slams his volcanic fists down on the foe. Then Persuasion persuades him to go to sleep.Later America tells Helen she took Nightmare to a distant dimension. It turns out Eegro can grow but can't shrink back so they're going to have to get hold of some Pym particles to do the job. Victor Alvarez convinces Gutsen not retire because they still need him as a 'Drill Sergeant'. Lawyer Harris Hutchley tells Kara Killgrave how he's been looking into precedents for making her mind control arrests stand up in court and she seems to be warming towards him. Clint tricks Monica Rambeau into confirming that he was Luke Cage's 2nd choice for leader behind *her*, but they agree on balance that he's doing OK.Next morning Mayor Cage interrupts Clint's archery practice to agree with that but asks him to do better. And then Clint calls up his ex-wife Bobbi Morse and they agree to meet for coffee.


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[Assistant]
(no title given)
When he was younger Kang The Conqueror heard of the massacre of the university planet Phearthon and wondered who did it. Now many years older it is his time-travelling self that leads his spacefaring army to raze the academic world in search of a particular alien scholar who knows all about the Missing Moment - 1 second of history that no time-traveller can access. The alien tells him that the Moment is the hidden start of the road to the greatest prize ever. He whispers (in alien) the secret of that prize but says Kang will be cursed by the knowledge because only heroes can overcome the necessary Tribulation Events, not a bloody-handed tyrant like him. So Kang kills him and orders his troops to search the place for all relevant documents.1 personal year later on the flagship Prospero of his Tempest fleet Kang is bored. He's grown tired of his history of conquests which always ended in (temporary) defeat. He's begun to wonder if he's reached the limit of his conquering ability and begun to turn into his future self Immortus. The quest for the Missing Moment is all he has left to strive for. He summarises what he knows. The inaccessible Moment must be unlocked by a key (all metaphorically) forged by heroes overcoming Tribulation Events, and it is the 1st step toward achieving the Grail (again probably metaphorical). The TEs include:- The Death Moon. The Fall Of The Impossible City. The King Of Magic. The Cannibal Culture. He has scoured the future and found things that match these names. But how will become a hero that meets them?Then someone materialises within Kang's private room. It is a hooded and fully-masked figure who declares that neither of them can fit *that* bill, but he will be the Conqueror's competition for the prize. Kang orders his room to kill the intruder but his defences don't activate. The other names himself Myrddin and says that he knows the Conqueror's security codes and has used them to disarm the room. Kang then orders his 'raiment' to activate as mask and armour and arm him with a sword. He scoffs at the other's name, saying he has met the real Merlin Ambrosius. Myrrdin parries the sword with his own (wooden?) staff and reminds his foe that heroes are needed for the TEs, and he has created his own band of knights, the Twilight Court.Those heroes also meterialise. We see them and are told their names:- Artur the King, Mordred the Witch, Galehaut the God, Bercilak the Construct, Parsifal the Icon, Bedivere the Engineer and Lancelot the Star. Kang wonders if he has traitors in his army who have allowed his superior security to be breached. But now he recognises that his flagship is lost so he orders Prospero to self-destruct and his armour does an emergency timejump.As he moves through time Kang sees images of events in Marvel's near future, but none of them are useful. Instead he heads for 1 of the TEs he scoped, the Fall Of The Impossible City. In particular he lands in Toronto whose buildings are being warped by the Citysmith. Galehaut follows him and attacks with her mighty fists. Kang scans her and recognises an Asgardian gene splice. He responds with Z-Beams which don't bother the God at all, but they are teleport markers which allow the Conqueror to send her away.Lancelot follows, angry at what he might have done to her comrade. Kang now works out that they are both much younger than they seem - they've been artificially aged. She attacks with 2 energy blades emitted by her hands. He responds with real sword ported in by his raiment system, but 1 that scintillates with energy. They spar and Kang compliments her skill, but he declares he can use her heroic nature against her. He gets raiment to teleport in 6 fragmentation bombs and Lancelot rushes to save the surrounding civilians.Kang timejumps again and see more fragments of 2023. His target this time is the Death Moon TE in the Sonoran Burn Zone. He finds Bedivere and Bercilak there waiting