The CIVIL WAR gave ZEMO a chance to amass a supervillain army -- and now he is ready to unleash that fighting force on the GRANDMASTER, who plans to release an energy force across the planet that will lead to victory in his cosmic game of good and evil. But in this fight, who is good and who is evil? When the dust settles and the Guardian Protocols are enacted, the T-Bolts will never be the same again!

The Grandmaster, a cosmic being whose intergalactic gambles put the universe at play, has challenged Baron Helmut Zemo for control over the Universal Wellspring, a power source capable of creating an armada of superhuman pawns.

In a race to tap the Wellspring, the Thunderbolts rushed to Germany to battle the Grandmaster's allies, The Squadron Sinister. defeating their opponents easily, the T-Bolts were stunned to encounter the Grandmaster himself. Zemi incinerated the Elder of the Universe, a feat most would consider impossible.

With the Wellspring before him, ultimate, infinite power was at Zemo's disposal... until one of their own betrayed him, Joystick, secretly an ally of the Grandmaster, managed to activate the Wellspring. And now, the world wakes up to a new day...