A new female Crimson Cowl gathered her own Masters of Evil, much to the chagrin of Baron Zemo and his disguised Thunderbolts. Their long term goals were as mysterious as their cloaked leader for a time, and eventually resulted in the largest Masters team to date.
Membership: Crimson Cowl II, Klaw, Tiger Shark, Man-Killer, Cyclone III, Flying Tiger, Sunstroke, Dragonfly, Eel II, Supercharger, Cardinal, Aqueduct, Slyde, Blackwing, Icemaster, Boomerang, Scorcher, Constrictor, Lodestone, Joystick, Shatterfist, Man-Ape, Shockwave, Quicksand, Bison, Gypsy Moth, Black Mamba, Hydro-Man, Machinesmith
First appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
Before
- Baron Helmut Zemo intended to take revenge on Captain America and the Avengers by reforming the Masters of Evil. However, this sixth incarnation of the Masters was still being gathered when Onslaught struck, seemingly killing the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Spurred on by an offhand comment from Goliath, Zemo saw an opportunity to take the place of the heroes. Under his guidance, the Masters of Evil VI adopted new identities as the Thunderbolts. Their plan was to dazzle the public and impress the authorities so they would be given access to the same security clearance and national defense protocols once enjoyed by the Avengers. [Thunderbolts Annual '97]
Chronology
Thunderbolts (1st series) #3: |
During the Thunderbolts initial ploy, a new team of Masters of Evil appeared in New York under the employ of a mysterious, female Crimson Cowl. As agents of HYDRA attempted to gain control of the Manhattan underworld, the Masters of Evil (Man-Killer, Cyclone, Flying Tiger, Klaw and Tiger Shark) acted as security and enforcers. Publically in their guise as super-heroes and secretly in defense of their name, the Thunderbolts engaged the Masters of Evil and interrupted two of their dealings, but the Crimson Cowl managed to teleport her team to safety each time before they could be captured by the "heroes." |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #18: |
After the Thunderbolts were revealed as super-villains to the world, they tried to genuinely act as heroes while still on the run from the authorities. Their private cabin was attacked by Cyclone, who taunted and evaded the T-Bolts in order to piss them off, luring them into following him back to the Cowl. When they arrived at an abandoned factory, the Thunderbolts were quickly overpowered by the prepared Masters. Once they awakened, the Crimson Cowl offered the Thunderbolts a place in her organization. Join the Masters of Evil, she said, or we'll let all your enemies know where to find you. Knowing the T-Bolts were already on the edge after their efforts to play hero hadn't panned out, the Cowl gave them time to consider their answer. |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #19: |
While thinking over the Cowl's offer, the Thunderbolts became involved in defending a small town from occupation by the Imperial Forces of America. They had nearly beaten the IFA's muscle, Charcoal, when Man-Killer and the Masters interrupted, allowing the Imperial Forces to escape. Man-Killer clarified the Cowl's offer for the Thunderbolts: Join us or go down. No playing hero or looking for a way out in the meantime. This intervention may have been meant to break the Thunderbolts' spirits, but instead it galvanized them to take the fight to the Masters of Evil. |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #20: |
Tracking the Masters of Evil to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on a crime spree, the Thunderbolts confronted the Masters for all their threats and intimidation tactics. Jolt quickly disabled the electronic circuitry in the Cowl's cowl, leaving them unable to teleport away. The fight was going well but, when Moonstone distracted Songbird at a key moment while trying to claim credit for the coming victory, the Masters regrouped and brought the Thunderbolts down in moments. Klaw would have killed the Thunderbolts if they hadn't been saved by Hawkeye of the Avengers (briefly disguised as the Dreadknight). The Masters escaped once again from the Thunderbolts. |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #23: |
While monitoring an interview with Hawkeye about his new role as leader of the Thunderbolts, the Crimson Cowl was initially content that the T-Bolts were no serious threat to her plans. That changed when Hawkeye made the surprising live-air announcement that the Thunderbolts' next mission was to hunt down and capture the Crimson Cowl and the Masters of Evil. |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #24: |