for him but they don't ambush him. Bedivere speaks because Bercilak never does. He tells Kang that he has no powers because he was the 1st created after the king. But instead he has the brains to create his own weapons. His armour extrudes a big gun which Kang generates a force field to repel. He recognises that the armour is based on Technarchy tech. He then turns to face Bercilak but he's ported to behind him, and his touch makes K's raiment system begin to breakdown. Bedivere says Bercilak is a nanohive entity whose computing power allowed it to fold space-time (to get through the force field and behind Kang) and launch a nanoware attack on his AI.Bedivere now attacks with a sword which can split the forcefield. K gets a sword again to parry. They spar until K gets a different sword which pierces B's armour. He announces that it is the Ebony Blade created by Merlin and used in this era by the Black Knight, Dane Whitman. Kang found it 1,000 years later on a planet where its maddened owner had killed the rest of his people before committing suicide. He prepares to execute his foe but silent Bercilak cries "No" and causes K's armour to take him back into the timestream ...... where the Conqueror sees more future visions before being delivered to Mordred the Witch-Knight in the Between-Time surrounded by Tarot cards. She doesn't intend to fight him. She is the Chaos Agent of the Twilight Court, which Kang interprets as that she might betray Myrrdin. She replies that Mordred was the Judas of Camelot and it is that story she was created to embody. Judas betrayed Christ but without him there would have been no resurrection. On the other hand Mordred betrayed Arthur and ended Camelot. But she must now work out what the effect of *her* betrayal would be. She knows Kang is a villain. He agrees but says so is Myrddin - they seek the Missing Moment for the same reasons. She decides to let Artor decide.And so they all meet up at another TE, the Cannibal Culture in the Blue Area of the Moon. She tells her king she has brought Kang for judgement. Artor says K has already been found guilty of untold deaths across the universe. Mordred responds that they are knights, not executioners. Kang deserves a proper trial. Artor is compelled to agree but Parsifal offers to take on the accused in a trial by combat. Kang also agrees and removes his armour, so Parsifal dispenses with his weapons.Kang is confidant of his martial skill but doesn't know what power his opponent has. Parsifal invites him to attack. K rains blows by fist and foot but P dodges them all while complimenting every 1. He explains that as long as his cause is just he cannot lose. K can't figure out what genetic power could do that, and without his AI he can't discover the answer. And obviously the knight's cause *is* just because K *has* killed millions. He plays for time by asking P why the king doesn't fight him. While they continue the bout the knight replies that it would be an unfair fight because Artor wears the Armour Of Chthon. He was the 1st from the Cauldron Of Rebirth but as the test case the result was flawed. His body is weak and needs the armour to sustain it. But his heart is the noblest of all because any lesser man would be immediately corrupted by the cursed armour.Now Kang has found a weakness. He goads Parsifal by insulting the king. He says that Myrddin is not worthy of P's service, and neither is Artor. He's a puppet king, a weak failed experiment held together by a cursed armour. The knight retaliates in anger, and Artor calls out because he realises what K is doing. And in that moment P's cause is not just, and Kang is able to KO him with 1 punch.Artor declares that Kang has won the trial, if by foul means. Kang takes the opportunity to repeat that Myrddin is as much a villain as himself. He's using them to kill him, and he'll use them as heroes to win through to the Missing Moment to gain a cosmic prize. At which point Myrddin appears to declare him a liar and stab him through the back of the chest with his staff. Artor protests that K had won the trial by combat. Myrddin says that he didn't deserve a trial. Kang swears to stop him getting the Missing Moment, and timejumps away.He escapes to the blackness of null-time (a failsafe coded separately from his corrupted AI). More failsafes are trying to repair his body but they're merely succeeding in postponing his death. He needs help, and his own band of heroes.In an epilogue in Myrddin's quarters we see him with a 'chessboard' with pieces representing Kang (tipped over), Dr Doom and Ultron. 2 more pieces have their backs to us which the Marvel Fandom Wiki identifies as Baron Mordo and Mr Sinister. He had hoped for a better showing from Kang, and wonders how he would have reacted if he knew who Myrddin really was. But he's not going to remove his mask until all the other pieces have been similarly dealt with.


