Marvel's Thunderbolts

The introduction of the Crimson Cowl in Thunderbolts #3 kicks off a long-simmering subplot in which fans hoped to learn her true identity.

Now, there’s no particular in-story reason the Cowl has to be anybody important.  At this point we don’t know Cyclone’s real name either, and he’s just some new supervillain.  We still know almost nothing about Flying Tiger to this day, and nobody cares.  But giving this woman the name “Crimson Cowl” was a deliberate callback to Avengers #54-55, in which the Cowl identity was used to manipulate and fake out the heroes and readers alike.

So Thunderbolts readers back in the day were very concerned with deducing the second Cowl’s identity, figuring that it had to be somebody important.  She had to have some history with the Thunderbolts, or Baron Zemo in particular, or maybe Ultron (since he was the first Cowl).  The final payoff didn’t come until Thunderbolts #67, which revealed the Crimson Cowl was Justine Hammer, the daughter of Justin Hammer.  Which fit with the story at the time, but didn’t exactly make you look back at this issue and think “of course, now it all makes sense!”  Not that anyone promised us that experience, of course.  But it was still a little disappointing.