Thunderbolts #3 sees the Winter Soldier and his rag-tag team of ex-villains fighting for their lives against the Inhumans, and Steve Rogers finally enters the fray. Plus, Bucky reads his baby girl a bedtime story.

In 1997, Marvel introduced the world to the Thunderbolts, a superhero team made up of villains initially only masquerading as good guys in order to secretly commit nefarious deeds. However, the Thunderbolts gained a new-found sense of nobility through their actions and actually become the heroes they were pretending to be. The All-New, All Different Marvel regime features several characters from the original Thunderbolts line-up in a brand new story, penned by Jim Zub. The icing on the cake? They’re being bossed around by one James Buchanan Barnes.

Previously, in ‘Thunderbolts’…

Zub’s new iteration of Thunderbolts rose from the ashes of Pleasant Hill (Avengers: Standoff) and sees Bucky Barnes as the accidental, reluctant leader of a band of ex-cons, grudgingly working together outside the law to prevent S.H.I.E.L.D. from proceeding any further with such morally questionable forms of law enforcement, and to protect Kobik, the sentient cosmic cube child, from being used as a weapon by any interested parties.

Yes, this story is basically Bucky playing dad to a little girl with reality-altering abilities and four adults power-hungry or misguided enough to have become supervillians. Kobik is desperate for love and attention and always tries to “help” her new family with her powers – for example, jazzing up their base of operations into a luxury palace – but Bucky has been trying to dissuade this, in order to keep her safe, keep her from being used, and keep the team off the grid. He’s also trying to keep his grown-up charges on the straight and narrow – well, as much as vigilante outlaws can be – you know, not killing people when they don’t have to and stuff.

Needless to say, this overall dynamic is like candy to anyone who loves the concept of a grumpy, highly competent, put-upon, post-recovery Winter Soldier. I’d be tempted to call Thunderbolts indulgent, but it’s more just that Zub gets Bucky, and gets exactly what kind of readers are going to be picking up a Bucky-lead book these days, and is catering to that while wrapping up our beloved brainwashed assassin in a story that’s actually very crucial to the current Marvel universe.

Aside from some basic scene-setting – the team’s powers, their alliances, their standard missions to date – issues #1 and #2 of the new series features a new mission which proves to be the catalysts that puts the Thunderbolts – and Kobik – back on the grid. After picking up a signal that Bucky recognizes as dangerous from his time in outer space (if you haven’t read Ales Kot’s Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier, it’s just… best not to ask) the team sets out to follow it, and Kobik stows away on their plane, not wanting to be left alone again. Bucky allows her to remain with them as they investigate.

After they discover a nest of unknown pods, similar to the Terrigan cocoons of Inhumans, a battle of wills between Bucky and Moonstone ensues – Zemo’s former ally is up for torching the whole place, while Bucky wants to proceed with more caution – “intel before aggression” is his current mantra. Kobik proves just how powerful and dangerous she is by ripping the Kree stone out of Moonstone’s chest – taking Karla’s challenge of authority as a game – and Bucky goes onto full dad-mode in order to teach his foster-daughter the consequences of her actions and save his team-mate’s life. Swoon.

The pods start to hatch, revealing some purple alien monsters that are very much NOT Inhumans, and the Thunderbolts are forced into action, unable to contain the apparent aliens in the facility. The fight reveals their location, and Bucky cedes to Moonstone’s original suggestion, burning the remaining pods. As luck would have it, there’s no evidence remaining to prove that these pods were not Inhuman when a team of Inhumans, lead by the princess Crystal, show up, thinking Bucky has just set fire to some of their family.

Believe whatever you want, but this battle’s over.

Once again, Thunderbolts #3 commences without a time-jump – the Thunderbolts are immediately forced to face off against the Inhumans, who think that Bucky and his pals have just murdered a germinating nest of their own kind. It’s all attack first, ask questions later, but the T-bolts actually come out on top. Bucky states the truth of the situation to the surrendered squad of Inhumans and lets them go, temporarily disabling their ship so his own team can make their escape first.

