This incarnation of Thunderbolts only lasted a year, and may have been quickly forgotten; which I don't think was necessarily these creators' fault. It featured most of the classic Thunderbolts lineup, plus Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier: Marvel seemed to be trying to figure out how to capitalize on his popularity from the movies, but with limited results, since this title started from Avengers Standoff: Welcome to Pleasant Hill and was building up to Secret Empire, with the heroes here having no way to stop it.
(A moment for a pointless gripe: So this series, and I think most if not all of Captain America: Steve Rogers was all building up to Secret Empire, a total of like 31 issues. That feel like a bit long of a burn, and a bit spendy: I don't want to follow Hydra Cap for more than a couple issues, not over a year. If comics were still cheap, maybe it would be a bit more forgivable, but still seems way too long. Also, thematically it felt like the wrong time for it...)
The T-Bolts had been guarding Kobik, a Cosmic Cube that had manifested a personality, that of a little girl. A gullible little girl, since she is manipulated by the Red Skull (because, admittedly, you can't argue he doesn't love the Cosmic Cube...) to retroactively turn Cap into a true believer of Hydra. In the previous issue, Helmut Zemo had attacked, critically injuring Bucky, but Kobik had offered to "fix everything" and Bucky hadn't had any choice. He then finds himself back in World War II, but with his current memories; and even better news, had already killed Heinrich Zemo! Bucky thinks that has to change the future: Cap won't get frozen, and neither would he, no Winter Soldier.
Bucky receives new orders to go on a recon mission, with Cap staying behind, under protest. Bucky investigates some unguarded Nazi trucks, but that's putting his head in the noose: it's full of Zemo's androids, who beat the tar out of him. He wakes up, chained to a plane like he and Cap had been in the old reality, by Zemo, this time Helmut. He knows the Nazis are all but finished, but "the future belongs to Hydra." Cap is there as well, to save Bucky, but not in the way he would hope: Steve argues with Zemo that Bucky is an asset, that they could use. Zemo says that went out the window when he killed Heinrich, but Steve tries to get Bucky to join them: "Say it. 'Hail Hydra.'"
Refusing, Bucky is launched on the drone fighter, blowing up a U.S. base in a fiery death...interrupted by a frustrated Kobik, yelling at him for messing it up: he was supposed to join Hydra, duh! Kobik thought she was letting him into her "secret club" with Hydra Cap, the Red Skull, and not-movie-version Erik Selvig, who had also been retroactively made a Hydra loyalist. Bucky still refuses, telling Kobik he had protected her, while she had ruined everything, and she screams...
There's probably a reason, but if Kobik was able to retroactively turn Cap and Selvig, why couldn't she turn Bucky? Or everyone, for that matter? Maybe the Skull didn't want to risk altering the timeline too much. Or explaining that to a little girl would've been too much.
1 comment:
Good question and I highly doubt they explained that logical question away either.
Personally for me, there was & is NEVER a good time to turn Cap into a literal Nazi unless it's a What If? story or some alternate reality, and even then it has to be stressed that it's not our Cap being turned.
While I do understand the shock appeal of the idea due to it being taboo, but it's also a hard slap in the face to his two well known & VERY Jewish creators.
This was something that never should've been allowed to go on for as long as it did and it rightfully so caused a shit ton of backlash for Marvel.
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