Erik Josten - Personality

Personality

As a Thunderbolt Erik was the least assertive member despite being the physically strongest one on the team. He frequently runs from his problems. He ran away from home after his sister's death and joined the military, then he went AWOL and became a smuggler and later a mercenary working for Heinrich Zemo. It was at this time he first met Heinrich's son Helmut. Erik betrays Baron Helmut Zemo when he tries to kill Jolt but later saves him from death after the baron suffers a severe beating by Moonstone. Erik routinely demurrs to the leadership of others on his team as he does not like making decisions because, as he puts it, he's "just a grunt." Erik usually is the first to empathize with a foe and often places his relationships with friends and family over doing the right thing. Instances of this include: when he knew Man Killer was pretending to be a bartender while she was lying low from the law; not telling the team about saving Zemo; refusing to tell the Thunderbolts about Techno being in Burton Canyon; betraying his team to save his brother; and "killing" Genis to prevent him from disrupting Abe and Melissa's relationship because he feared it would screw up Abe's reconstitution of the Thunderbolts.