Thunderbolts Draft

[WorldWideWade]

To finish off my Cabal of Supreme Super-Villains:

Somehow Enchantress is still available. Who can have too many sexy female sorceresses amiright?



Finalizing this Diabolical DecaGang is Norman Osborn's right hand woman Victoria Hand.

[MartijnB]

gimme Alice Nugent!

[WorldWideWade]

gimme Alice Nugent!

Hotknives chose her last round already.

[MartijnB]

aight aight, Jolt, the underused Thunderbolt

[UrbanExplorer]

aight aight, Jolt, the underused Thunderbolt

Taken by Anna

[MartijnB]

Curses! I pick Charcoal! The Thunderbolt with the dodgy character rights!

[WorldWideWade]

To avoid future confusion:

grief
Silver Sablinova/Silver Sable
Paul Norbert Ebersol/Fixer
Donald Clendenon/Harrier
Donna Diego/Scream (Mistaken Identity: Lily Holister)
Dr. June Covington/Toxie Doxie
Arachne (Double Agent)
Scarecrow
Atlas
Shreik

hotknives
Emma Frost
Clint Barton/Hawkeye
Joanna Cargill/Frenzy
Whitney Frost/ Madame Masque (Mistaken Identity: Sharon Carter/Agent 13)
Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike
Hela (Double Agent)
Ragnarok
Arclight
Dr. Spectrum/Alice Nugent


Cable
Wade Wilson/Deadpool
Neena Thurman/Domino
Fred Myers/Boomerang
Inez Temple/Outlaw
Herman Schultz/Shocker
Black Widow (Double Agent)
Beetles - Foolikller, Solo, Terror (Mistaken Identity)
Beetle - Janice
Speed Demon


Gibbering Fool
Noh-Varr
Ghost
Minn-Erva/Doctor Minerva
Nebula
Genis-Vell/Photon
Nebula (Double Agent)
Daken
Shatterax
Salamandra - Super Skrull (Mistaken Identity)
Hala the Accuser

BlackCyclops (Dropped Out?)
Natasha Romanova/Black Widow
Karla Sofen/Moonstone
Elektra Natchios/Elektra
Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross/Red Hulk (Mistaken Identity: Clay Quartermain)
Katrina Van Horn/Man-Killer
Hyperion (Double Agent)
Bullesye
Alkema
(skipped)


das_boot
Regan Wyngarde/Lady Mastermind
Maki Matsumoto/Lady Bullseye (Mistaken Identity: Kate Bishop/Hawkeye)
Cain Marko/Juggernaut
Loki Laufeyson/ Loki, Agent of Asgard
Samuel Smithers/Blackheath
Ghost (Double Agent)
Typhoid Mary
Tempo
Wrecker

Anna Raven
Frank Castle/Punisher
Felicia Hardy/Black Cat
Sergei Kravinoff/Kraven the Hunter (Mistaken Identity: Marc Spector/Moon Knight)
Rachel Leighton/Diamondback
Tony Masters/Taskmaster
Domino (Double Agent)
Nuke
Trickshot
Jolt
Troll

Spectral Knight
Helmut Zemo/Baron Zemo (Mistaken Identity: Steve Rogers)
Brock Rumlow/Crossbones
Sinthea Schmidt/Sin'
Ophelia "Viper" Sarkissan/Madame Hydra
Andreas Von Strucker/Swordsman
Diamondback (Double Agent)
Crimson Cowl
Jack O'Lantern
Skein - Gypsy Moth
King Cobra

OffDaCheney
Hela
Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider
Dr. Ted Sallis/Man-Thing
Hyperion (Squadron Sinister)
Simon Utrecht/Vector
Juggernaut (Double Agent)
Vapor
Ironclad
X-Ray
Superia (Mistaken Identity: Power Princess)

bamf
James Buchanan Barnes/Winter Soldier
Eugene "Flash" Thompson/Venom
Raven Darkholme/Mystique
Julia Carpenter/Arachne
Paladin (Mistaken Identity: Nick Fury Sr)
Black Cat (Double Agent)
Ant-man - Eric O'Grady
Luke Cage
Kraven - Ana
Nighthawk

ev82
Daken
Kwannon
Irene Adler/Destiny
Malice (Marauders)
Carmella Unuscione
Emma Frost (Double Agent)
Zaladane - Polaris (Mistaken Identity)
Mastermind - Martinique
Sapphire Styx
Kimura

MartijnB
Melissa Gold/Songbird
Abner Jenkins/Beetle
Georges Batroc/Batroc the Leaper
Sarah/Marrow
Eliot Franklin/Thunderball
Hawkeye (Double Agent)
Quicksand - Sandman (Mistaken Identity)
Blizzard
Radioactive Man
Charcoal

WorldWideWade
Otto Octavius/The Superior Octopus
Mac Gargan/Venom
Norman Osborn/Green Goblin
Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom
Satana Hellstrom/Satana
Loki Laufeysdottir/Lady Loki (Double Agent Pick)
The Leader
Black Swan - Jessica Drew (Mistaken Identity)
Enchantress
Victoria Hand

[Gibbering Fool]

We're in the endgame now

[Omnicon]

We're in the endgame now

Don’t spoil the outcome!

[ev82]

I choose Kimura for my final pick

[bamf]

Nighthawk

[Anna Raven]

Cheney's last pick is his Mistaken Identity pick.

Who the world thinks is Superia, is actually Power Princess aka Zarda Shelton.

[Spectral Knight]

Sorry for being late with my pick, I guess it's time to pick my poison...



King Cobra joins old team mates Viper + Diamondback

Team break down and obligatory cover mock-up to follow...

[Anna Raven]

For my final pick I will select Troll.