Irritated by Hawkeye's announcement, the Crimson Cowl set up a trap for the Thunderbolts in Robinette, Nebraska. Once they lured the heroes in with some public devastation, the Cowl teleported her troops away after using a weather modulator to set off a cyclonic "super-storm" right over the town of Robinette. The Thunderbolts managed to save the people of Robinette, and tracked the Masters of Evil to their lair inside Mount Charteris above Burton Canyon, Colorado. After infiltrating the mountain headquarters, however, the Thunderbolts were surprised to learn the true size of the Masters' organization: the group had NINETEEN additional members on top of the six field operatives they had already met, including Sunstroke, Dragonfly, Eel, Supercharger, Cardinal, Aqueduct, Constrictor, Bison, Shockwave, Quicksand, Lodestone, Man-Ape, Shatterfist, Joystick, Slyde, Boomerang, Icemaster, Blackwing and Scorcher. |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #25: |
Faced with daunting odds, Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts played it sneaky against the Masters of Evil. The Cowl had set of a series of weather modulators around the globe so that the Masters of Evil could blackmail the world governments for one trillion dollars. The key was the central command station for the weather modulators inside the Masters' base. While Moonstone approached the Crimson Cowl alone as a distraction, claiming to accept her previous offer, the other T-Bolts began taking out Masters one at a time when they were alone. After disposing of Man-Ape, Joystick, Lodestone, Constrictor and Shatterfist, the Thunderbolts disguised themselves in the Masters' costumes to get closer to central command. When their ruse was uncovered, the Crimson Cowl launched the command console in a secondary craft along with Sunstroke, Dragonfly and Moonstone, while the remaining seventeen Masters of Evil battled the Thunderbolts below. The Thunderbolts defeated and captured all but two of the Masters, Cyclone and Man-Killer, while Moonstone freed herself and destroyed the weather modulator controls. When the Thunderbolts regrouped and unmasked the Crimson Cowl, they found out she was Dallas Riordan, their former city liaison when they first posed as heroes. |
In-Between
- 22 out of 25 Masters of Evil were captured by the Thunderbolts in #25.
- The Crimson Cowl's bait-and-switch with Dallas Riordan lasted until after Dallas was freed from custody by unidentified operatives, when it was revealed Dallas was actually the new Citizen V who had been captured by the Masters of Evil during their weather plot. The Crimson Cowl's true identity would remain secret awhile longer. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #27, 38-41]
- Man-Killer decided to lay low in Burton Canyon for a time as a bartender named Wilma. She was forced to abandon this cover after Atlas and Wonder Man trashed her bar in a brawl. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #27-42]
- Cyclone escaped and reunited with the European Maggia who originally gave him his cyclonic suit. He was involved in the Nefaria Protocols plot where Count Luchino Nefaria attempted to retake control of the Maggia and the world. [Avengers (3rd series) #31-32, Thunderbolts (1st series) #42-43]
- Justin Hammer was an international businessman and financial backer for super-villains, providing them with technical and legal support in exchange for their services and a cut of their profits. Hammer made contact with an enormous number of super-criminals over the years. Eventually, his villainy caught up with him and he was sucked out into space during the destruction of his orbital base. [Iron Man: Bad Blood #4]
- The Thunderbolts eventually received presidential pardons for their crimes, but a complicated series of events led to Hawkeye going to prison on trumped up charges in their place. While in prison, he infiltrated an escape plan by Mentallo, Cottonmouth and Plant-Man on behalf of Dum Dum Dugan of SHIELD. Orchestrated by Mentallo, a former agent of Justin Hammer's, the escape revolved around controlling an unidentified "legacy" of Justin Hammer's. With most of the Thunderbolts believed dead after a conflict with Graviton, Dugan hired Songbird to pursue Hawkeye's gang for SHIELD. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #50-63]
Chronology cont.
Thunderbolts (1st series) #63: |
On behalf of the Crimson Cowl, Cyclone invaded Crecy Enterprises in Vancouver to capture the data disk with Justin Hammer's legacy on it. Hawkeye's chain gang and Songbird were there for the same purpose. They defended the disk, but Cyclone escaped before he could be captured. Mentallo and Cottonmouth were turned over to SHIELD, but Plant-Man stayed with Hawkeye and Songbird as part of the new Thunderbolts. |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #64: |
The Crimson Cowl recruited Cardinal from Seagate prison to rejoin her Masters of Evil. Along with Cyclone and Man-Killer, the Masters now included Machinesmith, Black Mamba, Gypsy Moth and Hydro-Man. She informed her operatives that the key to Hammer's legacy was Plant-Man and his abilities.
