Marvel’s Thunderbolts: 11 Most Powerful Members In The Comics, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Thunderbolts are Marvel’s efficient anti-hero task force for Black Ops missions.
• Founding members like Zemo formed a legacy leading to powerful and diverse current team members.
• The diverse team includes powerful members like Deadpool, Juggernaut, and Ghost Rider, each with unique abilities and backgrounds.

Marvel Comics features a wide array of anti-hero teams roaming around, laying waste to other anti-heroes or villains in the most gruesome of ways. But among them, the Thunderbolts are considered the most efficient task force sent in secret Ops to destroy (assassinate) certain Persons of Interest in the Marvel Universe.

Against the likes of Red Skull, Doctor Doom, and other powerful villains, who would one call if not those who have worked side by side with them? From the original lineup founded by Baron Helmut Zemo to the current team led by Winter Soldier (aka The Revolution), the Thunderbolts have been home to some of the most powerful characters of Earth 616 and beyond, but some are arguably stronger than others.

11 Baron Helmut Zemo

Master Tactician, Gifted Swordsman, And Evil Genius

• Original creators: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
• First appearance: The Avengers #4 (March 1964)

Baron Helmut Zemo, a former member of Hydra and recurrent Captain America’s nemesis, is the original leader of the Thunderbolts and the one who conceived the idea of a group of criminals posing as heroes with secondary identities. Zemo has extraordinary agility, and superhuman reflexes, as well as experience with several types of weaponry, though swordsmanship seems to be his forte. Assuming the identity of Citizen V, he gathered his former henchman Goliath, who renamed himself Atlas, and they went on to recruit other super villains for their team.

Then, recruited Screaming Mimi, a former pro-wrestler turned villain, who called herself Songbird. Aided by the villain Beetle, and the evil genius Fixer, he created a base of operations, and afterward, those two took heroic names as well: they became Techno and Mach-1. The final member of the team was the villain Moonstone who took the mantle of Meteorite as a fake heroine. Zemo’s ultimate goal was to reform the Masters Of Evil, but he ended up creating an important legacy that snowballed into what the Thunderbolts are today: an anti-hero task force.

10 Songbird

A Former Pro Wrestler Who Acquired Superhuman Powers

• Original creators: Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, John Byrne
• First appearance: Marvel Two-in-One #54 (August 1979)

The first incarnation of Songbird that derived from Screaming Mimi had no superpowers, but thanks to being subjected to some experiments devised by Baron Zemo and Fixer, who implanted a voice empowering harness and bio-technological implants in her neck, she was able to use soundwaves to blast her enemies away.

Formerly, she underwent a strict training and power enhancement process while she was in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. It is also true that she was injected with some kind of super soldier serum variant by the Power Broker, which also enhanced her resilience and strength and gave her enhanced metabolic capabilities. All these factors combined ended up giving Songbird her characteristic Banshee-like powers, which include sound wave manipulation and flight.

9 Luke Cage

Here Comes Power Man

• Original creators: Archie Goodwin, George Tuska, Roy Thomas, John Romita Sr.
• First appearance: Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972)

Luke Cage, also known as Power Man, is one of the best Marvel characters and also one of the few capable of leading several teams of heroes and anti-heroes while remaining true to his moral compass. His power is among the strongest in the Marvel Universe, and the alloy-imbued skin tissue that covers his body not only grants him great resilience, but it also deviates bullets, energy blasts, radiation, and heat.

Cage has also received training from Shang-Chi and Iron Fist, and is a capable martial artist, though not as nimble as those two. He is an expert on hand-to-hand combat, and he also possesses a healing factor that derives from the many experiments he was subjected to in prison. Some fans even theorize he was the guinea pig for the improved super soldier serum that has been used to create many heroes and villains.

8 Deadpool

Loudmouth And Dangerous

• Original creators: Rob Liefeld, Fabian Nicieza
• First appearance: The New Mutants #98 (December 1990)

Some call him Wade, some call him The Merc With A Mouth, but he is Deadpool for his friends. This ninja-like mercenary is capable of great feats of power, such as running through walls, shooting precisely at inhuman speeds, fighting using dual-wielding guns and blades, and most importantly, never shutting up.

Though he is not endowed with an Adamantium Skeleton, Wade Wilson possesses a mutant healing factor, which allows him to be practically immortal. Even his severed head keeps talking and can be re-attached to his body after being cut. Though he joined the Thunderbolts during the Red Hulk’s takeover of the team, he is recognized as one of the strongest and most dangerous members of the team.

7 America Chavez

One Of The Latest Additions To The Marvel Roster

• Original creators: Joe Casey, Nick Dragotta
• First appearance: Vengeance #1 (September 2011)

America Chavez is one of the youngest Marvel characters on the roster, and during Jim Zub’s run of the New Thunderbolts, she became an official member of the team led by none other than Hawkeye. Her powers include the ability to fly, superhuman speed and strength, quick reflexes, hyper durability, and her signature skill: the ability to create interdimensional portals in the shape of stars.

She’s one heck of a fighter, too. Though Hawkeye thinks she’s a tiny bit inexperienced, she is respected anyway. She has maintained an on-and-off relationship with Ramone Watts, Fuse’s little sister, though this is barely mentioned during her career in the Thunderbolts.

6 Red Hulk

Military Genius, Brutal Enforcer, Really Bad Temper

• Original creators: Kenneth Johnson (original idea), Joe Quesada
• First appearance: Hulk Vol. 2 #1 (2008)

Who better to lead a death squad team like the Thunderbolts but a military genius, army commander, and nicknamed Thunderbolt himself: Red Hulk, aka Thaddeus Ross, Bruce Banner’s nemesis and recurrent villain. He is considered one of the most powerful superhumans on Earth 616, and his strength is second only to that of the Emerald Giant.

