The Thunderbolts face the Avengers with Hawkeye in the middle!As Wonder Man and Black Widow drop by, could this be a warmup for a full-on Avengers/Thunderbolts crossover? You betcha! But even the combined forces of the T-Bolts and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will have their hands full with the powerhouse that is Count Nefaria, master of ionic energy! And even before they can confront the Count, they’ll have to deal with their own ion-empowered teammates, Atlas and Wonder Man — both of whom have fallen under Nefaria’s thrall and now act as his henchmen! Old friends return, a new Scourge attacks, Moonstone reaches a crisis point and sparks fly between Songbird and Captain Marvel — but as more secrets spill out, will this be the end of a beautiful friendship for Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts?COLLECTING: Thunderbolts (1997) #42-52, Avengers (1998) #31-34, Thunderbolts: Life Sentences (2001) #1Written by Fabian Nicieza & Kurt BusiekPenciled by Mark Bagley, Patch Zircher, George Pérez & Charles Adlard
Contributors: (W) Fabian Nicieza; Kurt Busiek (A) Mark Bagley; Patch Zircher (CA) Mark Bagley
Kurt Busiek is perhaps most famous for his Eisner Award-winning collaboration with Alex Ross on Marvels, a fully painted classic that still amazes a quarter of a century later. Busiek launched Thunderbolts in the wake of “Heroes Reborn,” later writing Avengers and Iron Man upon the heroes’ return to the Marvel Universe. He teamed his two signature supergroups in the Avengers vs. Thunderbolts miniseries and spanned the history of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers Forever. He has revisited the Modern Era’s early years in such titles as Amazing Fantasy, Iron Man: The Iron Age, Thor: Godstorm and Untold Tales of Spider-Man. At DC, he has written multiple Justice League and Superman titles, and even pitted the Avengers against the JLA in a blockbuster crossover. Busiek launched his own super-hero multiverse with his Astro City series, which he’s been writing since 1995. Busiek has returned to the world of Marvels for various projects, including curating Marvels Snapshots and writing the series The Marvels.Since his start on the New Universe’s Psi-Force and backup stories in Classic X-Men, Fabian Nicieza has written most of Marvel’s major super-teams — including Alpha Flight, the Avengers, the New Warriors, the Thunderbolts and the X-Men. Together with artist Rob Liefeld, Nicieza transformed New Mutants into the blockbuster X-Force. The writer also tackled solo heroes ranging from Cable and Deadpool (later combined in Cable & Deadpool) to Gambit and Nomad. He edited Marvel’s Star imprint, contributed to multititle X-events like “X-Cutioner’s Song” and “Phalanx Covenant,” and wrote various “pre-modern” limited series such as Adventures of Captain America and Citizen V and the V-Battalion. Elsewhere, he has written both JLA and Justice League Adventures, The 99, Turok, X-Files, and others.Hired on the strength of his Official Marvel Tryout penciling submission, Mark Bagley rose to prominence as the artist of 1990s sleeper hit New Warriors. Following an acclaimed run on Amazing Spider-Man, he worked with writer Kurt Busiek on Thunderbolts. When Marvel launched its Ultimate line, Bagley and Brian Michael Bendis led the way with Ultimate Spider-Man, whose years of success made the pair the longest-running creative team in Marvel history. Bendis and Bagley have also collaborated on Avengers Assemble and the creator-owned Brilliant. His subsequent credits include Fantastic Four, Cataclysm: The Ultimates’ Last Stand, Hulk, All-New X-Men and Venom.Patrick “Patch” Zircher got his start illustrating RPG-based comics for Eclipse and 3D comics for Blackthorne during the late 1980s, and drew Now Comics’ Green Hornet. He has been an artist in demand ever since. His notable Marvel credits across the decades include New Warriors, Venom: Along Came a Spider, Star Trek: Early Voyages, Iron Man: The Iron Age, Thunderbolts, Cable & Deadpool, Iron Man, Hulk, Mystery Men and Savage Avengers.