|
Thunderbolts (1st series) #65: |
Cyclone allowed himself to be captured by the Thunderbolts in order to lead them into a trap. The Masters of Evil (Man-Killer, Gypsy Moth, Cardinal and Machinesmith) awaited them in one of Justin Hammer's old estates. They overpowered Hawkeye and Songbird and kidnapped Plant-Man so that Machinesmith could examine him. The T-Bolts tracked the Masters and, once Machinesmith's tests confirmed their suspicions, blew the robot up. Machinesmith micro-beamed his conscious out, to possess a new body at another location, and Hawkeye talked the other Masters into ending the fight. He showed them what was on Hammer's legacy file -- Justin Hammer discovered a plant-based bio-toxin years ago, and began secretly infecting every super-criminal he encountered with it, including many of the Masters. The Crimson Cowl wanted Plant-Man because his powers could activate or neutralize the toxin, making him key to giving her total control over the fate of most super-villains on the planet. Realizing they were being used, Cyclone, Man-Killer, Gypsy Moth and Cardinal switched sides and joined the Thunderbolts to stop the Crimson Cowl. (The last three also adopted new "hero" identities as Amazon, Skein, and Harrier, respectively, and Plant-Man became Blackheath.) |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #67: |
The Crimson Cowl and her remaining Masters of Evil (Machinesmith, Hydro-Man and Black Mamba) were tracked to Symkaria by the Thunderbolts. The Cowl was revealed as Justine Hammer, the estranged daughter of Justin Hammer, explaining her knowledge of the toxin plot. Despite the assistance of Silver Sable and the Wild Pack, the Thunderbolts were overpowered by the Masters of Evil. Machinesmith's power over machines neutralized Songbird and Harrier, who in turn took down Cyclone and Hawkeye when he turned their tech against their teammates. Hydro-Man dehydrated Blackheath, while Skein turned coward and ran. The Crimson Cowl bluffed Amazon into surrendering by claiming she could activate the toxin and kill her even without Blackheath's powers. |
Thunderbolts (1st series) #69: |
Crimson Cowl and Machinesmith began experimenting on Blackheath in order to find out how to activate the toxin on command. When she awakened in her cell, Songbird used her sonics to knock out Hydro-Man and Black Mamba, allowing the Thunderbolts to escape. Despite the Cowl's efforts, Blackheath managed to synthesize and release a neutralizing agent into the atmosphere, rendering the bio-toxin inert. As the Thunderbolts arrived for the final showdown, the Cowl's prehensile cape suddenly came to life and dismantled Machinesmith, before unraveling itself. Skein emerged from the shadows and remarked that, on second thought, someone who can mentally control fabrics really had little to fear from an opponent named the Crimson COWL. |
Afterwards
- Justine Hammer went to prison for a time, but eventually took over control of her father's company, Hammer Industries. It was also revealed that she had a daughter with the Mandarin, Sasha Hammer. Justine and Sasha competed with Stark Resilient for a time using their homegrown armored creation, Detroit Steel. Ultimately, however, Sasha and her boyfriend Ezekiel Stane apparently killed Justine. [Invincible Iron Man (1st series) #527]
- Harrier, Man-Killer and Skein remained with the Thunderbolts a short time longer, but the last two would return to villainy. [Thunderbolts (1st series) #75]
Membership
Crimson Cowl II (Justine Hammer)
First appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
Last appearance: Invincible Iron Man (1st series) #527
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3, 18, 20, 23-25, 64, 67, 69
Powers: micro-circuitry costume is equipped with various devices, including a teleportation effect, anti-gravitational levitation, omni-directional blinding light flashes, and prehensile controls for her cape that manipulate it into lashes or pointed spikes
Man-Killer (Katrina Luisa van Horn)
First appearance: Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #8
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3, 18-20, 23-25, 64-65
Powers: Power Broker process augments her strength, endurance, reflexes, and durability, formerly wore a cybernetic exoskeleton that duplicated her current enhancements and had explosive throwing disks
Tiger Shark (Todd Arliss)
First appearance: Sub-Mariner (1st series) #5
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3, 18-20, 23-25
Powers: restructured with the genetic patterns of an Atlantean and a tiger shark, giving him superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, thick resilient flesh with high resistance to physical harm, gills for breathing underwater, strength that increases while in contact with water, aquatically adapted vision, a large dorsel fin and razor tipped fangs and claws
Flying Tiger
First appearance: Spider-Woman (1st series) #40
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3, 18-20, 23-25
Powers: armored battlesuit contains an exoskeleton that augments his strength, speed, reflexes, aerial maneuverability, and resistance to physical injury, is equipped with razor edged talons and flight systems
Ulysses Klaw
