TRUENO

Real Name: Miguel Angel Roldán 

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Earth-99101) human cyborg;
   join Spanish-U.S. citizen 

Occupation: Scientist, adventurer 

Group Membership: Avengers (Earth-99101)
   formerly Iberia, Inc- 99101 (Aquaviva/L'nn R'nai, Dolmen/Pere Allyon, Drac de Ferro, Duna/Celeste Ayala, Lobisome/Jacinto Larran Olea, Melkart, Traka, Trasnu)

Affiliations: Avengers of multiple realities (including Reality-616, 776, 982, 9602, 9811, 9930 ("Killraven's Avengers), 9997, 86501, 98120, 730784), Libra-616 (Gustav Brandt), Kang the Conqueror, Rick Jones-616, Rick Jones-98120, Sirio-10

Enemies: Avengers of multiple realities (including Reality-689, 8410, 9105, 99315), Death's Head (Minion), Immortus, Sloth, Time-Keepers (Ast, Vort, Zanth) 

Known Relatives: Santiago Roldán (father), Isobel Longyear (mother), Santiago Roldán Jr. (brother, missing believed deceased), Celeste Ayala (Duna, wife), Hernán Ayala (father-in-law), Marina Ayala (mother-in-law), Graciela and Lupe (sisters-in-law); Capitan Trueno (Captain Thunder - see comments), el Jabato (the Young Wild Boar), el Hombre Prehistorico (the Prehistoric Man), el Corsario de Hierro (the Iron Privateer) (ancestors)  

Aliases: Thunder (English translation of name)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed location, Earth-99101;
   formerly Isla de la Cartuja, Seville, Spain, Earth-99101

First Appearance: Iberia, Inc#1 (Laberinto, December 1996);
    (Marvel) Avengers Forever#11 (November 1999)

Powers/Abilities: Trueno is a supergenius whose intellect places him amongst the smartest people on Earth.

    He possesses great strength, speed and agility, well above the norm, though not on a par with Olympic athletes. His mechanical hands grant him superhuman strength, can blast energy bolts or project forcefields, and can be remote controlled at a distance.

Height: 6'2" (see comments) 
Weight: 250 lbs. (see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: Brown

History:
(Iberia, Inc) - The son of Nobel-winning pre-eminent Spanish scientist Santiago Roldán and reputed American geneticist Isobel Longyear, head scientist of Alamo Gordo laboratory, Miguel Angel Roldán was born in Lake Tahoe, United States, and attended both Berkley and Yale, gaining Ph.D.'s in medicine, psychology and physics. While not a mutant, it is suspected that his mother carried out genetic experiments on her child while pregnant with him, resulting in him possessing heightened strength, speed and agility. Miguel twice won the Nobel himself, but the same year he won his second, he lost both hands in a lab accident that also gradually turned his wife Celeste into a being of living sand. Deciding to return home to his native Spain, he designed himself a pair of mechanical hands, and was recruited by the Spanish Ministry of Defence to lead the Spanish superhero team Iberia, Inc. as Trueno (Thunder); his wife also joined the team as Duna (Dune).

(Avengers Forever#11 (fb) - BTS) - At some point Trueno and his teammate Drac de Ferro joined their reality's Avengers.

(Avengers Forever#11) - Trueno and Drac de Ferro (the latter BTS) were among the Avengers from timelines "that didn't go sour" summoned to the Citadel at the End of Time by the combined Destiny Force powers of Rick Jones-616 and 98120 to oppose Immortus, the Time-Keepers, and their army of Avengers from evil timelines.

(Avengers Forever#12 - BTS) - Trueno joined the battle to save all of history until Captain America-616 destroyed the Forever Crystal, returning all the summoned Avengers back to their own realities.

Comments: Created by Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco, snuck into Marvel by the latter.

    Trueno originally appeared in the Spanish comic Iberia, Inc., published by Planeta's Laberinto imprint, with an additional appearance in the sister title Triada Vertice; members of Triada Vertice similarly made a cameo in Avengers Forever#2.
    Carlos Pacheco was his co-creator, and when providing art for Avengers Forever, he snuck a cameo for Trueno into the mass crowd scene of interdimensional Avengers in the series' climactic battle. As a fan of comics from around the world, I absolutely love stuff like this!

   It's worth noting that Trueno turning up as an Avenger from another timeline is extremely appropriate, since in another timeline, that is exactly what he would have been!

• The team Iberia, Inc. were originally conceived as being not only like a Spanish version of the Avengers, but actually to be a Spanish branch of the Avengers.
• In the 1980s the Spanish publisher Planeta were reprinting Marvel titles for the Spanish market, and editor Antonio Martín asked Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco to create a group of home grown superheroes who could appear as a supplement in one of those otherwise reprint titles. Since the Avengers had been one of both men's favorite series since childhood, that provided their initial inspiration.
• However this proposal stalled when Pacheco jumped ship to work for Marvel U.K., but the two creators continued to develop the idea of a Spanish superteam and were almost ready to launch it as part of Marvel U.K. just before that imprint died abruptly in 1993.
  
