Thunderball developed something of a soft spot for the employees of Damage Control, particularly account executive John Porter, after the firm helped him recover his lost wrecking ball (the weapon had been turned in to Damage Control's Lost and Found department). During a massive supervillain breakout at the prison called the Vault, the Wrecking Crew met up with a team from Damage Control led by Porter. To aid Porter without appearing to betray the Crew, Thunderball tricked his teammates into thinking John has superpowers (really, Thunderball hitting the Crew when the lights are out) and the Damage Control team manages to escape. The Wrecking Crew battled the Avengers and Freedom Force during the breakout, and Thunderball battled Venom for leadership of the convicts. Ultimately, Thunderball helped Iron Man and Dr. Hank Pym disarm a bomb that would have destroyed the Vault. The Wrecking Crew were broken out of prison and used by a group of villains during the Acts of Vengeance storyline. Thunderball was sent by Doctor Doom to help a group of villains assembled to defeat the Fantastic Four, although the villains were all defeated. With the Wrecking Crew, Thunderball freed the Wrecker and Ulik from police custody. They battled Hercules and Thor and then battled Thor, Excalibur and Code: Blue. Thunderball was freed from police custody by Jeff Wilde. Thunderball joined forces with the Secret Empire, creating many of the weapons systems that would be used to turn Jeff Wilde, son of the original Midnight Man, into the cyborg warrior known as Midnight. In a battle with the Empire against Spider-Man, the Moon Knight, and their allies Darkhawk, the Punisher, Nova, and Night Thrasher, Thunderball was one of the few Empire operatives to survive the destruction of the organization's base. He surrendered to the assembled heroes soon after. The Wrecking Crew with Thunderball once conquered an entire planet together, Polemachus, which was the home of sometime Avenger ally/adversary Arkon. They overthrew Arkon and his consort, Thundra, and ruled Polemachus with the help of Arkon's former Grand Vizier, who betrayed them. This was after they briefly lost their Asgardian powers (when Loki took the power originally meant for him from the Wrecker) and obtained their powers from a totally different energy source. Part of that energy source was Monica Rambeau herself, also known as the Avenger Pulsar (at the time, her codename was Photon). During a battle in London,