Summary
Marvel Comics features a wide array of anti-hero teams roaming around, laying waste to other anti-heroes or villains in the most gruesome of ways. But among them, theThunderboltsare considered the most efficient task force sent in secret Ops to destroy (assassinate) certain Persons of Interest in the Marvel Universe.
Against the likes of Red Skull, Doctor Doom, and other powerful villains, who would one call if not those who have worked side by side with them? From the original lineup founded by Baron Helmut Zemo to the current team led by Winter Soldier (aka The Revolution), the Thunderbolts have been home to some of the mostpowerful charactersof Earth 616 and beyond, but some are arguably stronger than others.
11Baron Helmut Zemo
Master Tactician, Gifted Swordsman, And Evil Genius
Baron Helmut Zemo, a former member of Hydra and recurrent Captain America’s nemesis, is the original leader of the Thunderbolts and the one who conceived the idea of a group of criminals posing as heroes with secondary identities.Zemo has extraordinary agility, and superhuman reflexes, as well as experience with several types of weaponry, though swordsmanship seems to be his forte. Assuming the identity of Citizen V, he gathered his former henchman Goliath, who renamed himself Atlas, and they went on to recruit other super villains for their team.
Then, recruited Screaming Mimi, a former pro-wrestler turned villain, who called herself Songbird. Aided by the villain Beetle, and the evil genius Fixer, he created a base of operations, and afterward, those two took heroic names as well: they became Techno and Mach-1. The final member of the team was the villain Moonstone who took the mantle of Meteorite as a fake heroine. Zemo’s ultimate goal was to reform the Masters Of Evil, but he ended up creating an important legacy that snowballed into what theThunderboltsare today: an anti-hero task force.
10Songbird
A Former Pro Wrestler Who Acquired Superhuman Powers
The first incarnation of Songbird that derived from Screaming Mimi had no superpowers, but thanks to being subjected to some experiments devised by Baron Zemo and Fixer, who implanted a voice empowering harness and bio-technological implants in her neck, she was able to use soundwaves to blast her enemies away.
Formerly, she underwent a strict training and power enhancement process while she was in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. It is also true that she was injected with some kind of super soldier serum variant by the Power Broker, which also enhanced her resilience and strength and gave her enhanced metabolic capabilities. All these factors combined ended up giving Songbird her characteristic Banshee-like powers, which include sound wave manipulation and flight.
9Luke Cage
Here Comes Power Man
Luke Cage, also known as Power Man, is one of the best Marvel characters and also one of the few capable of leading several teams of heroes and anti-heroes while remaining true to his moral compass. His power is among the strongest in the Marvel Universe, and the alloy-imbued skin tissue that covers his body not only grants him great resilience, but it also deviates bullets, energy blasts, radiation, and heat.
Cage has also received training from Shang-Chi and Iron Fist, and is a capable martial artist, though not as nimble as those two. He is an expert on hand-to-hand combat, and he also possesses a healing factor that derives from the many experiments he was subjected to in prison. Some fans even theorize he was the guinea pig forthe improved super soldier serumthat has been used to create many heroes and villains.
8Deadpool
Loudmouth And Dangerous
Some call him Wade, some call him The Merc With A Mouth, but he is Deadpool for his friends. This ninja-like mercenary is capable of great feats of power, such as running through walls, shooting precisely at inhuman speeds, fighting using dual-wielding guns and blades, and most importantly, never shutting up.
Though he is not endowed with an Adamantium Skeleton, Wade Wilson possesses a mutant healing factor, which allows him to be practically immortal. Even his severed head keeps talking and can be re-attached to his body after being cut. Though he joined the Thunderbolts duringthe Red Hulk’s takeover of the team, he is recognized as one of the strongest and most dangerous members of the team.
7America Chavez
One Of The Latest Additions To The Marvel Roster
America Chavez isone of the youngest Marvel characterson the roster, and during Jim Zub’s run of the New Thunderbolts, she became an official member of the team led by none other than Hawkeye. Her powers include the ability to fly, superhuman speed and strength, quick reflexes, hyper durability, and her signature skill: the ability to create interdimensional portals in the shape of stars.
She’s one heck of a fighter, too. Though Hawkeye thinks she’s a tiny bit inexperienced, she is respected anyway. She has maintained an on-and-off relationship with Ramone Watts, Fuse’s little sister, though this is barely mentioned during her career in the Thunderbolts.
