Synopsis
As TVs in a shop window show Spider-Man revealing his identity at the end of Civil War #2, a bunch of Thunderbolts led by Songbird help police capture Quicksand. The sandy villainess knocks giant Atlas (Erik Josten) over, and he falls on his young brother Conrad. But Smuggler saves himself and some civilians by teleporting them through the Darkforce Dimension. As Joystick keeps Quicksand occupied, Songbird's hard sound splits her in 2 and Blizzard freezes her that way. Then Swordsman (Andreas Strucker) channels his mutant power through his sword and shatters her into pieces. None of this is fatal for the villain, but they need to gather up the pieces before they melt and allow her to reform.
Meanwhile Zemo takes Fixer, Mach-IV and Radioactive Man as backup to meet with Dallas Riordan and Henry Peter Gyrich of the Commission on Superhuman Activities. The CSA has armoured Guardsmen on their side, and as it turns out they also have Iron Man, Mr Fantastic and Yellowjacket.
Zemo and Iron Man verbally spar over recent interactions between their teams. In the Avengers/Thunderbolts: Best Intentions limited series (before Avengers Disassembled) the Avengers stopped a scheme which Zemo said was meant to save the world. That confrontation ended with Zemo saving Captain America's life at the expense of a horribly scarred body and face. Later the CSA blackmailed the Thunderbolts into attacking the new New Avengers (#94-95).
Zemo thinks the supporters of the Superhero Registration Act want the Thunderbolts to help catch superheroes who refuse to register. But instead Iron Man wants them to go after supervillains and persuade them to register and work for the government. (But actually in CW#3 we will see Thunderbolts fighting alongside SRA heroes against refusenik heroes.)
The 3 SRA science heroes are working on a prison for the captured superbeings. But in the meantime they want the Thunderbolts to detain them. They want the ex-villains to do all this to prove that they really have reformed. But Zemo has his own reasons for accepting.
The 1st action in this new arrangement pits some Thunderbolts against 3 college students who have stolen 3 armoured suits from the CSA - armours that Mach-IV used at various points in his villainous career as the Beetle. Everyone's there apart from Zemo and Swordsman.
The 1st Beetle armour is quickly frozen, and stamped on by giant Atlas, who's also holding the 2nd armour. That guy escapes, but his armour is fried by radiation from Dr Chen. The 3rd bulky armour was created for Abner Jenkins by the CSA when he was in jail between stints with Thunderbolts. But Smuggler ports inside it and KO's the female driver. Fixer portal-shifts the 3 to the Detainment Quadrant of their Folding Castle base.
Zemo welcomes the team back home. He takes Songbird aside and they kiss before discussing their plans for the captured villains. Melissa knows that they are being kept sedated, but Zemo reveals that they are being indoctrinated while they sleep into wanting to join the Thunderbolts (not the government forces) - but he assures her that they will still have the free choice whether to join or not.
And we learn that Zemo started building this army before Iron Man asked him to.