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[Assistant]
Return from the Grave!
A walking corpse
enters the home of solicitor James Jackson, kills his secretary, rips open the
safe and takes something from inside; when Jackson arrives, the corpse knocks
him out and departs….
Count Dracula
awakens in Highgate Cemetery and plans to feast on two graverobbers he comes
upon—but the corpse sits up in its coffin, kills the two robbers, and dissolves
into dust before Dracula can take vengeance on the one that stole his victims.
The vampire lord summons his slave the cemetery caretaker and has him bury the
two bodies then heads to town where he locates a woman contemplating suicide to
prey upon….
Inspector Chelm,
hearing from James Jackson that the killer looked like a corpse, calls Quincy Harker
 to suggest Dracula may be involved; Harker doesn’t think so. Chelm then
receives a report of trouble downtown. A walking corpse has confronted a woman
in the street and stolen her locket; several men from a nearby pub come to her
defense but the corpse is surprisingly strong. Dracula spies the action and
swoops down to take vengeance upon his new enemy but the corpse hurls Dracula
through a window and escapes. The police arrive and Chelm tries to halt the
vampire for questioning but Dracula waits for no man….
In Ireland, Chen,
servant of Doctor Sun, delivers the vampire Lucas Brand to his master; he is
asked to choose his reward and Chen requests that his father be freed from
prison in China and Doctor Sun agrees….
Dracula trails the
corpse back to its grave and opens it; the corpse seizes him but one forceful
thrust causes it to crumble to dust. Dracula recognizes the name on the
tombstone: Paul Beare, an occultist he once knew. Dracula goes to Beare’s
mansion and finds Beare’s corpse with a note attached: “Do not bury him again.”
Dracula takes Beare’s body to the cemetery but is confronted by the walking
corpse; Dracula battles it and tears it apart, bone by bone. Inspector Chelm
arrives to explain matters: occultist Paul Beare died four weeks ago and by
astrology chose the place he wanted to be buried; problem: there was already
someone buried there, one Duncan Corley. Beare’s attorney James Jackson had
Corley’s body moved; Corley wanted his own grave back so he invaded Jackson’s
home, stole the locket from Beare’s widow because it contained a piece of his
own tombstone, and then went back to his grave to die in peace. Dracula scoffs
but returns Corley’s bones to his grave….


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[Assistant]
Enter: Werewolf by Night
Dracula returns to
his castle in Transylvania, shipping coffins of dirt to England to replace the
ones destroyed by the vampire hunters, so he can return there and pursue his
enemies….
In the Paris
catacombs, Quincy Harker discovers Blade, bitten by Dracula (last issue) and
apparently dead. He prepares to stake his ally….
Seeking to learn
more about the werewolf’s curse, Jack Russell and his sorceress girlfriend
Topaz arrive in Transylvania and check into a hotel. There, a thug named
Scratcher makes a pass at Topaz and Jack punches him. Later that night,
Scratcher, seeking revenge, creeps into Jack’s room and finds Topaz using her
powers to keep Jack from transforming into the Werewolf; the distraction breaks
the spell and the beast comes out and he chases Scratcher out to the street, leaps
on him and kills him. Topaz is able to make Jack docile—just in time for
Dracula to prey on her. Dracula is unnerved by the intensity of her stare into
his eyes and turns away. The Werewolf attacks but the vampire easily hurls him
away and finds a new victim nearby….
