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Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event
Civil War: Heroes For Hire/Thunderbolts
Collects Heroes for Hire (2006) #1-5, Thunderbolts (1997) #101-105.
As CIVIL WAR rages, an unlikely group of heroes gather to hunt down fugitive superhumans who refuse to register. Misty Knight and Colleen Wing use their bail-bonds skills, underworld connections and government funding to lead an all-new Heroes for Hire: Black Cat, Shang-Chi, Paladin, the new Tarantula and more! It's action, adventure, crime, beautiful women and kung-fu chaos! Then, the Thunderbolts may be known criminals, but they sure can get good publicity by hunting down renegade heroes! Now, it's time for the T-Bolts to kick some spandex butt! But why have so many newly "recruited" Thunderbolts agreed to Baron Zemo's plans? What role does the Grandmaster and his Squadron Sinister play? And can there be anything worse than having the universe's fate lie in the hands of Zemo?
As CIVIL WAR rages, an unlikely group of heroes gather to hunt down fugitive superhumans who refuse to register. Misty Knight and Colleen Wing use their bail-bonds skills, underworld connections and government funding to lead an all-new Heroes for Hire: Black Cat, Shang-Chi, Paladin, the new Tarantula and more! It's action, adventure, crime, beautiful women and kung-fu chaos! Then, the Thunderbolts may be known criminals, but they sure can get good publicity by hunting down renegade heroes! Now, it's time for the T-Bolts to kick some spandex butt! But why have so many newly "recruited" Thunderbolts agreed to Baron Zemo's plans? What role does the Grandmaster and his Squadron Sinister play? And can there be anything worse than having the universe's fate lie in the hands of Zemo?
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 5, 2016
4 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Justin Gray
739 books80 followersJustin currently writes Novels, Graphic Novels, Video Games, Screenplays.
He has held various jobs including, fossil hunting, microphotography of 20 million year old insects and plants trapped in amber, seminars and exhibitions on the cleaning, mining and identification of prehistoric insects for the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian. He traveled to the mountains of the Dominican Republic and mined amber.
He has also worked as a victim advocate for Victims Assistance of Westchester, a not-for-profit organization that helps victims of crime.
He has held various jobs including, fossil hunting, microphotography of 20 million year old insects and plants trapped in amber, seminars and exhibitions on the cleaning, mining and identification of prehistoric insects for the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian. He traveled to the mountains of the Dominican Republic and mined amber.
He has also worked as a victim advocate for Victims Assistance of Westchester, a not-for-profit organization that helps victims of crime.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 4, 2016
This volume was originally published as two separate books and has now been re-issued as one big shiny tome. That said, beyond the Civil War tie-in, it does share a common theme, aside from Tony Stark making poor choices, and that would be: Bounty Hunters.
There’s always a surplus of costumed freaks on hand.
The Thunderbolts – Zemo Jr. is back and although Songbird is the nominal team leader, he’s pulling the strings.
Why?
He has an agenda. Monomaniacal villains always have an agenda. Something about creating a new dimension, where he can lord over it and declare everyday “knockwurst and beer day”.
*Hey, count me in your lordship!*
This volume starts off with two transitional issues, one featuring Songbird, the other Joystick, as the team grapples with the Squadron Sinister and some weird cosmic power, that when acquired, will be part of Zemo’s aforementioned agenda, which lead straight to…
As anyone with brain the size of a Le Sueur Pea, except Tony Stark, could figure out, Zemo operates via a different drummer, which starts with taking down said villains and stockpiling them for himself and another day.
Also, Zemo tries to make nice with Captain America by shoveling on the pity-pal malarkey.
Can you shovel malarkey?
Boo-flarking-Hoo
Hey, Zemo, baby, guess where that shovel’s gonna end up?
Heroes for Hire – Uncle Sam is footing the bill for the team to root out villains.
The team is minus its founders - Luke Cage (he’s with Captain America) and Iron Fist (when he’s not impersonating Daredevil he’s doing this: The Immortal Iron Fist, Vol. 1: The Last Iron Fist Story )
Misty Knight who has developed a case of the Talky Van Talkersons, when it comes to her fluxuating position on “whose side are you on in this whole superhero registration mess” is in charge. We also have:
Shang-Chi – Kung Fu dude. He does Kung Fu.
Colleen Wing – Smokin’ Kung Fu gal (my current imaginary comic book girlfriend *sigh*)
Tarantula – She’s in it, as long as no one is watching, to kill a few goons. Yay, for bloodlusty babes!
