Alternative Character Interpretation: During an interview in the first issue, one of the reporters asks Citizen V if the Thunderbolts are meant to replace the Avengers. His reaction is to stay silent for a few seconds, then answer that no, as he feels "the Avengers cannot be replaced". The obvious interpretation after The Reveal would be that he was lying to trick the public into trusting them, but a later issue reveals that he really was devastated by their "death" (though for completely different reasons), making you question if part of his speech to the media wasn't sincere.
Common Knowledge: Several media outlets have claimed that the team was originally formed by General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, hence the same name, but the name is actually a complete coincidence; Ross had been around for decades before the Thunderbolts and was not connected to their inception in any way (He did eventually join the team as Red Hulk a couple more decades later). This misconception also plays into another one, that the team started life as a team of government-sanctioned villains like the Suicide Squad, which may have come true later, but to start with, does not accurately describe Zemo’s team of hidden villains posing as heroes at all.
Songbird is by far the most popular member and has been involved in every incarnation of the Thunderbolts, as a member or not. She is usually the represented member if the Thunderbolts are mentioned, became a playable character in the second Marvel Ultimate Alliance game and quite a few fans even requested that she make the cut for Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
Amusingly, these two breakout characters were chosen by Busiek for opposite reasons: he wanted to use Screaming Mimi because she was a blank slate that he could do anything with, but he wanted Moonstone because she was too well-defined and awesome a character to pass up. While neither is really a mainstream A-list character, the series put both of them on the map.
Fan Nickname: Fightbolts — The first massive Retool of the title, revolving around C-List supervillains in an underground fighting circuit.
"Suicidebolts" for the Warren Ellis incarnation of the team. Named for their thematic similarity to DC'sSuicide Squad.
"Cagebolts" for the Jeff Parker incarnation of the team. Named because Luke Cage controlled the team.
"Redbolts" for the Daniel Way incarnation of the team. Named because of them all wearing clothing with red or having red skin.
First Installment Wins: The very first issue is one of the most famous single issues in Marvel Comics, but the original volume as a whole is still the longest running volume the title ever had, and is far more well-regarded. It helps that the premise is just far more unique: The original volume is villains pretending to be heroes, only to realise Good Feels Good and redeem. Subsequent iterations, when not just completely In Name Only, tend to just be Suicide Squad riffs.
Once the Thunderbolts' secret is out, they leave in a ship, with Zemo also making sure to destroy the upper floors of Four Freedoms Plaza to distract the heroes who were sieging the building. Nowadays it's easy to remember 9/11, down to the description that says that the blast shattered the building skeleton (albeit it does not collapse like the Twin Towers did).
The New Thunderbolts run has Jack Monroe, formerly (a) Bucky, being turned into a brainwashed cyborg assassin. And for added horrible irony, Jack would be killed by the Winter Soldier.
It Was His Sled: The Thunderbolts were actually the Masters of Evil. Despite this, the initial twist still works.
My Real Daddy: The entire original team had history going back decades, but most of them had relatively little defined personality or fanbase (with Zemo and Moonstone being the big standouts). Part of what made the first-issue twist so famously shocking was that the team were mostly C-listers without much to immediately distinguish them. Songbird was probably the most notable example, having been a member of a rather throwaway team of villains so minor that two members were victims of Scourge. Thunderbolts gave them all a new lease on life.
Spiritual Successor: To the classic Avengers story Under Siege, as the original members of the Thunderbolts were made from members of the team Zemo led in their siege on Avengers Mansion.
The Woobie: Jolt was an orphan girl whose entire family and loved ones died in the aftermath of the Onslaught event (and on her birthday, no less), forcing her to live for a while in the ravaged remains of her town along with other orphan children. Then all of them got kidnapped by Arnim Zola, who tortured and experimented on them; Jolt was lucky enough to get superpowers from it, but her friends were all turned into deformed abominations, which she eventually saw die before her eyes. And to add insult to injury, when confronted about it, Zola reveals he was doing it to keep himself busy. The poor girl had it rough, to say the least.
Audience-Alienating Era: Most Thunderbolts fans would prefer to forget that this re-tool ever happened.
Audience-Alienating Premise: This particular re-tool featured none of the original Thunderbolts (with the exception of Man-Killer, who showed up in the last two issues), and an entirely different premise, and was marketed as being "for real men only". To say that it didn't catch on would be an understatement.
Ass Pull: The ending of "Caged Angels". Bullseye recovers from surgery and just murders all the telepathy with ease.