• Skip forward to 1996, and Martín got permission to launch Planeta's Laberinto (Labyrinth) imprint, publishing numerous new series mimicking the style of American comics (monthly publication of a single 24 page story, rather than the more common-to-Spain album format) including Pacheco and Marín's Spanish Avengers, now revamped as Iberia, Inc.
  
• Sadly the imprint didn't survive for long, closing in 1999, so Iberia, Inc. only enjoyed a single six-issue miniseries run plus one Databook (a Handbook by any other name...).
  
• The influence of American comics is clear in both the team and their foes and supporting cast: mace-wielding god Melkart is a visible tribute to Thor; Drac de Ferro is not unlike what you'd get if Batman went down Iron Man's power route (with a side nod to the T-1000's liquid metal); opponent Loup Garou is literally Batroc with the serial number slightly scrubbed off;  and foe Lince Dorado is so like Lex Luthor that he even phones his pal "Lex" in one issue for a chat and has DC's Sandman (Morpheus)'s stolen helmet in his collection of occult artifacts!

   Apart from his appearance in Avengers Forever, Trueno is only depicted in color on the covers of Iberia, Inc. issues, and never close enough to make out his eye color. Normally I'd approximate his height and weight by comparing him to another character whose height had been established, but that single panel in Avengers Forever#11 provides no useful reference, and I'm not aware of anybody that he appears alongside in his Spanish appearances having an established height and weight (if that changes, I'll update or correct the profile). Since he was conceived of as being Iberia, Inc.'s version of Captain America, in personality and role within the team if not powers, I've taken that comparison a step further and ASSumed he matches Cap's height and weight, with a few extra pounds thrown in to allow for his metal hands.

   ASSumptions for this profile:

• Avengers-version Trueno's background is largely identical to that depicted in his Laberinto appearances, so that codename, powers, relatives, real identity, etc. match, with the addition of whatever tiny extras we got from Avengers Forever. If they didn't match, then this profile would be extremely minimal, with lots of "unrevealed" and only one history entry.
• The Trueno and Drac de Ferro seen in Avengers Forever are both from the same reality, rather than two separate ones. It seems a fair assumption given they are teammates in Iberia, Inc. With this comes the assumption that Drac de Ferro was one of the "good timeline" Avengers; we know that's definitely the case for Trueno, who appears among the good Avengers summoned at the end of Avengers Forever#11, but it's less clear for Drac, who is seen in the general melee in Avengers Forever#12. The alignment for some of the combatants can be extrapolated from what kind of people they were in the realities they hail from or by default by knowing the alignment of who they are fighting, but Drac was fighting Captain Ultra, so neither combatant is normally a villain where they originate.  

   Trueno's ancestor Capitan Trueno is a genuine character from Spanish Golden Age comics.

   The Avengers Index's entry for Avengers Forever#11 identifies Trueno only as "Spanish cyborg," noting "The Spanish hero resembles a character Carlos Pacheco drew for Spanish comics." The Index did know exactly who he was, but had to hedge round explicit identification because of potential copyright concerns. 

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Trueno has no known connections to:

• Rey Trueno, ran the Thunderbolts/Ultimate Brawling fighting organization --Thunderbolts I#76
• Thun'da of the Snow-Mane, Hyborian era --Conan the Barbarian: Scarlet Sword#1
• Thunder - deity worshipped by Incas --[Thor Annual#7]
• Thunder - duplicate of above created by Dromedan --Thor Annual#7
• Thunder - Lunatic Legion member --Spider-Man Drakes Cakes Mini-Comics Series II#5
• Thunder - professional wrestler --Franklin Richards: Summer Smackdown!#1
• Thunder - steed of Two-Gun Kid --Two-Gun Kid I#60
• Thunder - steed of Major Mapleleaf --Alpha Flight III#1
• Thunder - Fury Secret Base 9 --[Secret Warriors#1/2]
• or any other "Thunder" characters

images: (without ads)
Avengers Forever#11, p23, pan 1 (main image)
Iberia, Inc Databook#1 cover (Laberinto image)

Appearances:
Iberia, Inc. #1-6 (December 1996-August 1997) - Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco (writers), Rafa Fonteriz (art), Antoni Guiral (editor)
Iberia, Inc. Databook (May 1997) - Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco (writers), Rafa Fonteriz (art), Antoni Guiral (editor)
Triada Vertice#2 (April 1998) - Rafael Marín and Carlos Pacheco (writers), Jesús Merino (art), Antoni Guiral (editor)
Avengers Forever#11-12 (November 1999-February 2000) - Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern (writers), Carlos Pacheco (pencils), Jesús Merino (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 01/19/2019
Last updated: 01/19/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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