Thunderbolts

Fair warning, while this is about Marvel's original Thunderbolts team...

...there are some spoilers below for those who might not have read the comics.

After Onslaught, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers had disappeared off the Earth.  

Luckily, these new heroes, the Thunderbolts arrived...but why did Citizen V, Mach-1, Songbird, Techno, Atlas and Meteorite seem vaguely familiar?

Because...

...as revealed in Thunderbolts #1 (April, 1997) by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley...

...extra spoiler space...

...they were really the Masters of Evil!  

Baron Helmut Zemo (son of the original Baron Zemo) hatched the plan to pretend to be heroes and took the identity of Citizen V, with the Beetle (Abner Jenkins) as Mach-1, Screaming Mimi (Mimi Schwartz)  as Songbird, the Fixer (Norbert Ebersol) as Techno, Goliath (Erik Josten) as Atlas and Moonstone (Karla Sofen) as Meteorite!

As the series by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley went on, some of the villains stayed villains, as others came to enjoy their heroic identities.

Below, are the debut issues of the original members of the team....

Baron Zemo (as Phoenix, then Baron Zemo) Captain America #168 and #275

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Moonstone (as Karla Sofen, then Moonstone) Captain America #192 and Incredible Hulk #228 

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Goliath (too many identities) and Screaming Mimi (Iron Man Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One #54)

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Beetle and the Fixer (Strange Tales #123 and #141)

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Thunderbolts for a while, but also Masters of Evil!

Celebrating Artist Bret Blevins

Celebrating the birthday of artist Bret Blevins (August 13, 1960).  Usually known for his work on New Mutants, Bret did a few Incredible Hulk covers as the Hulk went from intelligent to totally savage, ending up exiled in other dimensions for a bit.  

As Bret drew the cover where Dr. Strange sent Hulk away, as well as a little snapshot of what Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers were doing in the 1980s, thought these were highlighting!

Incredible Hulk #293 and #300 (March and October, 1984)

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Incredible Hulk #310 (August, 1985)

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Celebrating Artist Sal Buscema

Celebrating artist Sal Buscema on his birthday (January 26, 1936) with a pair of Incredible Hulk covers...and, for all the issues in Incredible Hulk Sal drew, it is surprising that these two were the only issues of the regular series whose covers he drew (#277 and #278, November and December, 1982).

But, here are a few extra from the 1980s (showing the effects of a different inker on Sal's art!).