6Red Hulk
Who better to lead a death squad team like the Thunderbolts but a military genius, army commander, and nicknamed Thunderbolt himself:Red Hulk, aka Thaddeus Ross, Bruce Banner’s nemesis and recurrent villain. He is considered one of the most powerful superhumans on Earth 616, and his strength is second only to that of the Emerald Giant.
Ross is not immune to the Hulk-like side effects of getting angry. Instead of getting bigger and stronger, however, he starts to emanate heat capable of melting everything around him, and he can even breathe fire. It’s quite a weird combination, but that is what makes Red Hulk such apowerful member of the Thunderbolts.
5Agent Venom (Flash Thompson)
Trained By Shield To Be The Very Best And Fused With Venom’s Offspring
After losing both legs during a failed operation in Iraq, Flash Thompson returns home heartbroken. His military career is truncated by his ill fate, and his hopes to redeem himself are in shambles. After trying to put his life back on track in the Veteran Services office, he is helped by both Harry Osborn and Peter Parker. He reveals that he sacrificed his legs to save a superior officer, trying to imitate what Spider-Man would do, as the wall-crawler had become his role model. That’s why he nearly jumped on the chance to form part of a military experiment to bond disabled soldiers withthe Venom symbiote’s offspring.
Managing to successfully fuse with the symbiote, Flash recovered his ability to walk, as well as gained new abilities similar to that of his hero Spiderman, and the progenitor of the alien life form. He is unable to control it at first, and he needs to take a special drug to control it for a period of 48 hours. But after a recent interaction with the Anti-Venon hidden in Eddie Brock’s body, he became the new Anti-Venom, which has the characteristic white design and a wide array of new abilities, which include an accelerated healing factor, which has the power to heal others chosen by the host of the Anti-Venom. Agent Venom is quite a complex character, and was one of the members of the Red HulkThunderboltsduring the 2012 run.
4Venom
The Reformed Eddie Brock And His Permanent Body Tenant
The original Symbiote Host and a recurrent Anti-Hero, Venom has been part of the Thunderbolts on several occasions. One of them was during Songbirds’s takeover of the team (2006), and he even played a key role in Norman Osborn’s crazy plan to counter the Skrull Invaders during the Dark Avengers run of the team.
Venom is a powerful force in the Marvel Universe, and he is capable of going toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful heroes and villains on Earth 616 (and other alternate realities as well). But perhaps his most defining feature is his brutality, and the bond Eddie and the symbiote share empowers it to the limit. His strength, enhanced reactions, and all the abilities of the symbiote gainedwhen it was fused with Peter Parkerhave become perfected in the being named Venom, an all-powerful killing machine.
3Juggernaut
Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut
Armed with the jewel of Cyttorak, The Juggernaut is an incredibly powerful being. There’s literally nothing in the Marvel Universe that can stop his charge once this humongous man is in motion. The powers of Juggernaut include increased strength, durability, near invulnerability, and endless stamina, and he is also equipped witha special (and ridiculous) helmetthat protects him from mental attacks.
When Luke Cage took over the Thunderbolts' leadership, he recruited Juggernaut into the team, which has proven to be both a great idea and a bad one. Since Juggernaut is tremendously hard to control, Luke Cage had to deal with him through the use of Nanites implanted in his body, which the humongous human managed to resist. Sent to the raft again, he felt the call of Cytorak and became fused with the essence of his champion, Kuurth. Now wielding the full power of his emissary, he had to be subdued by the full lineup of anti-heroes and villains looking for redemption.
2Penance
An Underrated Marvel Character Who Is Consumed By Eternal Grief
After Robbie Baldwin, formerly known as Speedball, and his team of Streaming Young Heroes failed to stop a rampaging mutant in Stamford, an incident caused his powers to become out of control, causinga nuclear explosion that leveled the cityand kickstarted the events ofCivil War. The incident not only pushed forward the Forced Registry of Super Heroes but left Robbie scarred and changed. Now, his powers have transformed to reflect his terrible inner conflict.
The only way to trigger his powers is through pain and grief, so he clad himself in an iron-maiden suit, with nails constantly piercing his body. Renamed Penance, he joined the New Thunderbolts led by Songbird, swearing to redeem himself by using his new kinetic absorption powers to blast away every rogue hero or villain. He is capable of absorbing every type of energy directed at him, even the Gama Radiation emanated from Hulk when he claps his hands, redirecting it in a much more aggressive and controlled way than before. He is one of themost powerful Thunderbolts, and he is immune to all kinds of force/energy-induced damage.
