Marvel's New Thunderbolts Just Killed a Major Villain in Their First Mission
Thunderbolts #1 ends with Winter Soldier and his new team killing the Red Skull.
The first mission for Bucky Barnes and his new team of Thunderbolts successfully neutralized a major Marvel villain. Bucky Barnes is no longer the Winter Soldier, having picked up the role of Revolution in the recently wrapped Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty. Bucky and Cap were victorious in taking down the Outer Circle, an organization that was controlling the world from the shadows. Bucky now has access to all of the Outer Circle's files, and intends to use that information to finally hit back at some of the major threats in the Marvel Universe – starting with the Red Skull.
*WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Thunderbolts #1. Continue reading at your own risk!
Thunderbolts #1 is from the creative team of Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Geraldo Borges, Arthur Hesli, and VC's Joe Sabino. It follows Bucky Barnes as he starts recruiting for this new version of the Thunderbolts. His first recruits are Contessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine – who viewers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will remember is played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus – and Destroyer, the new moniker for Sharon Carter. He calls upon them to help him terminate Red Skull, who has been a constant threat during his existence for all of our assembled heroes. The trio storm Red Skull's castle in Argentina and are almost ambushed until another recruit, Red Guardian, joins them.
There have been different iterations of the Red Skull throughout his time in the Marvel Universe, most notably the Johan Shmidt and Aleksander Lukin. Thanks to Cosmic Cubes, one can never count the Red Skull out, since he always manages to slither his way back from the grave. Nevertheless, Bucky Barnes makes good on his promise and executes Red Skull with a single bullet. However, the end of the issue teases that the Red Skull is already working to bring himself back from the dead.
Marvel launches new Thunderbolts comic
The announcement of a new Thunderbolts series comes as Marvel Studios prepares for a live-action Thunderbolts movie. The rosters for both projects have some of the same characters, such as the Winter Soldier, White Widow (Yelena Belova), Red Guardian, U.S. Agent, and Contessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine.
The description of the Thunderbolts comic reads, "Bucky Barnes, the Revolution, just inherited a mountain of covert intel and he has one objective: justice… like lightning! He's going after the establishment, the people no one else is willing or able to take down, and he'll do whatever it takes to win. Teaming with the mysterious Contessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine, Bucky assembles a team of black-ops heavy hitters to pursue high-profile targets like the Red Skull, Kingpin and even Doctor Doom himself. No one is safe from the Thunderbolts!"
Let us know what you think of Thunderbolts #1 in the comments!