The T-Bolts took down the new Doctor Spectrum in the last arc when Spectrum’s Prism Ring failed and brought her back to DC as a prisoner. Now, the Thunderbolts’ employer, the Commission on Superhuman Activities, is studying her device.
While that’s going on the team has some downtime developments. Erik Josten learns that his baby brother was either killed by Graviton or trapped in the Darkforce Dimension. Whizzer (aka Speed Demon) continues stealing money to support the team, and realizes that his powers are increasing.
Blizzard is also trying to get a power upgrade from Fixer.
And Photon is so distracted by a recent “blind spot” in his cosmic awareness that he won’t sleep with his girlfriend, Joystick. So Whizzer takes her top off.
Her response is to kick him in the nuts. We see him icing his balls later.
Then the action starts. One of the places Whizzer robbed was Richmond Enterprises, which is owned by Nighthawk. He attacks the T-Bolts but then…
Hyperion arrives. Turns out, he’s there because Genis Vell blew up his home in the Microverse back in the Peter David Captain Marvel series. So this is YET ANOTHER Hyperion. This one is from the Microverse. But, like his predecessor, he got his powers from Grandmaster.
So now it’s confusing. You see, Nighthawk was part of the Squadron SUPREME–good guys. Hyperion is on the Squadron SINISTER–bad guys. And the new Doctor Spectrum isn’t aligned with either Squadron, but decides to take over the world with Hyperion.
Yes, it’s a big much to have all these characters coming together for different reasons. But it does allow for a big fight. That’s always fun.
The team does manage to foil Hyperion’s plans. Then, there’s a bunch of epilogues.
The mysterious new Swordsman is still lurking about.
The team kicks out Speed Demon for stealing from Nighthawk and offer Kyle Richmond that new vacant slot on the team.
On the other side, we conclude with Speed Demon throwing in with Hyperion and Spectrum, and Grandmaster (who created the Squadron Sinister) arriving to promise a game coming soon.
They’ll be back later in the year when the T-Bolts series goes back to legacy numbering.
Fabian Nicieza never does a simple story, does he?