The character debuted in Peter Cannon... Thunderbolt #1, part of Charlton editor Dick Giordano's "Action Heroes" superhero line. The series then took over the numbering of the defunct title Son of Vulcan, and ran from issue #51–60, after which Morisi, a New York City Police Department officer and time-pressed with police work, left the title, which was canceled along with the rest of Charlton's "Action Heroes" comics line. There were several backup series in Thunderbolt. "The Sentinels", by Gary Friedrich and penciler-inker Sam Grainger, appeared in #54–59, and #60 had the Prankster, written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Jim Aparo. Morisi, who'd done work for Lev Gleason Publications in 1940s, reported in Comic Book Artist #9 that he had attempted to buy the rights to 1940s superhero Daredevil in the early 1960s. Gleason gave him his okay, but the character's primary writer-artist, Charles Biro, balked, requesting a percentage of future profits. Morisi declined and went on to create Thunderbolt in a scaled-down version of that Daredevil's symmetrically divided, red-and-blue costume.
DC Comics
After Charlton sold its superhero properties to DC in 1983, Thunderbolt reappeared after almost two decades in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover series when he joined the heroes of the Multiverse in their crusade against the Anti-Monitor. Introducing him into the new DC Universe, DC published Peter Cannon – Thunderbolt, by writer-penciler Mike Collins and inker Jose Marzan Jr. The series ran for 12 issues before cancellation. During the series' short run, his recurring foils were the criminal terrorists-for-hire known as Scorpio. He later discovers that his girlfriend Cairo DeFrey was actually in charge of the organization. The character also appeared briefly with the Justice League.
Dynamite Entertainment
published a ten issue series between September 2012 and July 2013. The series was co-written by Steve Darnall and Alex Ross, with art by Jonathan Lau. The character later appeared in a new series published since February 2019. The series is written by Kieron Gillen with art by Caspar Wijngaard, Mary Jo Safro and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and. In this series, it is revealed that Peter Cannon and Tabu were lovers.
"Peter Cannon, orphaned son of an American medical team, was raised in a Himalayanlamasery, where his parents had sacrificed their lives combating the dreaded Black Plague! After attaining the highest degree of mental and physical perfection, he was entrusted with the knowledge of the ancient scrolls that bore the secret writings of past generations of wise men! From them he learned concentration, mind over matter, the art of activating and the harnessing the unused portions of the brain, that made seemingly fantastic feats possible! Then he returned to America with his faithful friend, Tabu, and sought out a new life, in a new land, that required the emergence of Peter Cannon... Thunderbolt."
His costume is his training outfit from the lamasery, with an added mask. A recurring villain is the "Hooded One", another monk from the lamasery who resented the fact an outsider like Peter was given access to the sacred scrolls.