First appearance: Fantastic Four (1st series) #53
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3,18-20,23-25
Powers: mutated by a vibranium sound converter into a being of solidified sound waves, giving him superhuman strength and endurance, sonic-imaging perceptions, the power to reconstitute his body from any amount of damage, shift frequencies into an energy state, and absorb external sound waves and vibrations that his sonic-claw converts into concussive blasts, high-decibel shrieks, tangible energy projections of sonic force, and thrust to propel him through the air
Cyclone III (Pierre Fresson)
First appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #3, 18-20, 23-25, 63-65
Powers: cybernetic skin-suit manipulates the air molecules around it, generating swirling cyclonic winds that can be directed as bursts of hurricane-force gales or to propel him through the sky with great speed and maneuverability
Sunstroke (Sol Brodstroke)
First appearance: West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #17
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: solar experiments gave him the ability to absorb sunlight and any other source of increased heat, and convert it into radiant discharges of blinding light and thermal waves, or generate thermal updrafts under his glider foils to fly
Dragonfly (Veronica Dultry)
First appearance: X-Men (1st series) #94
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: genetically altered by Count Nefaria to assume animal-like traits, giving her heightened strength, agility, and reflexes, antenna that sense vibrations, insect wings allowing her to fly, a hypnotic gaze that places others under her spell, and the ability to metamorphesize into a humanoid dragonfly with psychic control over other insects
Joystick (Janice Olivia Yanizeski)
First appearance: Amazing Scarlet Spider #2
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: surgically-enhanced body possesses heightened strength, agility, and reflexes, wears cyber-gauntlets that generate focused energy into fighting sticks that explode on impact or generate blinding flashes of light when slammed together
Lodestone (Andrea Haggard)
First appearance: Darkhawk #7
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: latent mutation activated to give her power over magnetic polarities, allowing her to levitate herself, generate magnetic force blasts and protective fields, lift and propel metallic objects, and painfully churn the iron in the human blood vessels
Shatterfist
First appearance: Thor (1st series) #440
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: wears a pair of power gloves that augment his physical power, enabling him to strike blows with incredible destructive force
Man-Ape (M’Baku)
First appearance: Avengers (1st series) #62
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: bathed in the blood of the sacred white gorilla, endowing him with great size, strength, agility, endurance, and durability
Shockwave (Lancaster Sneed)
First appearance: Master of Kung Fu (1st series) #42
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: surgically implanted with metal plates that generate an electrical charge through his skin, delivering electro-shock bolts into others upon contact or overloading electronic systems
Quicksand
First appearance: Thor (1st series) #392
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: radiation transformed her entire body into tightly-packed silicon particles, so that she could become amorpheous sand, harden into sandstone, release her molecules as a pressurized sandblast, reform her body into any shape imaginable, and absorb additional sand particles to increase her mass
Bison (William Kitson)
First appearance: Thunderstrike (1st series) #13
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: mutated by Seth's geneti-pod engineering into a buffalo-like human state, possessing superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, senses, resistance to physical injury, and two razor-tipped horns extending from his skull
Constrictor (Frank Payne / Frankie Schlicting)
First appearance: Incredible Hulk (2nd series) #212
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: bionic arms can extend retractable adamanium coils capable of channeling an electrical charge, wears a body suit equipped with bullet-proof fabric and infrared telephoto lenses, formerly employed wrist-mounted retractable adamantium or vibranium coils
Aqueduct (Peter van Zante)
First appearance: Ghost Rider (2nd series) #23
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: power surge to an experimental medical device gave him the ability to psionically influence liquids so that he can condense vapor into water or command existing liquids, causing them to flow where he wishes, form water spouts solid enough to stand on or strike other objects, and either dehydrate or saturate anything he chooses
Cardinal (Joshua Donald Clendenon)
First appearance: New Warriors (1st series) #28
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25, 64-65
Powers: Air Force battlesuit equips him with hydraulically-enhanced strength, speed and reflexes, adaptive targeting computers, a protective electromagnetic mesh, machine guns, missile launchers, explosive spikes, pressure-launched tar globules, electrified nets, napalm gel, and a winged flight pack
