Marvel’s New Thunderbolts Team Includes a Supervillain’s Daughter

“Justice, Like Lightning” is the tagline for the newest iteration of Thunderbolts, who are making a comeback from writer Jim Zub and artist Sean Izaakse. With a new volume of the comic comes a new heroic roster, as Luke Cage – the newly-minted Mayor of New York City – recruits Hawkeye (Clint Barton) to lead the team. While there are some recognizable names like America Chavez and Monica Rambeau, Thunderbolts also tosses readers some curveballs like the mystery character Gutsen Glory and another new hero who has a connection to a longstanding villain.

WARNING: Spoilers for Thunderbolts #1 follow. Continue at your own risk!

Thunderbolts #1 is by Jim Zub, Sean Izaakse, Java Tartaglia, and VC’s Joe Sabino. The first issue jumps back and forth between the past and present-day, as Clint Barton is brought up to speed on Luke Cage’s vision for the Thunderbolts and then takes them on their first official mission. When Wilson Fisk was New York City Mayor, he deputized a villainous version of the Thunderbolts and outlawed other superheroes from patrolling the city. 

In the past, Luke Cage and Hawkeye go over each member of the team, which includes Kara Killgrave. Formerly known as The Purple Girl, Kara now uses the codename Persuasion. She’s the daughter of Zebediah Killgrave, aka The Purple Man, who is one of the primary nemesis of private investigator Jessica Jones. Just like her father, Persuasion has psychic abilities, which make her a key asset to the Thunderbolts to help calm the public during stressful situations, like fighting supervillains. A display of Persuasion’s powers takes place when she takes control of Abomination and proceeds to mentally persuade him to continuously punch himself in the groin.

As an added bonus, there appears to be some flirtation going on between Persuasion and Hawkeye after the Thunderbolts defeat their counterparts. Aside from both characters favoring the color purple, Persuasion and Hawkeye are also big baseball fans, and playfully argue over who is better between the New York Yankees and New York Mets.

While the Thunderbolts were victorious on their first mission, there are some kinks in their armor. For example, Luke Cage originally wanted Monica Rambeau to lead the team instead of Hawkeye. Also, the cybernetic warrior Gutsen Glory is having problems with his tech, America Chavez’s powers are malfunctioning and making her sick, and Hawkeye may be suffering from an evil influence.

Thunderbolts launches just as Marvel Studios announced a Thunderbolts movie at San Diego Comic-Con, which is slated for a July 26th, 2024 release. The MCU’s Thunderbolts roster will be announced at a later date, which leaves plenty of time for the studio to introduce a live-action version of Persuasion. After all, her father was played by David Tennant in Netflix’s Jessica Jones, now streaming on Disney+.