Thunderbolts: The First 10 Members Of Marvel’s Villainous Team, In Chronological Order

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is teasing the formation of a mysterious team with characters like U.S. Agent and Yelena Belova being enlisted by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Many fans believe this group could end up as the Thunderbolts, a motley crew of former villains who masqueraded as heroes in the late 1990s.

From the onset, the twist was that the Thunderbolts were still villains, and they just pretended to be heroes so their leader, Baron Zemo, could put them in a position of power. As time progressed, many team members decided they enjoyed being good, refused to follow Zemo and his plan for world domination, and recruited former Avenger Hawkeye to help establish them as legitimate superheroes.

10 Citizen V/Baron Zemo

Baron Zemo formed the Thunderbolts in his desire to take over the world. The Avengers and Fantastic Four had died after battling Onslaught and Zemo took the identity of an old superhero called Citizen V. He then set out to save his most loyal henchman Goliath and form the Thunderbolts.

He recruited most of his former Masters of Evil teammates by giving them new codenames and costumes. After the Thunderbolts were gathered, Baron prepared to take over the world but ultimately failed due to the efforts of “regular” superheroes like the Avengers. Zemo then revealed his team’s true identities to the world, which resulted in him losing the leadership of the group. After the Thunderbolts decided they enjoyed being adored superheroes rather than reviled villains, Zemo was permanently exiled from the team he helped create.

9 Techno/The Fixer

Baron Zemo realized that his old Master of Evil teammate, Goliath, needed his help. Knowing that he had the resources to save him, but not the knowledge or expertise to execute a plan, Zemo sought another villain to assist him. The Fixer had the technology and intelligence to find and free Goliath.

The Fixer figured out where Goliath was and helped him escape from another dimension. Once the Thunderbolts formed, the Fixer changed his name to Techno to hide his villainous past. When the Thunderbolts remained heroes, only Techno stayed loyal to his leader by helping the Baron get revenge on his former teammates.

8 Screaming Mimi/Songbird

After recruiting Techno and learning that the villain could help him save Goliath, Baron Zemo realized that creating a new team might be the best bet, and he went to find his next member. With her sonic screams and punk rock attitude, Screaming Mimi was an ideal recruit.

Mimi was working as a thief with her lover Anger the Screamer before he died in a robbery and left her heartbroken and alone. At the lowest point in her life, Zemo offered Mimi a new start, and she joined the Thunderbolts using the superhero codename Songbird.

7 Beetle/Mach-1

The next villain that Baron Zemo recruited for his Thunderbolts was a man named Beetle. Zemo had never worked with Beetle before, although he knew about him by reputation as one of Spider-man’s B-grade villains. Zemo realized Beetle would be a perfect member thanks to his armored suit.

Zemo saved Beetle from Daredevil and offered him a place on the team, which the villain instantly accepted. As Mach-1, he wanted to be a hero, but Hawkeye forced him to face the consequences of his past crimes. He ultimately went to jail to atone for his crimes.

6 Goliath/Atlas

After the war with Onslaught eliminated Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Zemo sensed an opportunity to form the Thunderbolts by first freeing Goliath from another dimension with help from the Fixer. It was the rescue of Goliath that solidified Zemo’s plans to take over the world by pretending to be superheroes.

When Goliath arrived, he swore his allegiance forever to Baron Zemo and changed his name to Atlas. He temporarily betrayed Zemo when the Thunderbolts turned good, but eventually returned to his old master, knowing he owed him his life.

5 Moonstone/Meteorite

The Thunderbolts’ first mission was to stop a mass prison escape of countless supervillains, which was engineered by Zemo so his team could look like heroes. They prevented everyone from trying to escape, but it was just a cover so they could find and recruit one particular person: Moonstone. The superstrong villainess initially didn’t want to leave prison because she wanted to serve out her prison sentence.

Baron Zemo, a perfect villain himself, admitted he didn’t completely trust her since she tried to kill him in the past. Her Kree-derived powers, combined with her skills as a psychologist, proved to be too valuable, and Zemo reluctantly recruited her to be on his team. Upon realizing the police would never believe that she left prison against her will, Moonstone joined the Thunderbolts and became Meteorite.

4 Jolt

Jolt was the first member who joined the Thunderbolts after they formed. She signed on in Thunderbolts #4 by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. Jolt was also the first person to join the group who was not a villain.

After Onslaught killed her parents, Arnim Zola kidnapped Jolt and experimented on her, giving her energy powers. She joined the Thunderbolts believing they were genuine heroes who wanted to save the world. Sadly, she became a fugitive like the rest of her teammates when the public learned of their villainous backgrounds.

3 Hawkeye

Baron Zemo revealed to the world that the Thunderbolts were really the Masters of Evil in disguise. He did this because the Thunderbolts wanted to serve as heroes, and Zemo felt they were drifting from his plan of using the team to gain wealth and power.

Everyone but the Fixer turned on Zemo because they wanted to continue to save the world instead of taking it over. As comic book fans know, Hawkeye was a former villain who volunteered to be the team’s new leader to help rehabilitate the former villains. Hawkeye’s Thunderbolts membership made him an outlaw for a while, as the government was not willing to pardon them, but through his guidance, the team was eventually accepted as superheroes.

2 Charcoal

After Hawkeye joined the group, the Thunderbolts fought Arnim Zola’s Imperial Forces. The team encountered a new villain no one in the Marvel Universe had ever encountered: Charcoal, the Burning Man, who was part of Zola’s villainous group. In reality, the hulking brute was just a teenager whom Zola experimented on like his fellow future teammate Jolt.

Like all the other Thunderbolts, Charcoal didn’t want to be bad and persuaded Hawkeye to let him join the team. Hawkeye relented and offered him membership, even though no one else on the team trusted him. Charcoal was one of the strangest members of the Thunderbolts but, along with Jolt, remained one of the team’s youngest and most optimistic members.

1 Blackheath

Hawkeye fulfilled his promise to the Thunderbolts to get them pardoned for their past crimes. However, Clint did this at the expense of his own freedom, as he went to jail for aiding fugitives. The good news was his prison stay was just a ruse to investigate another menace.

As a mole for S.H.I.E.L.D., Hawkeye infiltrated a supervillain group led by the Crimson Cowl. After Cowl and his team escaped from prison, Hawkeye followed them to their hideout and tried to capture the escapees. With Songbird’s help, Hawkeye managed to defeat all of them and convinced one member to join his team: Plantman. Like the rest of the Thunderbolts, Plantman adopted a new identity as Blackheath to signify his villainous days were now over.

About The Author