The next day, Jack
and Topaz go to his family home, Russoff Manor, where Jack tells Topaz of his
father’s death at the hands of werewolf hunters. They discover a secret passage
that leads to a cave where they find a telescope pointed at Castle Dracula. To
find out why Russoff was interested in the castle, they walk there but Dracula
spies them and swoops down to carry off Topaz to find out more about her
powers. Jack transforms into the Werewolf and attacks Dracula, who knocks Topaz
out and prepares to feast on the blood of a werewolf….
Story continues in
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #15.


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[Assistant]
The Coming of Doctor Sun
Count Dracula is in
the Transylvanian Alps pursued by Rachel van Helsing and Frank Drake in a
helicopter, firing wooden bullets at him. The Count finds the winds are too
strong for him to fly as a bat so he tries ducking among the crags and hiding
in the snow. He comes across the remnants of a recent campfire and locates a
man in a nearby cave; the man is dead from exposure and Dracula tries drinking
his blood but finds it foul. Dracula also discovers that the cave is full of
treasure, likely hidden by the Turks centuries ago, but no good to him now; he
passes out from hunger….
In the copter, Frank
asks Rachel why she is so determined to kill Dracula; she explains that Dracula
killed her grandfather, the famous Professor van Helsing, then returned years
later to kill her parents. She was nine years old that night and her life was
saved only by the sudden arrival of Quincy Harker who chased the vampire off.
Quincy raised her as a daughter, training her to be the ultimate vampire
hunter….
Northern Ireland:
Having passed all of the tests, vampire Lucas Brand is finally introduced to
his new master, Doctor Sun—who is revealed to be a disembodied brain hooked up
to machines….
Back in the Alps,
Dracula awakens to find himself in a cave, a prisoner of Professor Morgo,
servant of Doctor Sun. The Count is restrained by garlic infused chains; Morgo
reveals to Dracula who his betrayer was: Clifton Graves. His body a mass of
scars, Cliff explains that he was critically injured in the boat explosion at
the end of issue #10 but Sun’s men, hunting for Dracula, found him and put him
back together. Cliff taunts Dracula with a vial of blood but he breaks free and
kills Morgo, drinking his blood. As he wrestles with Cliff, Frank and Rachel
arrive; while Franks shoots the guards, Rachel aims her crossbow at Dracula—who
swiftly pushes Cliff in the way, letting him take the fatal bolt. Then a
curtain swings aside and an immobility beam captures Dracula, Frank, and
Rachel. They are now all prisoners of Doctor Sun….


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[Assistant]
Through a Mirror Darkly!
Aging faded beauty
Ilsa Strangway invites Count Dracula into her home. She keeps Dracula at bay
with a cross as she explains that she bought his castle from Frank Drake in hopes
of meeting the legendary Count. Ilsa is willing to do anything to regain her
lost looks even if it means becoming a vampire, offering the Count the secret
of the Black Mirror. Dracula agrees to the bargain and she drops the cross
allowing him to bite her. Ilsa’s butler Whitby comes upon them and Dracula
flattens him with a blow…
…and he relates this
later to Rachel van Helsing and Frank Drake at the hospital, sending them, with
Taj Nital, to the Strangway home. Taj discovers some tracks and follows them….
As the sun sets at a
WW2 coastal bunker, Clifton Graves awakens his master and Ilsa Strangway who
awakens as one of the living dead for the first time. Upholding her part of the
bargain, Ilsa explains to Dracula that she purchased the Black Mirror and learned
that by reciting a certain incantation, the mirror becomes a portal to another
time and place, which Dracula could use to return to his own century. The Count
accepts this and the two fly off as bats to feed. The vampire-hunters arrive
and place crosses in the two coffins. Frank and Taj head for the Strangway
mansion while Rachel waits for Ilsa to return. In town Ilsa preys on a young
couple in an alley; Dracula discovers Frank trailing him and attacks but is
driven off by a flashlight with a cross painted on the lens. Dracula makes it
to the mansion but finds he is trapped inside as all the doors and windows are
guarded by police holding similar flashlights. He hurries upstairs to find the
Black Mirror….