[das_boot]

First of all I can’t believe that this absolute fave hasn’t been picked yet. Shame on you all.

I’m picking the X-Men’s deadliest foe and everyone’s favourite villainness—

DRAGONESS

[Blackcyclops]

Aqueduct

[Spectral Knight]

Aqueduct

Think you've got an extra pick, BC as you got skipped after a few days wait last round.

[Blackcyclops]

Oh, thanks SK...

[Blackcyclops]

Mister X

[Spectral Knight]

And my team / book concept...

Spoiler: show

thunderbolts-cover.jpg (1.5 MiB) Viewed 6970 times

Okay, essentially this is a story of Steve Rogers' fallibility...too often he's a bit too perfect for me, and I think this needs examining...

After having his very identity and meaning eroded during Secret Empire, this is Rogers' revenge.

Taking on the identity of one of his greatest enemies, and a leading figure within Hydra, Rogers becomes Baron Zemo, and recruits the next generation of Thunderbolts, picking some of Hydra's most devoted fascists like Sin, Crossbones, Andreas von Strucker and Viper, alongside mercenaries who will do anything and everything for the pay.

To his most of his recruits, this Thunderbolts harkens back to the spirit of the original T-bolts, they're a group of future Masters masquerading as heroes, this time proclaiming themselves as rehabilitated. Rogers plans to use his new Thunderbolts to strike down corrupt politicians, foreign agents, competing mercenary groups, and the criminal underworld. For Steve, doing it under the cover of Baron Zemo is bittersweet justice for him after the identity of Captain America was besmirched by his enemies, not to mention conceptualising a strategy that allows his enemies to do his work for him - essentially becoming heroes for real, despite them believing their strikes are setting the groundwork for a fresh Hydra over-throw of the US.

Cap's strategy involves recruiting a group that has a history of betrayals and double-crossing, to make sure that his team never becomes a truly trusting unit. Steve believes they'll be too busy bickering and fighting for supremacy against each other that they won't unearth the truth of their founding, placing his ex-lover Diamondback amongst them to deliberately divert any attentions.

However, like all true Thunderbolts teams,often the greatest enemy is within. For Diamondback, this might be a betrayal too far, and of course, it's inevitable that the real Zemo becomes aware of this new team...

I kinda want this to shine a light on the humanity of Steve Rogers, his ego that he can get away with this, and that maybe his strategies aren't the best, but also take a real look at what it's meant for him to have been manipulated as devastatingly as he was during Secret Empire.

Given Brubacker's run as the best ever Cap writer, it makes sense for him to be scripting, Think Granov's art (circa Extremis) also would make sense on this book - imagine this as 5 part epic across three years:

• 1-6:Team forms, early reveal of mistrust in "Zemo"

• 7-12:T-bolts vs AIM

• 13-18:First direct questioning of "Zemo" - real Zemo makes contact with Sin

• 19-24:Foreign mission appears 'successful' - on conclusion, this is where the team revolts and Rogers is unmasked

• 25-36: Team splinters in a war of of Zemo loyalists vs a few who decide to stick with Steve despite his manipulations, whilst he struggles with the aftermath of how far he's fallen to get his revenge/list]

[UrbanExplorer]

Woooooww, did you do the artwork by yourself?

[Omnicon]

And I am even to stupid for Paint..

[Spectral Knight]

Woooooww, did you do the artwork by yourself?

Welll... liberal use of Photoshop based on existing imagery. I barely touched some of the character art I found (Sin was pretty perfect, as was Crossbones), others needed a lot of touch-up work because I could only source lower quality scans, so they needed repainting to get rid of the pixelisation. Jack and Skein were a pain as the power signatures are an important part of their look, but the reference images were either in the "wrong" style or heavily cropped so I had to do a lot with those, still not happy with either but I re-did Jack's flames about three times just to get it to that state, so it'll do. Fun fact, the Cap image is actually based on three images (a Cap mask - complete with eyeholes, Chris Evans's face, and a close of his eyes which I used as hos eyes were too shadowed on his face pic). I also had to mess with the perspective of both Cap and Zemo to get them to match properly in terms of headshape, eyes and nose, but that was a cover concept i had in mind since my first pick so had to make it work. I also applied quite a bit of extra highlights and shadows (Which I think you can see with some of the "speckling".*

Bits which were pretty much all mine (or at least non-existing comic art) was the two flag backgrounds and the T-bolts masthead.

*It almost sounds like I know what I'm doing, right

[UrbanExplorer]

Jesus Christ...

I bow before you

[Anna Raven]

Woooooww, did you do the artwork by yourself?

Welll... liberal use of Photoshop based on existing imagery. I barely touched some of the character art I found (Sin was pretty perfect, as was Crossbones), others needed a lot of touch-up work because I could only source lower quality scans, so they needed repainting to get rid of the pixelisation. Jack and Skein were a pain as the power signatures are an important part of their look, but the reference images were either in the "wrong" style or heavily cropped so I had to do a lot with those, still not happy with either but I re-did Jack's flames about three times just to get it to that state, so it'll do. Fun fact, the Cap image is actually based on three images (a Cap mask - complete with eyeholes, Chris Evans's face, and a close of his eyes which I used as hos eyes were too shadowed on his face pic). I also had to mess with the perspective of both Cap and Zemo to get them to match properly in terms of headshape, eyes and nose, but that was a cover concept i had in mind since my first pick so had to make it work. I also applied quite a bit of extra highlights and shadows (Which I think you can see with some of the "speckling".*

Bits which were pretty much all mine (or at least non-existing comic art) was the two flag backgrounds and the T-bolts masthead.

*It almost sounds like I know what I'm doing, right

You misspelled Brubaker though. Seriously though, nice job!