Black Cat – She’s in it for the money and because Marvel deemed that there weren’t enough cleavage-bearing women in this comic
Paladin – His punk ass is in it for the money as well. More on that below.
Orka – Since Willy has been freed four times, he’s the muscle
Humbug – the creepy one who communicates with bugs and…
…is a make-shift battering ram when obstacles are encountered. Way to take one for the team, bugboy.
Misty is willing to play with Tony until…
…then what follows is just a crappy Heroes for Hire story.
This set also has the obligatory appearance by Captain America, except that bastard Paladin pulls a fast one.
Bottom Line: The Math – two three star ratings totaled equals six and divided by two equals three. Both titles get a little juiced from their association with the Civil War event, but the Heroes for Hire gets a slight nod, because the fun factor is slightly elevated, but it’s still a three star rating cuz Misty talked less with her fists and more with her mouth. Gawd, Civil War cross-over event – more fightin’ and less discoursin’.
There’s always a surplus of costumed freaks on hand.
The Thunderbolts – Zemo Jr. is back and although Songbird is the nominal team leader, he’s pulling the strings.
Why?
He has an agenda. Monomaniacal villains always have an agenda. Something about creating a new dimension, where he can lord over it and declare everyday “knockwurst and beer day”.
*Hey, count me in your lordship!*
This volume starts off with two transitional issues, one featuring Songbird, the other Joystick, as the team grapples with the Squadron Sinister and some weird cosmic power, that when acquired, will be part of Zemo’s aforementioned agenda, which lead straight to…
As anyone with brain the size of a Le Sueur Pea, except Tony Stark, could figure out, Zemo operates via a different drummer, which starts with taking down said villains and stockpiling them for himself and another day.
Also, Zemo tries to make nice with Captain America by shoveling on the pity-pal malarkey.
Can you shovel malarkey?
Boo-flarking-Hoo
Hey, Zemo, baby, guess where that shovel’s gonna end up?
Heroes for Hire – Uncle Sam is footing the bill for the team to root out villains.
The team is minus its founders - Luke Cage (he’s with Captain America) and Iron Fist (when he’s not impersonating Daredevil he’s doing this: The Immortal Iron Fist, Vol. 1: The Last Iron Fist Story )
Misty Knight who has developed a case of the Talky Van Talkersons, when it comes to her fluxuating position on “whose side are you on in this whole superhero registration mess” is in charge. We also have:
Shang-Chi – Kung Fu dude. He does Kung Fu.
Colleen Wing – Smokin’ Kung Fu gal (my current imaginary comic book girlfriend *sigh*)
Tarantula – She’s in it, as long as no one is watching, to kill a few goons. Yay, for bloodlusty babes!
Black Cat – She’s in it for the money and because Marvel deemed that there weren’t enough cleavage-bearing women in this comic
Paladin – His punk ass is in it for the money as well. More on that below.
Orka – Since Willy has been freed four times, he’s the muscle
Humbug – the creepy one who communicates with bugs and…
…is a make-shift battering ram when obstacles are encountered. Way to take one for the team, bugboy.
Misty is willing to play with Tony until…
…then what follows is just a crappy Heroes for Hire story.
This set also has the obligatory appearance by Captain America, except that bastard Paladin pulls a fast one.
Bottom Line: The Math – two three star ratings totaled equals six and divided by two equals three. Both titles get a little juiced from their association with the Civil War event, but the Heroes for Hire gets a slight nod, because the fun factor is slightly elevated, but it’s still a three star rating cuz Misty talked less with her fists and more with her mouth. Gawd, Civil War cross-over event – more fightin’ and less discoursin’.
December 23, 2025
I think the best the best part of this comic is I’m introduced to a lot of new characters or characters I’ve heard of but never read about. Seeing the differences from the heroes for hire and the thunderbolts were cool but it’s just an overall okay comic with some fun spots.
June 13, 2019
I'm reading this event according to the official Marvel Civil War reading recommendation list as seen on their website here:
https://www.marvel.com/comics/discove...
This collection isn't very helpful for someone who hasn't been following these specific characters. I feel like the plots are broken up and don't connect back to the overall Civil War event. The Thunderbirds are better explained in the other comics than they are here, and the Heroes for Hire are a group that seems very amateur. It isn't the easiest collection to jump right into and it is abrupt in both endings.
I liked it overall. The Thunderbirds are all bad guys trying to be good guys, so that's an interesting angle. The Heroes for Hire are mostly POC and many of them don't have powers. The HFH are more campy than I would have expected too, which is entertaining but an odd tone with the rest of the event. An amusing enough read but not my favorite.