Ross is not immune to the Hulk-like side effects of getting angry. Instead of getting bigger and stronger, however, he starts to emanate heat capable of melting everything around him, and he can even breathe fire. It’s quite a weird combination, but that is what makes Red Hulk such a powerful member of the Thunderbolts.

5 Agent Venom (Flash Thompson)

Trained By Shield To Be The Very Best And Fused With Venom’s Offspring

• Original creators: Stan Lee, Steve Ditko (original Flash Thompson) – Dan Slott, Fred Van Lente (writers), Stefano Caselli (artist)
• First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #654 (February 2011)

After losing both legs during a failed operation in Iraq, Flash Thompson returns home heartbroken. His military career is truncated by his ill fate, and his hopes to redeem himself are in shambles. After trying to put his life back on track in the Veteran Services office, he is helped by both Harry Osborn and Peter Parker. He reveals that he sacrificed his legs to save a superior officer, trying to imitate what Spider-Man would do, as the wall-crawler had become his role model. That’s why he nearly jumped on the chance to form part of a military experiment to bond disabled soldiers with the Venom symbiote’s offspring.

Managing to successfully fuse with the symbiote, Flash recovered his ability to walk, as well as gained new abilities similar to that of his hero Spiderman, and the progenitor of the alien life form. He is unable to control it at first, and he needs to take a special drug to control it for a period of 48 hours. But after a recent interaction with the Anti-Venon hidden in Eddie Brock’s body, he became the new Anti-Venom, which has the characteristic white design and a wide array of new abilities, which include an accelerated healing factor, which has the power to heal others chosen by the host of the Anti-Venom. Agent Venom is quite a complex character, and was one of the members of the Red Hulk Thunderbolts during the 2012 run.

4 Venom

The Reformed Eddie Brock And His Permanent Body Tenant

• Original creators: David Michelinie, Todd MacFarlane
• First appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man #299 (April 1988)

The original Symbiote Host and a recurrent Anti-Hero, Venom has been part of the Thunderbolts on several occasions. One of them was during Songbirds’s takeover of the team (2006), and he even played a key role in Norman Osborn’s crazy plan to counter the Skrull Invaders during the Dark Avengers run of the team.

Venom is a powerful force in the Marvel Universe, and he is capable of going toe-to-toe with some of the most powerful heroes and villains on Earth 616 (and other alternate realities as well). But perhaps his most defining feature is his brutality, and the bond Eddie and the symbiote share empowers it to the limit. His strength, enhanced reactions, and all the abilities of the symbiote gained when it was fused with Peter Parker have become perfected in the being named Venom, an all-powerful killing machine.

3 Juggernaut

Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut

• Original creators: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
• First appearance: The X-Men #12 (July 1965)

Armed with the jewel of Cyttorak, The Juggernaut is an incredibly powerful being. There’s literally nothing in the Marvel Universe that can stop his charge once this humongous man is in motion. The powers of Juggernaut include increased strength, durability, near invulnerability, and endless stamina, and he is also equipped with a special (and ridiculous) helmet that protects him from mental attacks.

When Luke Cage took over the Thunderbolts’ leadership, he recruited Juggernaut into the team, which has proven to be both a great idea and a bad one. Since Juggernaut is tremendously hard to control, Luke Cage had to deal with him through the use of Nanites implanted in his body, which the humongous human managed to resist. Sent to the raft again, he felt the call of Cytorak and became fused with the essence of his champion, Kuurth. Now wielding the full power of his emissary, he had to be subdued by the full lineup of anti-heroes and villains looking for redemption.

2 Penance

An Underrated Marvel Character Who Is Consumed By Eternal Grief

• Original creators: Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz
• First appearance: Thunderbolts #110 (March 2007)

After Robbie Baldwin, formerly known as Speedball, and his team of Streaming Young Heroes failed to stop a rampaging mutant in Stamford, an incident caused his powers to become out of control, causing a nuclear explosion that leveled the city and kickstarted the events of Civil War. The incident not only pushed forward the Forced Registry of Super Heroes but left Robbie scarred and changed. Now, his powers have transformed to reflect his terrible inner conflict.

The only way to trigger his powers is through pain and grief, so he clad himself in an iron-maiden suit, with nails constantly piercing his body. Renamed Penance, he joined the New Thunderbolts led by Songbird, swearing to redeem himself by using his new kinetic absorption powers to blast away every rogue hero or villain. He is capable of absorbing every type of energy directed at him, even the Gama Radiation emanated from Hulk when he claps his hands, redirecting it in a much more aggressive and controlled way than before. He is one of the most powerful Thunderbolts, and he is immune to all kinds of force/energy-induced damage.

1 Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze)

He Souls And Spit Them To Hell

• Original creators: Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, Mike Ploog
• First appearance: Marvel Spotlight #5 (August 1972)

The original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, joined the Thunderbolts during Red Hulk’s run (2012-2014). While part of this team, Red Hulk recognizes Blaze’s supernatural powers as something tremendously hard to control. He also acknowledges him as a potential living weapon. Always a military man, Red Hulk knew all too well that contesting powers with the Ghost Rider wasn’t a good idea.

Blaze’s powers include superhuman strength, immortality, invulnerability, the ability to channel the never-quenching flames of Hell into his preferred weapons (chains) and vehicles, the ability to open portals to the underworld to cast away the souls (and bodies) of evildoers, and perhaps his most vicious skill: The Soul Burning Gaze (aka Penance Stare) of every Ghost Rider. Of all the lineups in the history of Thunderbolts, no member has come close to standing up to Blaze’s powers.