 | An unknown sniper at the end of Thunderbolts #34 kills Hallie Takahama (Jolt).
"Its an easy shot. Line of sight is perfect. Wind-drift is minimal. Rifle feels a little awkward not used to it. Which one do I choose? No choice really when in doubt--always go for the heart!" KA-POW. |
The Thunderbolts mourn the loss of one of their own, Jolt in Thunderbolts #35. The unknown sniper who shot Jolt still loose in the Burton Canyon next targets Atlas while Atlas is in a sports bar.
"No. Not him. Not yet. A place for everything and everything in its place. Josten is the spine. The heart was first. Next will be the brain."
 | The sniper taking their sight of Atlas waiting till another time turns up at the end of Thunderbolts #35 aiming at Gayle Rogers.
"She is certainly not the brains. Or the arrogance. Or the Innocence. Or the Spine. Or the Influence. Or the Reflection. Or the fear. Or the spirit. So what is she then? Just a detour...on a very long winding road..." |
With those last words by the sniper, 8 in total plus Jolt who is already gone as the heart it all matches up the amount of members the Thunderbolts have ever had. This includes Baron Zemo, Techno, and Mach-1. The sniper's next target is the Brains, and the sniper obviously knows who the Thunderbolts are killing Jolt in her civilian clothing and not while in battle as Jolt. Already knowing that Jolt was the heart and the sniper naming Atlas as the spine. Speculation for the names the sniper has given the Thunderbolts could be as follows: Baron Zemo as the arrogance, Charcoal as the Innocence, Moonstone as the influence, Hawkeye as the Reflection, Songbird as the fear, and Mach-1 as the spirit.
The sniper used a weapon called 'hard air' on Jolt that was a single entry through the forehead with no exit point. There was no bullet found on the scene of in the body. Just before being targeted by the Sniper, Gayle receives some more information from someone who works at the Roxxon facility that the Beetle stole Omega-32 from in Thunderbolts #34. Gayle looks through the folder she received which contains design schematics, engineering specs, analysis of some guy named Hume, advanced physics equations and another two dozen pages that talk about 'hard air'
There is already someone that uses 'hard air' and with the last name Hume that was mentioned. His name being Windshear who was hired by Roxxon, the corporation that has a part in this storyline. Windshear is a mutant who was raised in Britain and later got hired by the Roxxon Corporation because of his ability to manipulate and control 'hard are molecules' they wished to see what they could do with this. Windshear also became a member of Alpha Flight in the first series, being introduced in the latter part of the 90's in the series. Fabian Nicieza also created Windshear, which is interesting. So is this the mysterious sniper? Or just connected to the whole situation somehow?
A possible suspect could be Baron Zemo taking out his revenge on the Thunderbolts but killing Jolt like that doesn't seem like his style. Zemo would kill the other Thunderbolts before Jolt being that the others are the traitors who betrayed him and it would seem all too personal to go after Jolt like what happened. Judging just from the writing style that shows when the sniper thinks to themselves it could be someone like Elektra or another that would required ancient writing to be shown.
In Thunderbolts #36 Gayle Rogers had ended up dead after the Thunderwatch car she was in skidded off the road. At the end Thunderbolt #36 at Roxxon Energy Lab outside of Denver Colorado the one that the Beetle broke into and stole the Omega-32 from the facility co-ordinator Samuel Higgins walks into the office of Bobbie Haggert. [Bobbie had supplied Gayle Rogers with Information in Thunderbolts #35. Higgins talks to Bobbie about someone hacking into the eyes-only database and after a brief conversation Bobbie is shot with a dart. Oddly enough the dart is still shown sticking out or her neck. This could be found by someone, so is this the weapon hard air or not?
Higgins then walks out of the room as his face starts to change as if his facial appearance was just a hologram but the real face is never shown as he's turned around and walks out of the office commenting to about Justice being served. The "Justice is served" line looks to point to the Scourge of the underworld a group of operatives who assassinated super villains, since there's still two of them alive. It's entirely possible the sniper is just someone that likes the phrase "Justice is served" and doesn't have any connection to the Scourge. It could be a new scourge too or someone that wants to play as one of them or the scourge in a new form. Getting rid of innocent people would have to serve a purpose in their scheme since their target has been targeting super villains before.