Ilsa returns to the
bunker to find Rachel waiting for her. Rachel tells the woman that she is not
young and beautiful as she wished; Clifton reveals that Dracula had deceived
her, a vampire will not become younger than they were when they became a
vampire thus Ilsa will always look the age she is now—at best. But Ilsa reveals
that she deceived Dracula: she did not mention that if there is not another
Black Mirror where the traveler wishes to go, he ends up in another world of
demon-creatures. With that she begs Rachel to give her peace; Rachel does….
At the Strangway
home, Dracula speaks the incantation to open the Black Mirror just as Taj
arrives and assaults his enemy. Frank and Rachel arrive to see Dracula and Taj
disappearing through the mirror….


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[Assistant]
The Fear Within!
Frank Drake, with a
companion named Gort, returns to the burned-out husk of Castle Dracula. There
Frank finds Dracula’s tomb and also Clifton Graves, his pal who was thrown
alive into a pit by the Count. Frank is taking Dracula’s coffin as part of a
plan to rescue his girlfriend Jean—now a vampire—from the Count’s clutches….
Nearby, Dracula
preys upon a village girl, then visits Doktor Carl von Harbou, an aged
physician who was Dracula’s servant as a boy. With some experimentation, von
Harbou manages to make the Count able to pass for a normal human. Dracula then
kills his servant, revenge for his having betrayed his master as a boy….
Frank and Clifton
return to London with Dracula’s coffin. That night, Frank hears a noise in his
hotel bathroom and, investigating, discovers Jeanie, saying she has returned to
him. But Frank knows she isn’t his Jeanie but a trap sent by the Count. Clifton
enters and Frank flashes a cross before her face to show Clifton she isn’t the
same Jean….
Dracula hears Jean’s
scream and moves on, chatting up a prospective victim named Ellie in a bar and
when her tough guy boyfriend Bart objects to the stranger’s attentions to her,
the Count knocks him across the room with a blow. Dracula takes her out and
bites her neck in an alley to sate his hunger and flies off in bat form as Bart
and his pals look on in horror….
Back in the hotel
room, a bound Jean convinces Clifton that Frank is insane and he was the one
she’s loved all along, causing Clifton to drug Frank’s coffee and free Jean.
But Frank awakens and Jean orders the hypnotized Clifton to kill him; Frank
decks his woozy pal with a blow. Dracula enters and fights Frank while Jean
prepares to feast on Clifton’s blood. Frank stabs Jean with a broken stick of
furniture and the sun rises. Dracula takes off in bat form while Jean dies in
the sunlight and Frank breaks down….


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[Assistant]
Who Stalks the Vampire?
Bitterly depressed
late one night, Frank Drake plans to leap off a bridge and end it all; he is
rescued by the huge Taj Nital and Frank meets his friend Rachel van Helsing,
whose great-grandfather killed Count Dracula. She saw in the news that he had
inherited and then sold Castle Dracula and now the Count is now loose in
London….
Clifton Graves,
drinking heavily since he saw Jeanie die last issue, is found by Count Dracula
and made his servant. Clifton is sent to the hotel where Frank had stored
Dracula’s stolen coffin and the night porter takes him to the storage room in
search of it. But Rachel van Helsing asks Frank to join their vampire-hunting
crusade and they arrive at the same place to look for the coffin. As the porter
helps Cliff with the coffin it falls revealing a false bottom full of gold.
Dracula arrives and “rewards” the porter with a bite. Frank, Rachel, and Taj
hear the man’s scream and come running. The two men try to fight Dracula but he
is too powerful. Rachel reveals a crossbow and she fires at the Count but he
dodges by becoming a bat and flying away with Cliff, locking the door behind
them. They struggle with the door until the police arrive and arrest them for
the porter’s murder….
The three are
questioned by Inspector Chelm but he doesn’t believe them until he is persuaded
to accompany them to the morgue and they are all present when the porter
awakens as a vampire, to immediately put to death….