For the first time in Zub’s run, the action cuts away from the Thunderbolts themselves and focuses on Medusa, queen of the Inhumans and a leading player in the current Civil War II event, who reviews the report of the altercation from her sister. The Inhumans alert the American authorities, and on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, Maria Hill confers with Steve Rogers and other agents about their renegade Winter Soldier. They also manage to identify Kobik on the scene, and her presence with Bucky spurs an urgent call to action.

Steve and Hill – who’s still the public head of S.H.I.E.L.D. despite facing a secret tribunal for her actions in Pleasant Hill – butt heads, as they are wont to do, over the situation. Steve is confident that Bucky is trying to protect Kobik and asks to look for them himself, Maria goes straight to calling the T-bolts terrorists and putting them on “every wanted list from here to Madripoor.” Steve then privately tries to contact Bucky via cell but is unable to get through.

What a stressful scenario. Steve is saying all the right things and seems to be on Bucky’s side, but it’s impossible to forget that his reality has been altered and that we know he’s secretly an agent of Hydra, and that Kobik – conditioned by the Red Skull into believing she’s “helping,” – was the one who innocently made him so. Once again, the question is raised – what does it actually mean for Steve to be loyal to the Hydra of Kobik’s mind?

And hey – the last time Bucky tried to contact Steve, to warn him of what he was up to so that Steve didn’t freak out – he was also cut off. Is Kobik keeping them apart? Has she been making time with the Red Skull while Bucky is out on missions – is he giving her instructions, like he was when she was working with Selvig in Pleasant Hill? How duplicitous can a four year old – even one with powers, even one who thinks she is doing the right thing – be?

Back at the homebase, the T-bolts is split into factions – Abner and Erik are keen to kick back with a few beers and celebrate the day’s ass-kicking. These two good-natured boys seem quite happy to support their fearless leader, who is currently lying on the floor to decompress (hard same, buddy) and Kobik climbs all over him in a cat onesie. However, the smarter, angrier, more power-hungry half of Bucky’s team, Norbert and Karla, are quietly planning a coup, to use Kobik’s power for themselves. Moonstone plans to manipulate her by friendship, which we know is plausible – just look at the Red Skull.

Meanwhile, the girl in question is having a bedtime story (a Figment book, a cute little shout-out to one of Zub’s other titles) read to her by her Bucky, who has his hair in a half-up half-down ponytail (bless you, Jon Malin, this boy’s hair choices are very serious business to me) and as they finish the tale, Kobik asks why she’s not allowed to help her friends. Bucky explains that people will want to use her power to do bad things – he has experienced that and doesn’t want her to go through what he did.

It’s already obvious that a lot of people want to use Kobik for their own devices and she seems to be trying to please all of them, but I have faith that my gigantic grumpy son, who truly has his weird kid’s best interests at heart, will be the one to get through to her in the end, to teach her a bit of objective right and wrong, the value of autonomy and maybe even undo the damage shes already been coerced into doing, like Hydra-fying Steve.

He’s already instilling in her the value of learning from experience and not just getting “fixed” and he’s leading by example. In one of the most heart-wrenching moments that Marvel has ever put the Winter Soldier through – and there have been a lot – Kobik, always eager to make the people she loves happy, offers to take away all the bad things that have happened to Bucky, all his regrets, to which he sternly replies no, but is then forced to excuse himself, overcome, in order to go curl up against a wall and cry. No, seriously.

WOW, THANKS. THANKS A LOT YOU GUYS.

Once again, Thunderbolts follows up the issue with a frank and fascinating letters page – kudos to Zub (and editor Alanna Smith) for this month tackling a criticism about the physical portrayal of women in comics head on, and hinting at a potential altercation between Fixer and Bucky about fact that Fixer once helped Baron Zemo expose the Winter Soldier’s identity.

Next month, in Thunderbolts #4, Bucky’s going to have to prove that he’s still on the side of the angels, because he just became Marvel’s Most Wanted.

“The Squadron Supreme delivers justice to an unjust world. Their new target — The Thunderbolts. Someone call Damage Control, ’cause this is gonna get ugly…”

Thunderbolts #4 will be released on Wednesday, August 31.