This issue of Avengers brings the team into conflict with the Thunderbolts for the first time since the team of villains broke with Baron Zemo and tried to go straight (for real), and also reunites them with Hawkeye for the first time since he walked out on the team at the end of Avengers #9. As it happens, Clint then reached out to the Thunderbolts and convinced them to let him lead the team and help make them legitimate heroes (as Captain America did for him earlier as a member of his “Kooky Quartet”).
The Avengers learn of Hawkeye’s new friends at the end of Thunderbolts #0, and Vision and Cap both jump to a conclusion that seems to ignore all of their past experiences with Clint Barton.
In Avengers #12, Operation “Find Purple Arrow” starts in earnest, but it doesn’t seem the archer wants to be found. (Or those dastardly Thunderbolts did something, sure. I think even Justice knows what’s really up, but he’s afraid to say anything.)
Wanda pokes a hole in Cap’s mind-control theory, but he’s sticking with it until he’s proven wrong. In the meantime, we welcome another Avenger back to the board…
…who Cap seems to forget is a synthezoid, more easily repaired than flesh-and-blood folks.
Cap wisely decides to get a little workout to clear his head… and Justice is sure to be a big help with that.
Cap starts telling the young starstruck hero about meeting FDR back in the day, which doesn’t help bring him down to earth in Justice’s eyes.
Before long, Hank Pym sounds the alarm and announces that they’ve found Hawkeye… and Cap doesn’t like where.
After they get to Arizona, the Avengers burst in on the Thunderbolts, with Justice lowering Cap down in a threatening pose…
…and they start to fight, with Cap striking a surprisingly ineffective blow against his chosen foe, Atlas.
Cap realizes the Thunderbolts are actually doing well… a little too well, in fact.
Wanda finds Clint, who says he just wanted to see how the Thunderbolts would do against “a real threat” before updating everybody on his new status.
Cap reminds Clint of the Thunderbolts’ criminal past, but he counters with his own and Cap’s acceptance of that before asking his old mentor whom this is really about.
When Clint says he already got “the only known murderer in the whole team” to surrender to the authorities, Cap settles down and apologizes. (Maybe it was about them, Clint.)
Just then, a massive robot named Dominex—a new version of Dominus, the great threat the West Coast Avengers faced there earlier—emerges from the ground, uniting the two teams against a common threat (as is comics tradition). After burying the Avengers until a pile of rubble, Dominex heads west, and the Avengers pursue it in the quinjet, with Cap showing his confidence in young Justice (not this Young Justice)…
…and then having to calm him down when he starts criticizing Hawkeye. (“No one hits my brother but me!”)
The teams are working together, but Cap can’t help being suspicious of the Thunderbolts, especially after they try to get access to Dominex’s control systems.
In the end, the Thunderbolts destroy Dominex, and Cap allows them to leave, but with a warning about future law-breaking that Clint scoffs at.
Before the Thunderbolts take their leave, Clint makes a dramatic declaration, ostensibly to protect the Avengers from liability, but we know better. In the end, Cap chooses to keep his faith in his old friend, no matter how brash he may be.
Finally, Amazing Spider-Man gets its first #1 issue since 1963, but it starts with the wallcrawler nowhere to be found—and Captain America, for one, is concerned. (Johnny’s message in the sky originally read “WHERE R U SPIDER-MAN?”)
Cap confirms to Jarvis that, although “a strange one,” Spidey was a good egg…
…which makes J. Jonah Jameson’s latest slander all the more offensive.
Unfortunately, we don’t see him confront Jameson about it. (Check out the issue at the link below to see what’s going on with Peter Parker, who is definitely alive and kicking but “Spider-Man No More” again.)
ISSUE DETAILS
Avengers (vol. 3) #12, January 1999: Kurt Busiek (writer), George Pérez (pencils), Al Vey and Bob Wiacek (inks), Tom Smith (colors), Richard Starkings, Wes Abbott, and Comicraft (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Avengers Assemble Volume 2.
Thunderbolts (vol. 1) #0, December 1998: Kurt Busiek (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Tom Smith (colors), Richard Starkings (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Thunderbolts Epic Collection: Wanted Dead or Alive.
Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1, January 1999, “Where R U Spider-Man?”: Howard Mackie (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Gregory Wright (colors), Richard Starkings and Liz Agraphiotis (letters). (More details at Marvel Database.)
Collected in: Spider-Man: The Next Chapter, Volume 1.
PREVIOUS ISSUES: Avengers #10-11 (November-December 1998)
ALSO THESE MONTHS: Captain America #12 and Thor #6 (December 1998), Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #4 (December 1998), Deadpool #23 (December 1998), Avengers Forever #1-2 (December 1998-January 1999), Captain America #13 (January 1999), and Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #5 (January 1999)
NEXT ISSUE: Avengers #14-15 (March-April 1999)
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 
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