Meanwhile at the
estate of Ilsa Strangway, her lawyer expresses concern over her purchases of
occult and bizarre items, noting that a man named Graves is making an offer for
Castle Dracula, which she recently bought from Frank Drake. Her concern is that
she was once a celebrated beauty and popular artists’ model but now that she is
aging her looks are eroding and if medical science can’t stop her aging, she
will turn to magical means. She thinks she has found the answer in Bram
Stoker’s Dracula; when he scoffs, she dismisses him. She turns to find
Count Dracula himself standing silently on her balcony; knowing that a vampire
cannot enter a home for the first time without being invited by one of the
household, Ilsa Strangway bids Dracula enter….


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[Assistant]
To Kill a Vampire!
As Quincy Harker
mourns the daughter he was forced to kill (last issue), Blade demands that they
forget about her and pursue Dracula, which leads to a fight with Frank Drake.
Rachel van Helsing breaks up the fight and Quincy says Blade is right, they
must go after their deadly quarry….
College student
Cecile Parker is on her way home late at night when she is accosted by a
would-be rapist. Dracula comes to her rescue, kills the man and hypnotizes her
into coming with him to her death….
At the morgue,
servants of Doctor Sun bribe the attendant into letting them have the body of
Lucas Brand, killed in issue #11; as they go, they murder the attendant to
ensure his silence….
Curious about human
activity, Dracula attends a boxing match but is disgusted by such wanton waste
of strength and passion….
At Quincy Harker’s
home, after Edith has been cremated and her ashes stored in a jar, Blade
reveals the motivation behind his hunt: his mother was in labor with him when a
doctor was called; the doctor turned out to be vampire Deacon Frost who drank
his mother’s blood just as Blade was born and he has vowed to kill the monster
that took his mother from him….
Dracula, in bat
form, is spied flying over a tent meeting on his way to his hidden sanctuary
and this is reported to Harker. The heroes head to the nearest town and ask
about Dracula and discover the postmaster has been hypnotized by the vampire.
Dracula realizes that his enemies have found him and prepares a grim welcome.
When they arrive, there is a violent battle, with Taj Nital being hurled into
the river, as the enthralled townspeople rush to their master’s aid. Harker
fires poisonous darts at Dracula but he merely takes on his misty form and
while he is stalking Harker, Blade creeps up behind Dracula and stabs him in
the heart with a wooden knife. Dracula is dead….


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[Assistant]
The Moorlands Monster!
Dracula and Lenore
escape through the Black Mirror into a ruined chapel on the English moors but
they don’t notice that they have been observed by a shaggy deformed monster.
The vampires split up to hunt for prey: Dracula feeds on a servant girl whose
body afterwards is hidden by the mystery creature. Lenore preys on a young man
in a nearby village….
Frank Drake, Rachel van Helsing
and Taj Nital, on Dracula’s trail, emerge from the Black Mirror at
the Strangway home but learn he did not emerge from this mirror. They meet
Inspector Chelm who informs them of a mysterious murder on the moors—and the
sighting of a shaggy deformed monster. The heroes meet with Lord and Lady
Dering who describe their missing servant girl and Rachel tells them they
suspect a vampire; the Derings look relieved. While investigating the moors,
Rachel spies a bat heading for the chapel and pursues and she is trapped by
Lenore; her scream brings Frank and Taj face-to-face with Dracula. Frank fires
the crossbow but Dracula pulls Lenore in front of him and she takes the deadly
bolt. Dracula flees, leading them toward a death trap, unaware that he is being
followed by the shaggy deformed monster ….
The heroes have
discovered the body of the missing servant girl and return to the Dering home.
