The spider is always on the hunt.
1) Hawkeye - If we were to get an ongoing T-BOLTS project from Rosenberg now, I'd like to see him pick up from his HAWKEYE: FREEFALL miniseries last year and have Hawkeye leading a new T-Bolts group. FREEFALL ended with Clint alienated from a lot of his Avenger friends and having one foot back in the criminal world...so now would be a great time to build a T-Bolts team around him again.
2) Moonstone - classic T-Bolts member for the long time fans. She and Clint haven't had any meaningful interaction since she came out of the coma he was forced to put her in. The relationship dynamics between them would be interesting. Would they be drawn together romantically again, or is the old spark gone? Is she actually interested in trying to reform--or is she just there for some sort of payback against Clint?
3) Grizzly - He's made attempts to try and reform before--although ironically, during his first stint on the team he was one of the few who DIDN'T try and reform. He's a good T-Bolts candidate and he'd provide some muscle for the group.
4) Blizzard - Donnie was a good member from one of the former incarnations of the team who legitimately tried to reform but never ended up being a true success story like Songbird or Abe. I think he'd be willing to give it a shot again if the opportunity came along and I think Clint would recognize him as having the potential. There's potential there to explore new abilities since he went through Terrigenesis and became an Inhuman.
5) Nightshade - She has been trying to reform and she and Clint worked together in the short-lived OCCUPY AVENGERS series. She could fill Fixer's role place as the science and tech genius on the team, and including her adds another woman and a person of colour to the mix.
6) Sandman - he was the original Thunderbolt, in a way, as a long-time super villain who successfully managed to reform--until he got mind controlled back into bad guy land again. He'd fit well with this group of characters who have a foot on both sides of the line, plus he's got an interesting power set.
There are plenty of other characters I could suggest but the original question asked for six--and I think that's a good mix in terms of power diversity, personality dynamics and old and new members.
Just limiting it to 6 isn't easy but my roster would look something like this:
1) Hawkeye - As others have said, where Rosenberg has left Clint is intriguing following the end of HAWKEYE: FREEFALL and after alienating so many og his former friends now might be a good time for Clint to return to the T-Bolts.
2) Clash - I liked what Dan Slott did with him, his heart was never really into the villain routine and it would be interesting to see him reform.
3) Blizzard - I enjoyed his last stint and he has the desire to reform, it would be nice to see him given the chance again.
4) Star - I like how Rosenberg used her in the KIB mini, I don't think she would reform but could fake reforming if its in her interest.
5) Moonstone - I know some might argue that she is redundant with Star on the team but I do feel a meaningful Karla and Clint interaction is over-due.
6) Rhino - He's always portrayed himself as a tragic character rather then a dedicated villain, it would be interesting to see him have an attempt to reform
I like both of those. Not sure which one I'd prefer more, as I do like Nightshade, but Clash is one of the better characters that came out of Dan Slott's run on Spider-Man, so I'd like to see his story pick up again at some point, too. That said, Hawkeye/Moonstone interaction would definitely be fun to see --- and one of the major missed opportunities of Dark Reign, I thought.
The spider is always on the hunt.
Songbird
Mach X
Spiral
Boomerang
Lyja
Thunderball
Melissa and Abe (the only two originals that stayed heroes for 20 years now) take a group of characters who are villains with the potential to become heroes or have tried to be heroes and failed. The new recruits get new identities but early on, at the end of the first issue or story, Abe and Melissa are replaced by Space Phantoms who want to use this new team for their own ends. Eventually the rest of the team catch on and work together to defeat them and return Abe and Melissa..
Songbird- Leader. Always thought she would be an Avenger by now
Mach X- Abe has paid his dues and deserves more airplay
Moonstone- She provides manipulation and tension that adds to the dynamics
Beetle- Janice Lincoln. I can already see the tension between her, Abe and Karla
Porcupine- Reformed by Spider-Woman now jilted and kicked out of her book
Grizzly/Rhino- Muscle. Maxwell was hilarious in the pages of Ant-Man. Rhino is a tragic figure.
Honorable mention
Goliath- If there was 8 I would have picked him
Whirlwind- He’ll never reform but you can always try
That would be interesting, Abe trying to reform his successor! He was the previous Beetle before he joined the original Thunderbolts.
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I think Janice and Randy are pretty much done already actually. Randy isn't happy that she wants to continue being a villain, was hoping she'd reform like he thought Boomerang had.
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