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 . 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.