Lord Dering decides to reveal that he and his wife have a son named Randolph
who was born with Rachitis and Nevus Pilosis which made him a shaggy deformed
monster; he lives in the ruined chapel and the dead servant girl took him his
food. Lord Dering also suggests that the vampire has gone to Hagscroft Castle
for its burial vault. So, they go there and find Dracula waiting for them. He
opens a pit, bashes Taj in the head with the heavy lid, tosses Rachel and Frank
in and replaces the lid. Knowing Taj couldn’t lift the lid, Rachel and Frank
assume they are doomed and confess their love for one another. But Randolph,
the shaggy deformed monster, lifts the lid and helps them out. As they cross
the moors with their new friend, Frank knows that his vampire heritage will
prevent any real relationship with Rachel….


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[Assistant]
The Voodoo-Man!
Dracula returns to
his coffin in a Surrey mortuary, planning revenge against his enemies, starting
with the motorcycle gang that attacked him while he was weak (issue #9
flashback)….
The leader of that
gang, Lucas Brand, has been hired by an invalid, Jason Faust, to use his gang
to take revenge against his enemies. Next on the list is banker Oliver Gordon;
on their way to his office, the gang splashes mud on Frank Drake and
Rachel van Helsing, on their way to see a Dracula stage play. Brand confronts Gordon, who
did not allow Faust to cash in bonds before the due date; for that reason,
Faust was unable to have an operation, leaving him trapped in an iron lung.
Brand contacts the boss—who uses the power of voodoo to torment and kill
Gordon….
Jason Faust reveals
that on a business venture in Haiti, he was captured by natives for violating
their sacred ground and subsequently tortured and crippled by voodoo, leaving
him an invalid. But one good thing came out of hit: he learned the power of
voodoo to use against his enemies….
At a nightclub,
Dracula locates a member of the motorcycle gang and scares the man, who left
the group because he wanted nothing to do with the Faust job, into telling him
he can find his former mates in Dover, on their second murder mission. Dracula
flies to the White Cliffs where he finds the victim dead but he is able to
trace the motorcycle tracks to the home of their next victim—Quincy Harker.
Brand and his hoods tell Quincy that Jason Faust wants revenge for Quincy’s
having advised him to go to Haiti but Dracula bursts in, accidentally rescuing
his old enemy. Dracula hypnotizes the gang into driving their cycles to the
White Cliffs and over but he has a special fate for Lucas Brand. He bites the
man, turning him into a vampire, and sends him back to Jason Faust. Brand bites
Faust, but Faust pierces a voodoo doll of Brand so that the gang leader dies.
Faust becomes a vampire—only to perish with the dawn when the rising sun kills
him….


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Night of the Death Stalkers!
Dracula calls down a
snowstorm on London as a prelude for his hunting one dark night. He summons
rats to drive a young woman into his waiting arms but her crucifix drives him
away. He leaves her to the rats but her father, an old man in a wheelchair, and
his dog drive them off. He then sends a message to Rachel van Helsing that
Dracula is in London….
Meanwhile, Dracula
makes his plans to trap his enemies while berating his servant Clifton Graves….
Rachel van Helsing,
Frank Drake, and Taj Nital come to London to see Quincy Harker; Rachel explains that Quincy is the
son of Jonathan and Mina Harker and he has a scientific approach to
vampire-hunting. Frank is introduced to Harker and his daughter Edith and they
return to the Harker estate. Harker shows off his latest tool, a tube that
fires a net weighted down with garlic-filled balls, designed to trap Dracula in
bat form. Harker gives a short history of vampire-hunting and Frank commits
himself to the mission….
At nightfall,
Dracula rises, abuses Cliff Graves some more and heads out to hypnotize a group
of young boys into serving him. As bait for his trap, Dracula preys upon a
drunken fellow named Buckley Grainger near Harker’s home; the man’s scream
brings the vampire hunters. After a wild struggle, Dracula flies off and the
others pursue in their car until their quarry enters an old fortress. They
creep in, overpower and bind Cliff, and drive a stake into Dracula’s heart as
he lies in his coffin. But it turns out to be a double and the vampire springs
his trap: he unleashes his pack of hypnotized boys to kill them, knowing they
will be hesitant to fight innocent children. As Dracula leaves, Harker fires a
round of poisoned darts, one of them striking Dracula and then they face the
children….