During the Red Hulk/Thunderbolt Ross era of...Thunderbolts; there's an issue--
#7--where the rest of the team--Deadpool, Elektra, the Flash Thompson Venom, and the Punisher--decide they've had enough and try to jump him. And get
clobbered, just shellacked. And Ross even had a secret weapon in reserve, one that even worried him, as he discusses today with Flash: from 2013,
Thunderbolts #13, written by Charles Soule, art by Phil Noto.
On this team's first mission, Mercy had slaughtered a band of armed rebels, effortlessly and somewhat thoughtlessly; and Flash finally confronts her on it. She tells him, he no longer interests her: maybe once, when he had lost his legs and wanted to die, but now that he had "this creature," the Venom symbiote...testing a theory, Mercy tears the symbiote off Flash. Although he wants it back, Mercy can see he no longer wanted to die, so swipe left, bored now. Taking the symbiote back, Flash stomps into Ross's office...is it weird that even as vigilantes, Ross still has a desk and files like he was still a general? Ross downplays Flash's accusations of him "keeping a monster," since hey, what was one more? But he was unaware, and mildly dismayed, to hear Mercy had taken out those rebels, even if they probably weren't good guys. The amount of control Ross had over the rest of his 'team' was largely contingent on if he, as the Red Hulk, could currently reach them; but that didn't work on Mercy; and he tells Flash her story, as much as he knew.
Mercy had fought the Hulk--"the other Hulk"--and lost, going into a dormant, coma-like state. (Ross describes it like she had lost a punch-up, like she was the Abomination or something; but I believe it was more that Mercy wasn't able to 'help' the Hulk by putting him out of his misery, and she didn't know how to deal with that.) The Army had tried to study her, but learned nothing, and basically walled her up and left her. Ross describes the Army as like a "hoarder," and says he himself hung on to stuff like that...just in case. He had taken a couple soldiers with him, but didn't know one had just been left by his wife, and was pretty wrecked by it: enough that Mercy could feel it, killing him, then disappearing. Much later, as the Red Hulk, Ross investigated a report from the Himalayas, of a strange temple, where travelers went not in search of wisdom or healing, but to die. Mercy had taken a Kali-like form, and was pretty happy with her set up: people that wanted to die came to her, she killed them. So, what's the problem? Ross was still mad over the loss of his soldier: he was depressed, sure, but he probably would've come out of it. He thinks he can stop her, but killing everyone that come there to die, Mercy picks up enough juice to launch the Red Hulk off of her mountain. It was a good hit, but he recovers, climbs back up, and causes an avalanche to crush her temple.
Appearing as a young woman with purple hair--fairly normal looking, not alien or distorted like she maybe did back in her early
Hulk appearances--Mercy tells him, now she had to go back out into the world, probably killing all willy-nilly. Ross makes a judgement call, that he admits to Flash was not a great decision; offering her "all the death you need" with his Thunderbolts. Mercy agrees to stay...for as long as she was interested. Neither Ross nor Flash now, had any idea what to do with Mercy: they couldn't control her, the best they could do was maybe point her at targets that deserved to die. Although, if said targets didn't
want to die, did Mercy have any power over them? I can see the creative team maybe wanting a player on the team that Ross couldn't just Red Hulk over, but Mercy was a wild card with vague rules. And there would apparently be some reveals for her later, that I think make even less sense? She seemed possibly alien in her first appearances, or perhaps a metaphysical manifestation like Death; later in this series she would be neither. And I think Ross might make more bad decisions regarding her then...
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