Crosses the Line Twice: Norman rambling to himself while in the midst of Sanity Slippage. Normally, this would be Nightmare Fuel but since he was complaining about having to do everything himself and ranting about what he'd do if he were president, it comes off as hilarious.
Him murdering the security guards while in full Goblin costume. It would be horrific were it not for the fact that one of them caught a pumpkin bomb and he's still rambling about how he's Surrounded by Idiots.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jack Flag, a character previously most notable for his red, white, and blue hair, saves a woman from a group of rapists even though he knows doing so will result in imprisonment in an alternate dimensional prison (which it does). He's later recruited for the Guardians of the Galaxy.
American Eagle. He went from a Native American meteor-powered super hero with an outfit fit combining the worst aspects of The Village People and the Fourth of July, to a Badass Biker weary hero who doesn't take gruff from anyone, and delivers Laser-Guided Karma to Bullseye in an oh-so-satisfying manner.
Short-Lived, Big Impact: Ellis's run lasted for only a little over a year, yet almost every iteration since then has been influenced by it.
Ass Pull: Because Mr. X has the ability to read people's minds and predict every move they make, excuses were constantly made for why he just got beaten, and they mostly came across as these.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Ghost went from a fairly obscure Iron Man villain to a fan-favorite thanks to his role in this series.
Nausea Fuel: The Ghost's lack of hygiene is sickening; after being hit with a sonic bomb by Deadpool, he threw up in his helmet and never cleaned it out.
Catharsis Factor: The Siege issues have the Digglebolts getting their asses handed to them, but given how most of them are assholes, and the better ones turn on them, it's satisfying to watch. Oh, is it satisfying.
The Woobie: Troll has her moments, such as the downcast look on her face shortly after getting taunted by other prisoners, or her run-in with past!Songbird, who she hasn't figured out doesn't know her yet.
Although her look was gradually shifting to her old design (that is, she's letting her hair grow long). By issue 171 when it was back to previous lengths it was reverted to a mohawk design.
Audience-Alienating Premise: Attempted to avert this by restoring the original line-up (sans Zemo and Songbird), adding fan-favourite Bucky Barnes, and returning them to their roots as runaway villains trying to do good while on the run. However, Jon Malin's artwork was immediately off-putting due to the Liefeld-like style, and the first issue has Moonstone get graphically injured by Kobik (who received an Unnecessary Makeover) that also caused her suit to disappear so her bloody, seemingly dead body was also rendered near-naked.
Nightmare Fuel: Kobik, a Reality Warper with a four-year old's personality, is a member of the team now. She's already turned Captain America into an agent of Hydra without anyone knowing, and in the first issue she nearly killed Moonstone by ripping her power source out of her chest. All because she thought Moonstone was making a fun dare. Kobik's very vulnerable mentally, has someone who hates her on the team (Fixer), has another who's actively scheming against her (Moonstone), plus there's how her caretaker Bucky might react when he finds out what she did to Cap... Everything involving Kobik is frightening.
Come Issue #11, Bucky learns the truth, and even gets put through the scenario where he's "supposed" to join HYDRA, and Kobik loses it when he reacts with disgust. It's almost a tearjerker as well.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Artwork and early issues aside, the run was a solid Back To Basics story, and things were picking up when Songbird rejoined the team. Then Secret Empire happened, and the book got mercilessly cut off by a tie-in that broke apart the team then ended on a Downer Ending.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Artist Jon Malin drew a sing that says "Shell Beach" on the Thunderbolt's tie-in issue to Avengers Standoff, which takes place on the fictional town of Pleasant Hill. On the surface this seemed like an apt reference, as both Pleasant Hill and Shell Beach are seemly innocent places hiding dark secrets. Malin, a self-described Libertarian who voted for Obama in 2008, was accused of being part of the Alt-Right.note For context, in late 2016/early 2017, "Shell Beach" was a concept sometimes used by members of the Alt-Right on /pol/ and 8ch to describe what they saw as "liberal cover-ups", often to justify their personal conspiracy theories, such as the then-infamous (and near deadly) Pizzagate, in which an armed gunman held-up a pizza parlor because he believed it to be a front for a child sex-trafficking ring after reading a unsubstantiated post about it online; even upon being shown that his suspicions were unfounded, the gunman refused to believe that the story had been made up and had to be taken in by authorities. Many alt-right supporters then took the gunman's arrest as further "proof" of the cover-up theory, despite all evidence and subsequent investigations proving otherwise.
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