These deaths could all be connected together and it seems like they are since they are all revolving around basically the same thing and someone trying to cover up their tracks. Or course Gayle and Bobbie's deaths could have been done by a different person. Maybe the sniper hired someone to get rid of them while they were doing something else? Or the sniper could have killed Gayle and Bobbie themselves without the artist showing indication of the typical targets or font styles that have been used for the sniper so far.
It does seem to be sloppy for the sniper to leave something sticking out of Bobbie's neck if they indeed killed her. Did they not have their weapon with them? Hard air? Or were they doing it on purpose.
The deaths could be unconnected with the Jolt's death and just someone from the same Roxxon facility that didn't want information from the company to be read by anyone else.
The Scourge fights Baron Zemo in his own place in Thunderbolts #39 and kills him leaving plenty of more clues along the way. One in particular is his reaction to bucky's costume and thinking he's trying not to make things personal with Zemo after seeing it. This almost seems to be point to bucky being Scourge or its possibly someone connected with Marvel's golden age or someone old. It also has to be someone who would have that kind of a reaction to seeing bucky's costume and someone that Zemo thinks is dead. Zemo first thought it was Captain America and that he had betrayed all his ideals to get to Zemo when the Scourge uses a shield that looks like Captain America's but when Zemo sees Scourge's face he says "No! I thought---it can't be you--you are dead--" And Scourge agrees saying "Yes I am."
There's also the issue of floating bodies in vats that doesn't seem to serve a purpose right now. They look just like the ones when Techno was creating a clone of Zemo before so maybe this will tie in with a possible way around Zemo avoiding his death if the Scourge doesn't destroy them before he leaves Zemo's place.
Its also revealed that Scourge has a boss so now two people are into this crazy scheme and its probably the Scourge's boss who's using his resources to arm the Scourge with all his weapons and devices. For Scourge used weapons of others villains and also had a satellite network that bathed the area Zemo's hideout was in with enough jamming equipment to make Zemo's invisible base show up in open view. Is Scourge just doing all this for his boss or are they more like partners in this? Whose Justice is being served?
Zemo also makes a comment on Scouge's weapons all being "Signature trademarks of others, all of whom have been...?" Zemo doesn't continue with the thought saying he's figured it out but we are left the wonder. All of whom have been enemies of Captain America? All of whom have targets of the Scourge? It would have been very helpful to know but it can't be all of whom are dead villains since all the weapons he used were not from all dead villains. Scourge also used a shield that resembled Captain America's shield. Also the Scourge has to hold all these weapons somewhere and it's not through teleportation so it could be thought Pym Particles and that's another connection to a hero rather than a villain.
Scourge's Weapons consist of:
The hard air rifle he used in Thunderbolts #34 to kill Jolt.
A dart/quill that killed Bobbie Haggert in Thunderbolts #36, which was possibly one of Porcupine's quills.
An image inducer to change his appearance when he impersonated Samuel Higgins in Thunderbolts #36.
A small briefcase shown in Thunderbolts #37 that probably carried all his weapons possibly shrunk with Pym particles along with everything else he needs to go against Zemo.
Invisibility that he used in Thunderbolts #38 while he studied Zemo's hideout.
A Battle Staff that turns into Staves like Mockingbird's, or Cardiac. It can also shoot light blasts from it like Lightmaster.
Yellow discs on the costume resemble Nomad's Stun Discs.
Purple discs on the costume resemble Wizard's anti-gravity discs.
Ice shrapnel from his gloves like the Blizzard.
Spring coils in his boots like Leapfrog.
Fire blaster like Firebrand or any fire character.
Sword like Commander Kraken's sword.
Stilts like what Stilt Man uses.
4 different kinds of welding tools used in Thunderbolts #39.
Glider that is similar to one that the Green Goblin or Hobgoblin uses.
Can effect plant growth just like Plant Man.
A shield that looks exactly like Captain America's shield.
A concussive force and a vibratory shock wave like Shocker.
Thunderbolts and all associated characters are the property of MARVEL COMICS TM&©2003.