Thunderball of the Wrecking Crew steps up in Captain America No. 10
By Alex Widen
Image by Marvel Comics
It Seems Everyone Plays “Uno” These Days!
Perhaps Invisible Woman want to break Cap out of jail not just out of righteousness, but out of a genuine fear he’ll be slain there. Strucker’s prison is a hellish place where even hardened super-villains like Jigsaw, Griffin, Jack O’Lantern, and the aforementioned Wrecking Crew live in fear of beatings and torture. They put on a false bravado in between such incidents with trash talk and card games, but privately they’re all caught in a maelstrom of cruelty, misinformation, and physical violence.
Image by Marvel Comics
Steve recalls his brief tenure working for the NYPD. In real life that happened in the 1970s; in Marvel’s “sliding time scale” it was merely “a few years back.” He waxes philosophical about the current age of corruption, misinformation in the broadcast media and a blurring of what is good and evil. This is not far off from the 1970s, where corruption got so bad that Cap quit, and became “Nomad, man without a country.” He also is being reminded that not all villains are cut from the same cloth.
Image by Marvel Comics
Among them is Thunderball, one of the few doctors in the house. He’s been jabbed with some sort of technological virus by Invisible Woman. Presumably, it was something cooked up by Toni Ho, grand-daughter of Ho Yinsen, co-creator of the original Iron Man armor. Rogers has no love lost for him, having fought him many times. The Wrecking Crew were behind some shocking crime sprees, including Baron Zemo’s “siege” of the Avengers Mansion that nearly slew Hercules and Jarvis. But this time, Thunderball is on the level!