The latest episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law dropped the name Thunderball, but the show quietly introduced one of the most dangerous villain teams in the Marvel Universe: the Wrecking Crew. Ok, maybe they didn’t seem so dangerous in She-Hulk, but the Wrecking Crew has been there for many major Marvel events, including Thunderbolts and Secret Wars, the last movie on the MCU’s Phase 6 roster.
Thunderball is the scientist member of the Wrecking Crew, one of the most reliable gangs of villainous cronies for Marvel bad guys, mostly because they just keep breaking out of prison.
She-Hulk introducing the Wrecking Crew did something notably interesting with the group. When they were in the back of their van after being decidedly defeated by She-Hulk, someone said, “The boss is gonna be mad.” So, there is a mysterious benefactor behind this funny little group of construction workers. In fact, there could be someone behind all of what’s going on in She-Hulk.
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Over the recent MCU projects post-Endgame, we’ve been clued into a few Marvel villains working behind the scenes in the current phase. And if the Wrecking Crew was hired to get She-Hulk’s blood, then there’s more going on in this Hulk-Lawyer show than it seems.
Who Is the Wrecking Crew?
Marvel Comics
The Wrecking Crew is a group of fairly regular guys that were gifted superhuman powers via an enchanted crowbar. In the MCU, She-Hulk snidely remarks how it looks like the group robbed an Asgardian construction worker when, in actuality, that’s probably not too far from the truth. The Crew was gifted with Asgardian-level strength when The Wrecker’s crowbar was struck by lightning while all four were holding it.
Judging by the fight scene in She-Hulk, it doesn’t look like this has happened yet. But in the comics, the Wrecking Crew regularly attacks the Avengers (mostly Thor) and other superheroes. Their first appearance, however, was in a fight against The Defenders, which may provide a bit of a tie-in for the Daredevil cameo we know will come later in She-Hulk.
The Wrecking Crew’s members represent a swath of regular humans that just happened to be gifted superhuman powers. Thunderball, who wields the ball and chain we saw in She-Hulk, is Dr. Eliot Franklin, an ex-physicist who studied gamma radiation and might know something about Hulk blood. Bulldozer, the one with the helmet, is former Army Master Sergeant Henry Camp. The man with the gloves is Brian Calusky, who used to be a farmhand until he became Piledriver. Finally, you have The Wrecker, AKA Dirk Garthwaite, who holds the magical crowbar.
When they first gained their superior strength in the comics, they confronted The Defenders while looking for a small gamma bomb that Thunderball had misplaced. Eventually, they were defeated, and Bruce Banner managed to disarm the gamma bomb. As they continued their wrecking careers, they became involved with two notorious villain team-ups: Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil and Hood’s Gang.
While they were on either team, they fought The Punisher, Deadpool, and The Thunderbolts, all of which are part of, or will be added to, the MCU. So, if the Wrecking Crew is in Marvel now, you can look forward to any of those fights based on comic book canon.
The Kingpin Conspiracy
Marvel Studios
After they tried to jump She-Hulk for her blood, the Wrecking Crew retreated to their van, where we saw a group of panicked men trying to recover from being thoroughly beaten up. When The Wrecker asked Thunderball if he got “it,” we saw Thunderball holding up a broken hypodermic needle. He gives the excuse that he couldn’t pierce She-Hulk’s “nasty green skin,” which just seems offensive. But after one of them says, “The boss is gonna be mad,” we start to wonder: who exactly is behind this group of clumsy villains?
Hulk blood would be a scarce commodity in the MCU. Regular people might be able to use it to give themselves superpowers. There are a few people who might want it, but given what we know about Wrecking Crew facing The Defenders and all of She-Hulk taking place in New York, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is the most likely culprit.
Of course, he wouldn’t be able to try and get it from Jen Walters himself. In fact, he could be behind a whole conspiracy, providing the funds to GLK&H to hire Walters so that she can exonerate people like Abomination. She-Hulk may end up releasing half of those imprisoned villains and have now been “reformed” simply because she’s being fooled by a mysterious hand moving in the shadows.
The Wrecking Crew might not have stolen that construction equipment but are being supplied with weapons by a benefactor in order to pass Hulk blood to him. If Daredevil shows up later in the series, it could be to warn She-Hulk that she’s actually been working for Kingpin this whole time.
