Synopsis
Thunderbolts: Doomstrike (2025 series) #1 synopsis by
Rob Johnson
Rating:
After 'flashbacks' of the previous Thunderbolts in action against Hydra and Black Widow & Revolution alone against AIM in red, we see James 'Bucky' Barnes and the Contessa Val LMD watching the news about Dr Doom's takeover of the world (in One World Under Doom #1).
Now Bucky has been invited by Doom to Camp Lehigh (the army base that housed Captain America & Bucky in WWII) The camp is now occupied by Doom's soldiers, and Barnes is expecting Doom to rub his nose in it. But the villain wants to thank him for his actions in the 2024 TBolts mini-series. His campaign against Red Skull culminated in setting the Nazi up to be killed by Doom, which DrD then also did to Baron Zemo, Skull's successor as leader of Hydra, which he did (in OWUD#1) to 'cement' his rule. He claims that he has brought about a world free of the oppression that Revolution fought against, and he now offers him leadership of his secret police, the Fulgur Victoris.
But Bucky switches off his civilian disguise to expose the Revolution uniform, and reveals his secret plan. He's just taped Doom talking about his secret police. And now he calls Val for extraction. From Thunderbolts Mountain base she sends a drone to teleport him away. Doom tells his soldiers to stand down, he'll handle it himself.
Bucky's teleport leaves him half a mile from the TBolts' base and he complains to Val that her OXE organisation can't get it to work right. But then she too complains about an electrical storm messing with the computer system. Barnes realises this is Doom's retaliatory strike and tells her to get herself and his cat Alpine to safety. But then a mighty bolt of lightning smashes the place to pieces. And a hologram of Doom says the Thunderbolts are finished, but his 'gratefulness' means he'll give James Buchanan Barnes a week to decide to join him before burning everything he's ever loved.
6 days later Bucky is in Shelbyville, Indiana where he grew up, with Alpine (with a bandaged eye) snuggled inside his jacket and the Contessa's cyborg head in his backpack. They're met by Natasha Romanoff who kisses him but chides him for his foolish move. She suggests he call the team together but he says that Destroyer, Red Guardian, Shang-Chi, US Agent and White Widow have gone their own ways. They 2 are the only ones left. But they don't need need many for sabotage, and Doom has given them a hell of a target. He leaves her with Alpine but takes Val's head ...
... and his voiceover describes that target as we see him implement his plan. Victor Von Doom has confiscated all the nuclear weapons in the world and put them in an orbiting satellite. He intends to get there and get Val's head to take control and disarm them all. We see him use his cybernetic arm to attach himself to a Latverian fighter jet and then break into it after it's taken off, ejecting the pilot. Then Songbird, 1 of the original Thunderbolts, joins him flying beside the plane. She creates a sonic force field to give them an atmosphere to fly in (? and maybe to help pull the jet?) until they reach Doom's huge satellite. Bucky has a spacesuit and Melissa Gold still carries her own atmosphere. They break in to the unmanned space station and use a geiger counter to locate the missiles. Val connects to the computer system ...
... but Doom's voice lets them know he's been watching them. And now he fires 1 of the missiles towards Earth. Revolution leaps on to it to try to disarm it. On the way down he contacts Black Widow to ask her to talk him through it. She urges him to leave the missile but then says he has to remove the arming device. Bucky flashes back to the similar situation in WWII (or Avengers #4) which led to him and Captain America both going into suspended animation. His resolve is strengthened when she tells him it's aimed at Indiana, and he realises that Doom will have targeted Shelbyville. Songbird tries to reach him but can't make it. Bucky tries to reach the arming device but at the last minute jumps free. And the missile destroys the town.
News reports say that this was a terrorist attack, and Dr Doom has released a recording of Bucky saying "Doom has given us 1 hell of a target". He uses this as an 'excuse' to create his Fulgur Victoris, his Thunderbolts, to track him and others down. We see that Bucky has survived, presumably rescued by Songbird, and is reunited with Natasha.
A masked armoured female calling herself Citizen V breaks into an OXE facility demanding to know where Barnes is. The staff tell her that only the Contessa knows, so she kills them. She contacts Fixer (also 1 of the original Thunderbolts) at Fulgur HQ and reveals to us that she is the real human Contessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine, the real founder of OXE, long thought dead.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Revolution (
Bucky Barnes), Val de Fontaine (LMD) (
Val de Fontaine).