For: fans of superheroes/comics; readers wanting more supplementary material for this grand event; readers looking for characters not seen often, if at all, in the MCU.
Possible red flags: characters in peril; violence; angst; kidnapping; manipulation and secret motives; betrayal; bugs--they eat someone alive; death; medical horror and surgery remnants; kinks/fetishes; sexualized depiction on female characters (more so than the other comics collections).
https://www.marvel.com/comics/discove...
This collection isn't very helpful for someone who hasn't been following these specific characters. I feel like the plots are broken up and don't connect back to the overall Civil War event. The Thunderbirds are better explained in the other comics than they are here, and the Heroes for Hire are a group that seems very amateur. It isn't the easiest collection to jump right into and it is abrupt in both endings.
I liked it overall. The Thunderbirds are all bad guys trying to be good guys, so that's an interesting angle. The Heroes for Hire are mostly POC and many of them don't have powers. The HFH are more campy than I would have expected too, which is entertaining but an odd tone with the rest of the event. An amusing enough read but not my favorite.
For: fans of superheroes/comics; readers wanting more supplementary material for this grand event; readers looking for characters not seen often, if at all, in the MCU.
Possible red flags: characters in peril; violence; angst; kidnapping; manipulation and secret motives; betrayal; bugs--they eat someone alive; death; medical horror and surgery remnants; kinks/fetishes; sexualized depiction on female characters (more so than the other comics collections).
May 24, 2018
This volume was all over the place. When I thought that I was finding something to interest me it would jump to something else seemingly odd and unrelated. The Heroes for Hire was better then the Thunderbolts, but neither was really an amazing read.
The only thing I really truly enjoyed was the character Humbug, who was weird and unique.
The only thing I really truly enjoyed was the character Humbug, who was weird and unique.
March 25, 2025
Why did Marvel choose to re-canonize that Reed upon preventing an invasion from the skrulls turned them mentally and physically into cows and then just allowed them to be milked and killed for meat? Regardless of the numerous moral objections to how horrific a treatment that is, Reed why did you think it would be a good idea to allow people to sell alien produce? You have no idea what effect that will have on humans. That is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done and that is saying a lot.
What a weird dual collection to sell. They don’t relate to each other at all beyond being set during Civil War. The only effect of combining them is going from the great Thunderbolts story to the pretty bad heroes for hire story gives you quality whiplash. Like good lord the heroes story is simultaneously overcomplicated and yet way too much of a simplification of the broader marvel world and characters at the same time. Like the idea of presenting Misty Knight as a bail hunter an enforcer of of one of worst, well there's so many it probably doesn’t event crack the top 10 but one of the terrible aspects of the American legal system is an astoundingly bizarre choice. And everything around it is really odd all of the characters apart from Shang Chi feel like they change motivations scene to scene which makes it really difficult to understand what is going on. So yeah that was overall pretty bad 4/10
Not to say even Thunderbolts is amazing but it is at least a good exploration of these characters finding themself in a situation that really makes them question their own moral stances and whether in trying to change they have fallen back into their own ways. In particular radioactive man gets some great moments. I don’t quite understand why the squadron supreme stuff is tagged onto this as well but that is still interesting in how zemo is positioning himself and his relationship with songbird is equal mix unsettling, intriguing and kind of cute. So yeah very interesting story will probably have to try to track down more thunderbolts stuff in particular songbird stuff really made me want to read more about this team so at minimum successful on that front 7/10
What a weird dual collection to sell. They don’t relate to each other at all beyond being set during Civil War. The only effect of combining them is going from the great Thunderbolts story to the pretty bad heroes for hire story gives you quality whiplash. Like good lord the heroes story is simultaneously overcomplicated and yet way too much of a simplification of the broader marvel world and characters at the same time. Like the idea of presenting Misty Knight as a bail hunter an enforcer of of one of worst, well there's so many it probably doesn’t event crack the top 10 but one of the terrible aspects of the American legal system is an astoundingly bizarre choice. And everything around it is really odd all of the characters apart from Shang Chi feel like they change motivations scene to scene which makes it really difficult to understand what is going on. So yeah that was overall pretty bad 4/10
Not to say even Thunderbolts is amazing but it is at least a good exploration of these characters finding themself in a situation that really makes them question their own moral stances and whether in trying to change they have fallen back into their own ways. In particular radioactive man gets some great moments. I don’t quite understand why the squadron supreme stuff is tagged onto this as well but that is still interesting in how zemo is positioning himself and his relationship with songbird is equal mix unsettling, intriguing and kind of cute. So yeah very interesting story will probably have to try to track down more thunderbolts stuff in particular songbird stuff really made me want to read more about this team so at minimum successful on that front 7/10
June 14, 2022
Reading through all the civil war collection and this one just felt... incomplete. There were parts of stories here and connections to the over all picture, but having read other parts of the collection, there doesn't seem to be time for all the meetings with big players in this one. The stories themselves are also incomplete... ending in unnecessary cliffhangers.
