Hawkeye becoming the teams leader in Thunderbolts #21 promising them that its offical, that the Thunderbolts will be pardoned of their crimes if they prove themselves as heros. Hawkeye asks things of them for them to become heros and sends Mach-1 to jail but Hawkeye himself is lying about them being pardoned. Hawkeye approached the Commission on Superhuman Activities before seeking out the Thunderbolts. The Commission told him that they will not sanction or give any license to ignore the country's justice system, and that if he goes anywhere near the Thunderbolts he will be charged as an accessory after the fact to their crimes and jailed alongside them. Hawkeye being the guy that he is ignored the commission. Just what will happen when the Thunderbolts find out about Hawkeye's lying? Also the Comission has taken an interest Mach-1 since he stopped a prision escape attempt in Thunderbolts #26. What plans the commission have for him beyond them needing someone in very specialized circumstances like Mach-1 is in?
Thunderbolts #27 gives a little information on what deal the Commission will be making with Mach-1. There are comments about the country's security needs and how to reach them. S.H.I.E.L.D. registers a complaint with the releasing of Mach-1 but its pushed aside.
In Thunderbolts #29 Abe Jenkins (Mach-1) thinks he getting transferred to another prison in the middle of the night but actually gets picked up by the Henry Gyrick and Valerie Cooper of the Commission on Superhuman Activities.
In Thunderbolts #30 Songbird wonders why Abe has not answered or even read her e-mail she sent to him in prison. Songbird speculates that something's wrong and that maybe he got put into solitary confinement. The truth is that Abe is no longer in prison due to the Commission. This little scene just serves to add a little something until the commission shows up with Abe again in the future.
the Commission's plans are later revealed as to why they got Abe to use the new Beetle Armor. Justin Hammer had a contact inside Seagate prison that was a telepath called Mentallo. Hammer communicated with many of the inmates through him gathering information on them and finding out about their paroles and setting them up with assignments. The Commission found out about this and used Abe in the new Beetle armor to steal Omega-32 from Roxxon. The Commission couldn't work through legal means to get Omega-32 and since Hammer wanted it the Commission sent Abe to retrieve it as the Beetle though the Commission would never come through for Abe in the bargain. The Commission didn't want the fact they were doing all this to become public so Abe double-crossed them and they couldn't do much about it. The Thunderbolts sneaked him from jail after finding out about the Commissions plans. Also the Thunderbolts put a little program into the prison's computers so now all the inmates know that Abe helped stop the Seagate riot. Hawkeye had one final chat with Henry Gyrich about it later. Hawkeye tells Gyrich that Abe's sentence has been served and he will need protection from every prisoner at Seagate and that's what the Thunderbolts are going to do. Since Abe is the model prisoner he will keep quite about the Commission and its illegal activities and hand over any information on Omega-32 process to the Commission so unofficially Abe isn't going back to jail.
One more interesting thing about the conversation between Hawkeye and Gyrich is Techno is spying on them from his lab. Techno finds out about Hawkeye's lie about the Thunderbolts getting an official pardon when Gyrich mentions it to Hawkeye. What will Techno do with such information? Will he reveal it to the Thunderbolts or wait to Hawkeye has to. Will Techno tell the Thunderbolts at a critical moment and will the Thunderbolts want Hawkeye gone from the team? Techo could also try to control Hawkeye if he really wanted to use the information as blackmail.
Techno never did reveal Hawkeye's lie to the team before his systems shut down. Jolt is the one that reveals that Hawkeye had no deal with the CSA when he took over leadership of the team so that they could be pardoned. It shakes a team that is already in chaos due to the apparent identity of Scourge. The Thunderbolts are not that comfortable with what Hawkeye has done but go along with him for now.
Later when the Thunderbolts have to separate into two groups while searching the administrative offices of CSA in Washington D.C. the Thunderbolts decide that Hawkeye should be in the group with Nomad and Citizen V because that's the group of people they trust the least.
In the end Hawkeye goes to jail so the Thunderbolts can get a presidential pardon. Much to Gyrich's joy Hawkeye goes to jail and it's enough to keep Gyrich quiet so he doesn't reveal anything about a superhuman war that could have occurred. Since the Thunderbolts knew about this as well Hawkeye bargained that they get immunity as well as Nomad. Karla, Abe and Melissa are pardoned for their crimes under conditions of not using their powers as well as not breaking the law and try to go on with their lives. Atlas also receives a pardon for whenever he comes back to the land of the living since he's an ionic being.
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