Published Jan 1997 by Marvel
Cover by Mike Deodato Jr
Script by Peter David
Pencils by Mike Deodato Jr
Inks by Tom Wegrzyn
36 pgs., full color

It's the first appearance of the Thunderbolts in the aptly-titled "Introducing the Thunderbolts," Hulk and Janis are attacked by the Thunderbolts; Hulk is hurt during the fight, and breaks the wall of a dam to switch their attention onto saving citizen lives; At the end of the issue we see the Hulk falling on his knees, grabbing his chest. Characters: Hulk (Bruce Banner); Thunderbolts (Citizen V; Mach-1; Songbird; Techno; Atlas; Meteorite) ; Janis Jones.

Featured Characters:
Hulk
Janis Jones
Henry Gyrich
Colonel St. Lawrence
Thunderbolts (First appearance)
Citizen V
Mach-1
Meteorite
Atlas
Techno
Songbird

Somewhere in the western United States the Hulk and Janis Jones leap across the desert when they are struck by a missile. As they are sent flying toward a small town. Janis is saved from a fatal fall by an armored man calling himself Mach-1, who thinks that she is a prisoner of the Hulk. However, he is surprised when she turns around and blasts him with her staff. Meanwhile, the Hulk lands in the middle of a rodeo where he is confronted by Meteorite, Techno, Atlas, and Songbird, members of a new superhero team calling themselves the Thunderbolts. When they order the Hulk to surrender they are surprised when the Hulk raises his hands. Techno orders Songbird to use her powers to create a cage of pure sound around their target. Having had a past history with the Hulk, Meteorite approaches the imprisoned Hulk and asks him to lower his arms. When he doesn't, she calls their leader, Citizen V and tells him to come immediately. While not far away, Mach-1 departs his battle with Janis, who follows after him to see what he is up to.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, Colonel St. Lawrence meets with Herny Gyrich to discuss the Hulk's latest ultimatum: leave him alone or he will retaliate by destroying a major city. While discussing their next move, they are interrupted by one of St. Lawrence's troops comes in to tell them about the Hulk's battle with the Thunderbolts and how he had seemingly surrendered to them. Back in Arizona, the Thunderbolts continue to contain the Hulk and wait for their leader Citizen V to arrive. When questioned by the leader of the Thunderbolts, the Hulk explains he wasn't surrendering, just waiting for the entire team to be in one place. He then claps his hands together, destroying the solid-sound cage and tries to leap away. He is struck by another one of Mach-1's missiles sending him into a crash landing on top of a nearby dam. As the Thunderbolts head after him, the Hulk wonders how that shot could have hurt him when he feels stronger than ever. It's then that the Hulk notices his chest is still bleeding.

When the Thunderbolts catch up, Janis also arrives to lend the Hulk a hand. While she is busy with Mach-1 and Meteorite, the Hulk charges at Atlas and Techno. It's during this fight that the Hulk realizes that he has heard Meteorite's voice somewhere before. However, the Hulk has become fed up with the fight and since the Thunderbolts have sworn themselves to protect innocent people, the Hulk smashes open the dam, flooding the city below. With no other choice, the Thunderbolts have to go into the town and rescue people from drowning and plugging the dam. This allows the Hulk and Janis to make their escape. When Meteorite questions Citizen V about going after the Hulk, the leader of the Thunderbolts tells her that they need to prioritize. Not far away, Janis asks what the battle was all about, but before the Hulk can answer, his chest starts bleeding again and he collapses to the ground.

Unknown at this time, the Thunderbolts are actually former members of the Masters of Evil posing as superheroes as revealed in Thunderbolts #1. They were doing so as part of a scheme to fill the void created by the apparent deaths of the Avengers and Fantastic Four in Onslaught Marvel Universe #1 in a bid to secretly take over the world. This ruse was later exposed in Thunderbolts #11–12.

It is mentioned that Meteorite has had a past history with the Hulk. This is a reference to the days when she was known as Moonstone and infiltrated Gamma Base for the Corporation back in Incredible Hulk #228–232.

Every Way The MCU Has Already Setup & Teased The Thunderbolts
The Thunderbolts are coming to the MCU in Phase 4. Here's how the tumultuous events of Phases 1-3 set the stage for the Avengers replacement team.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been secretly setting up the Thunderbolts since Phase 1. A movie about the Avengers replacement team has been announced to begin production in 2023 and it's based on the popular Marvel Comics about supervillains posing as superheroes. While the MCU's version of the Thunderbolts will be different from the comics, it will likely launch out of the foundation that's been laid in the MCU over the last decade.

Several characters from Marvel Comics' Thunderbolts are already in the MCU. Baron Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) was introduced in Captain America: Civil War and he was prominently featured in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) joined the MCU in Ant-Man and the Wasp while Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) was a villain who was redeemed in Black Widow. Meanwhile, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) debuted in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and she's represented by a powerful secret organization looking to recruit superheroes. Thus far, Val has brought former Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell) aboard and renamed him U.S. Agent. Black Widow also revealed that Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) works for Valentina. No doubt, more will join their cabal and they could form the crux of the MCU's Thunderbolts.