Supercharger (Ronald Hilliard)
First appearance: Amazing Fantasy (1st series) #17
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: energy experiment transformed him into a living battery, able to absorb energy directly from any source, store the power in his body, then unleash it and destructive force
Eel II (Edward Lavell)
First appearance: Power Man and Iron Fist (1st series) #92
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: costume covered with a slippery grease and fitted with a micro-generator, which projects an electrical field around his body and directs energy as lightning-like bolts
Boomerang (Fred Myers)
First appearance: Tales to Astonish #81
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: body suit equipped with boot rockets and various gimicked boomerangs, including explosive blasterangs, sharpened razorangs and bladerangs, sonic screamerangs, multi-rangs, electrorangs, tracerangs and noxious spray gaserangs, formerly employed specialized magnetic throwing disks and a single boomerang capable of releasing concussive explosions on impact
Slyde (Jalome Beacher)
First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #272
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: specially-treated costume is covered with a self-lubricating substance that eliminates all friction, allowing him to slide over solid surface and slip from any grasp
Icemaster (Bradley Kroon)
First appearance: Avengers (1st series) #191
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: cryo-suspension experiment mutated him to drain all heat from his environment, constantly covering his body with a thick layer of ice, flash-freezing anything he touches, and enabling him to form ice crystal into various shapes by condensing the water vapor in the air with intense cold
Scorcher (Steven Jamal Hudak)
First appearance: Untold Tales of Spider-Man #1
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: battle suit equips him with enhanced strength, resistance to damage and temperature, flame-cannons that release concentrated streams of blistering fire, and boot rockets for flight
Blackwing (Giuseppe Manifredi / Joe Silvermane)
First appearance: Daredevil (1st series) #118
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #24-25
Powers: surgically equipped with devices that enable him to float by manipulating gravition particles and psionically communicate with and command bats, uses razor-bat shuriken, hand-held fighting batons, bat razor swords, and a personal flying platform
Black Mamba (Tanya Sealy)
First appearance: Marvel Two-In-One #64
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64-65, 67, 69
Powers: bionic augmentation provides her with mesmerizing abilities to coerce someone into seeing her as their one true love and triggering orgasmic euphoria so that they submit their will to the image's provocative behavior, a power which can be combined with her talent to summon a semi-solid supply of Darkforce to create a "Darkforce lover" which will passively asphyxiate her victim, or can also create a "second skin" where the Darkforce is cloaked in her own self-image and attacks her opponents directly through constriction and suffocation
Machinesmith (Samuel “Starr” Saxon)
First appearance: Daredevil (1st series) #49
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64-65, 67, 69
Powers: exists as a cybernetic consciousness able to micro-beam itself into any mechanical system and assume full control over its function and operations, inhabits a robotic body with superhuman strength, highly-durable metallic skin, mechanical sensory scanners including infrared and telescopic vision, augmented hearing, telescoping limbs, electromagnetic override capabilities, and a self-destruct circuit
Hydro-Man (Morris Bench)
First appearance: Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #212
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64-65, 67, 69
Powers: experimental energy conversion process transformed his cell structure so that he can shift into a watery, liquid state at will, expanding his body into great volumes of liquid that he can use to engulf his opponents, harmlessly absorb impacts, release as high-pressure streams, reform his body even when his water molecules are scattered and hydrokinetic power to manipulate other sources of water to replenish his body or dehydrate other people or objects on contact
Gypsy Moth (Sybil Dvorak)
First appearance: Spider-Woman (1st series) #10
First Masters VII appearance: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64
All Masters VII appearances: Thunderbolts (1st series) #64-65
mutant power: "soft touch" psychokinesis enables her to manipulate any matter through the power of her mind, but she has an affinity for controlling soft substances such as fibers, organic tissue, and plant matter, so she uses her powers to levitate and direct any of these materials, weave fiberous matter to design and alter clothing, fly under her own power with the help of silken wings on her back, and assault people directly by causing muscle cramps, skin lesions, and rupturing of blood vessels