Thunderstrike (Kevin Masterson)
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Thunderstrike is Kevin Masterson, a fictional character who appeared in Marvel Comics' MC2 series A-Next. he is the son of Eric Masterson, the first Thunderstrike.
[edit] History
In the alternate future of MC2, Eric's son, Kevin Masterson was granted the Thunderstrike Mace by Jarvis, the Avengers butler, as per his father's will. As the mace was made for his father alone, Kevin was unable to use it as his father had. The mace was later stolen from Kevin and eventually came into the possession of Loki, who had created a spell to tap the dormant power within the mace. Kevin leapt into the midst of the spell, absorbing the mace and the magic it contained into his body. He became his own version of Thunderstrike and would go on to join A-Next, the replacement team created after the Avengers disbanded. Kevin thought that he could use his powers to in some way connect with his deceased father's memory.
Kevin made friends with teammate J2, as they both had inherited their superpowers from their missing fathers, and worked well with Stinger and Mainframe. When his team gained new members, he tried to form friendships with them, but he wasn't as close with them as he was his original teammates. Kevin tried to do some good as just his normal self, by volunteering at a housing project with his childhood friend Maria. But he found himself embroiled in a battle with the Sons of the Serpent. However, Kevin couldn't change without revealing his secret identity to Maria. The intervention of Blacklight helped hold off the Serpents, but when the building Kevin and Maria were hiding in collapsed he had to change, making Maria swear to keep his secret.
Thunderstrike's biggest challenge though, was when A-Next travelled to a dark parallel dimension, where he encountered a dark version of his own father. But when the evil Eric Masterson recognized Thunderstrike as Kevin, Thunderstrike learned that in this reality, the evil Kevin had died, not Eric (as in Thunderstrike's reality). The dark Eric and Kevin bonded, and once A-Next defeated the dark dimension's ruler, Kevin stayed behind to be with his "father".
In Spider-Girl #59, Kevin returned to his home reality, and rejoined A-Next to aid in the battle with Seth. But When Galactus destroyed Asgard, Thunderstrike seemingly lost his powers in Last Planet Standing. And in Avengers Next #1; he was kidnapped by Ulik, as part of a plan to restore Asgard.
[edit] Powers
Kevin had the ability to change from his normal form into the superhuman Thunderstrike. As Thunderstrike, he had the powers contained within the mace. Thunderstrike was superhumanly strong and durable. He could generate explosive bursts of sonic force (his "thunderbolts") from his hands, and direct them as blasts of force, or focus the energy into his fists to deliver super-strong punches. Thunderstrike could direct his blasts downwards to launch himself into the air, and while he couldn't fly, could propel himself great distances. He even learned how to modulate the frequency of his sonic energies, to shatter objects just by touching them, without harming nearby people.