The full roster of the MCU's Thunderbolts won't be known for some time but the new superteam will continue to be fleshed out as Phase 4 continues. Looking backward, however, many pivotal events in the MCU enabled the rise of both a new team to supplant the Avengers and the unnamed organization that will fund the Thunderbolts. The MCU radically changed between Phases 1 and 4 and this created a void that the Thunderbolts can fill.

Nick Fury's Boast To The World Security Council After The Avengers Beat Loki

When Earth's Mightiest Heroes beat Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the Chitauri in The Avengers, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) boasted to the World Security Council about how "dangerous" the superteam he assembled is: "They surely are. And the whole world knows it. Every world knows it." The Avengers' victory was a "promise" by Fury and it wasn't lost on the World Security Council. But what can be extrapolated is that the WSC also realized they don't control the Avengers and Fury put together a world-changing response team. Though no direct action was taken by anyone to create their own version of the Avengers at that time in MCU Phase 1, Fury proved the value of such a team and the world played a game of wait-and-see as to what would happen next and how long the Avengers would last.

The Fall Of SHIELD (And Hydra)
Agents of SHIELD Hydra Green Vials Captain America Super Soldier
As a global spy network, SHIELD kept the peace in the MCU for over 50 years. But when Hydra attempted to take over SHIELD, launch Project Insight, and revealed it had been part of the agency since its inception, the MCU was completely destabilized by the fallout. When SHIELD fell in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, other powerful secret organizations around the world like the Ten Rings from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Russia's Red Room, home of the Black Widow program, began asserting themselves. It's possible that the seeds for the clandestine group that Contessa Allegra de Fontaine works for were also planted during the uncertain years after SHIELD collapsed and the Avengers took down Hydra.

Drafting The Sokovia Accords
The Sokovia Accords in Captain America Civil War
The drafting of the Sokovia Accords was a game-changing moment in the MCU and it continues to affect the world in Phase 4. The Sokovia Accords came about because, for all of the Avengers' heroism, they also made some very public mistakes but were not accountable to the government since they were a private organization. The attempt to use the Sokovia Accords to bring the Avengers in line backfired as most of the superheroes ended up rebelling against the new laws of the land.

However, the Sokovia Accords' rules continue to apply to every enhanced individual in MCU Phase 4, and the intent of the governments of the world to have control over superheroes remains. When the Thunderbolts rise, they will also be subject to the Sokovia Accords. And yet, given the influence Valentina de Fontaine claims her employers wield in the government, the Thunderbolts could turn out to be less beholden to the Sokovia Accords than the Avengers were.

The Avengers Civil War And Introduction Of Zemo
Iron Man vs Captain American in Civil War
Helmut Zemo, a Sokovian Baron and intelligence agent, proved that one individual could successfully break apart the world's most powerful superteam. Zemo used the advent of the Sokovia Accords and the tensions within the Avengers to get the superheroes to turn on each other. As a result, most of the Avengers led by Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) were arrested or became fugitives while Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) oversaw a drastically limited lineup of Avengers as Iron Man. Zemo sparking the Avengers Civil War publicly exposed the fallacies and vulnerabilities of the Avengers. Lessons must have been learned by the secret organization that is assembling the Thunderbolts and Baron Zemo can guarantee that the Thunderbolts won't repeat the Avengers' mistakes if he's recruited into the team.

Thanos' Snap Wiping Out Half Of Earth's Population
Avengers Infinity War Thanos Snap Gauntlet
The MCU is still charting the aftereffects of Thanos' Snap in Phase 4. The Mad Titan wiping out half of all life in the universe in Avengers: Infinity War forever altered the Earth. The boundaries of nations were rewritten and populations shifted in the five years before Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) resurrected everyone Thanos killed in Avengers: Endgame. In MCU Phase 4, the attempt to return to the pre-Snap status quo sparked political chaos and led to the rise of the Flag-Smashers in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But, as evidenced by how Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp) remade herself into the Power Broker in Madripoor, the turmoil of the five years between Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame created the opportunity for new organizations to establish their own power bases in a world with weakened government controls. This could be when and how Contessa Valentina de Fontaine's employers rose to power and began their own initiative to create the Thunderbolts.

The Avengers' Questionable Status After Endgame

Whether or not the Avengers are still an active team after Endgame remains an open question in MCU Phase 4. But if there is no Avengers team in a formal sense, then it's a prime opportunity for the Thunderbolts to come along and fill the void. Thus far, MCU Phase 4 has looked back at Natasha Romanoff's (Scarlett Johansson) past in Black Widow, explored Wanda Maxmimoff's (Elizabeth Olsen) grief in WandaVision, created a new Captain America in Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), introduced new heroes like Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and the Eternals, and set up the Multiverse in Loki and What If...? But overall, the MCU has been taking its time in answering what really is the state of the Avengers in Phase 4 while also slowly planting the seeds for the Thunderbolts in the margins.