Could have skipped it. Nice art though.
Could have skipped it. Nice art though.
June 21, 2017
This has good and not so good points. I thought as I flipped through this that it looked very interesting, with some known and some unknown characters. I also thought that this was one continuous story. It is not interesting nor does it have one continuous story but many in one book. What a let down. This is me making a sad face.
May 22, 2018
Good book for both groups.
I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the behind the curtin bits from the Thunderbolts.
I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the behind the curtin bits from the Thunderbolts.
Read
November 3, 2025Update: this book doesn't spoil the Civil war event (as far as i know [ill update later if i'm wrong, after reading it]), but the Heroes for Hire story does spoil a big moment for spider-man seen at the start of the Civil War reading order.
Currenty, this is the only Marvel Civil War trade paperback i own. These stories are okay. 2 or 3 stars, maybe others may rate this book more harshly. I don't know how necessary of reads these issues are if you're reading through Marvel's Civil war. the Thunderbolts Issues are better is you are Familiar with Zemo an Capt America's pior engagements. If you know that captain America gets arrested later by Iron Man, then the Thunderbolts issues are a kinda necessary read. if you want skip these issues just know Zemo helps Capt escape.
the Hero's for hire issues are about Iron man having the hereos for hire arrest bad guys (the same with the thunderbolts). I like issue #3. Iron Man wants Heroes for Hire to arrest Captain America, but shenanigans occur. the rest of the story is a skrull organ factory. Ricadonna appears (from daughters of the Dragon 2006 [first appearance]) It not a necessary read for these civil war issues, but it couldn't hurt. after this, the character never appears in comics until Miles Morales: spider-men #15 (2022). i doubt it concludes the vendetta Tarantula (first appearance) has her. if skrull harvesting and Captain America getting a new hideout is relevant in the Marvel Civil War event, then these issues are more o a must read. if not these are an okay story. if you really wanted to know how Misty Knight feels about Iron Man and Captain America fued. this is the story for you, but (because of the writing) it's not that deep. Update: only the first 3 issues of HFH are civil war so I suppose the skrull segement is not relevant.
to sumarize: Thunderbolts and Heroes For Hire is about Iron Man elistin in these teams to arrest villians. one team is of villians and the other has villians on the team. both teams interact with Captain America
Currenty, this is the only Marvel Civil War trade paperback i own. These stories are okay. 2 or 3 stars, maybe others may rate this book more harshly. I don't know how necessary of reads these issues are if you're reading through Marvel's Civil war. the Thunderbolts Issues are better is you are Familiar with Zemo an Capt America's pior engagements. If you know that captain America gets arrested later by Iron Man, then the Thunderbolts issues are a kinda necessary read. if you want skip these issues just know Zemo helps Capt escape.
the Hero's for hire issues are about Iron man having the hereos for hire arrest bad guys (the same with the thunderbolts). I like issue #3. Iron Man wants Heroes for Hire to arrest Captain America, but shenanigans occur. the rest of the story is a skrull organ factory. Ricadonna appears (from daughters of the Dragon 2006 [first appearance]) It not a necessary read for these civil war issues, but it couldn't hurt. after this, the character never appears in comics until Miles Morales: spider-men #15 (2022). i doubt it concludes the vendetta Tarantula (first appearance) has her. if skrull harvesting and Captain America getting a new hideout is relevant in the Marvel Civil War event, then these issues are more o a must read. if not these are an okay story. if you really wanted to know how Misty Knight feels about Iron Man and Captain America fued. this is the story for you, but (because of the writing) it's not that deep. Update: only the first 3 issues of HFH are civil war so I suppose the skrull segement is not relevant.
to sumarize: Thunderbolts and Heroes For Hire is about Iron Man elistin in these teams to arrest villians. one team is of villians and the other has villians on the team. both teams interact with Captain America
October 17, 2016
2.5 - 2 for the Thunderbolts, 3 for Heroes for Hire.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews