Thunderbolts #51 (2001)
by Fabian Nicieza & Patrick Zircher
Remember Rebel O’Reilly, Tony Stark’s friend in the Heroes Reborn continuity?
Of course you don’t. Nobody does. But he managed to sneak on the cover of Thunderbolts and get involved with Doctor Doom.
We begin in Latveria, where Rebel is meeting with Dallas Riordan… originally the Thunderbolts’ liaison with the police, then a superhero as the third Citizen V, and now she’s on a wheelchair following being in the wrong place during a superhuman fight.
While the Thunderbolts are the title characters, we’re actually going to focus on a different group: the Redeemers, a government-sponsored superhero squad that includes a few former Thunderbolts.
And which works with Captain America for now, and they’re dispatched to recover Dallas Riordan from Latveria.
There’s A LOT of backstory to this, which I’m not going into because it would mean summarizing a couple dozen issues at the very least.
What’s important is that once they land in Latveria they’re greeted by Rebel, who doesn’t really make a great first impression…
…until Doom shows up as a hologram, in a rather awkward pose.
Doom is back to Counter-Earth, the world created by Franklin Richards, that now Doom has renamed “Planet Doom”… because of course he did… and he has bigger problems now.
That’s why Doom has recruited Rebel and why he has Dallas Riordan hostage: he’s using her as a pawn to get the Earth’s heroes to do his work.
Could Doctor Doom handle this on his own? Most likely. But why miss the chance to have some fun with it?
The “terrorist” that Doom is after is arguably the only somewhat popular character to come out of the Heroes Reborn debacle: Nikki Barnes, the girl Bucky.
Along with some minor heroes she befriended in an earlier special.
Thunderbolts #52 (2001)
by Fabian Nicieza & Patrick Zircher
Doom doesn’t seem particularly interested in this fight.
Your irregular reminder that Doctor Doom just cannot sit down like a normal person, even next to someone on a wheelchair.
Dallas is understandably upset at being kidnapped, but on the plus side, maybe she’ll get to keep the pretty dress.
This issue mostly takes place on Planet Doom, and is actually the only time outside of the Fantastic Four and two Doom miniseries where the concept is explored.
You have to love how this is basically a regular Tuesday for Captain America.
Most of the members of the Redeemers are quite bland, but Meteorite… the second one, not to be confused with Moonstone’s other identity… is probably the one with the best opinion of the storyline.
Bucky’s Young Allies include Kid Colt (a half-human half-Kymellian teleporter), the man-bull Toro (whose codename makes FAR more sense than the Golden Age one), and a sort of cosmic being called Order who doesn’t even show up in this story.
Just how much do the heroes recall of the pocket universe is not always clear. At least at this point, Cap doesn’t remember a thing.
I can’t imagine why he wanted to forget his Rob Liefeld series.
After a bunch of subplots the Redeemers and the Young Allies end up fighting.
Bucky and Jolt are by far the most interesting members of their respective teams, and their banter is genuinely funny.
Both teams are rather new; the Young Allies are supposed to be even less experienced, but they’re holding up remarkably well.
Things get a little awkward when Captain America joins the fight: he’s Bucky’s hero and father figure, but he doesn’t even remember her.
Still, Cap’s gonna Cap.
He’d probably be proud of Bucky if he could remember her. She was almost completely useless in Heroes Reborn, but now she’s great!
We haven’t seen Rebel do anything so far. This is his time to shine!
Aaaaand he sucks.
Alright, I’m calling it now: the Young Allies deserved their own series. Even the Redeemers agree!
We haven’t seen much of Planet Doom so far, but one thing’s been clear: it’s not doing so great.
Doom might be able to keep the situation under control, but he’s still a ruthless dictator; so of course a Captain America equivalent would inevitably rise up.
I really, really like how Bucky is calling out Captain America (and the Earth heroes) for not caring about this planet AND doing exactly what Doom wanted.
Not Captain America’s proudest moment.
OR IS IT?
Yep! Captain America basically bluffs Doctor Doom into doing what the “terrorists” were asking of him.
This is a good moment, although it would’ve worked better if we had seen more of Planet Doom. We’ll have to take Bucky’s word that things are desperate.
It’s also a good moment for Captain America, managing to do the right thing even when he’s not in a position to directly challenge Doom’s rule.
This sets up Bucky as a major figure opposing Doom’s rule… but we have only one story left featuring that world before it’s abandoned, and it doesn’t feature her.
For what it’s worth, she’s still around and operating in the regular Marvel Universe under the codename Nomad. And she’s developed into an interesting character! Who would’ve thought!?
Doom significance: 0/10
Sadly, this has no impact on Doom. There are only two other uses of Planet Doom… one is an appearance on Black Panther that I’ll eventually cover as a cameo, and the next miniseries.
While Doom is facing opposition there, there’s no mention that it’s because of Bucky.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
The Nicieza run pales in comparison to the fantastic Busiek one, but this wasn’t bad. The only complain I have is that this is very, VERY packed. I didn’t even cover the subplots of the regular Thunderbolts, and there’s quite a few of those!
With so much stuff going on at once, there’s not really the time to explore anything… the fact that I barely mentioned any of the Redeemers should be probably tell you something.
It was a Doombot all along
It’s possible, considering he doesn’t do much of anything.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 93
I didn’t go into much detail about the Redeemers because they don’t get much to do. I’m not counting any of them because they’re technically working FOR Doom now.
The rest of the Young Allies don’t show up, so according to my rules I’m only counting Bucky and Toro.
Crazy tech
Nothing stands out. Sorry.