What was so different about The Thunderbolts?
The MCU rediscovers its heart in a family we never anticipated
SPOILERS TO COME!!!
Initially, I had no plans to see Thunderbolts, Marvel Studios’ most recent flick. Like so many diehard MCU fans who made it a habit to be at the theater for every release, to keep up with every character, to read news and watch actor interviews and wait for Tom Holland to spoil something really interesting about the next movie, I’ve been feeling the studio’s fatigue recently. Post-Avengers: Endgame, the writers have seemed disconnected and aimless, meandering around the comic books with their remaining characters, mostly sidekicks or heroes that were introduced later on in a saga that started with Iron Man in 2008 and seemed to end with Endgame in 2019. These were characters that I loved, but I couldn’t see holding up the mantle of Protagonist. However, Marvel Studios has recently recaptured my attention with the upcoming film Fantastic Four: First Steps, which looks SO GOOD, so when my brother came back from seeing Thunderbolts with glowing reviews, I decided to give it a try.
Since 2019, there have been few spectacular additions to the MCU. Spider-Man: No Way Home is probably the only standout film since Endgame. A few of the shows —WandaVision, Loki, Hawkeye, and Moon Knight — were wonderful.
And yet, there were so many other projects that just fell flat. I saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and cried in the theater several times, but since then, I have never watched it. The same goes for Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3. I skipped out entirely on Captain America: Brave New World and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier because, as much as I love Sam Wilson, to me, he is not Captain America. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness took one of my favorite MCU characters, Stephen Strange, and made him play second fiddle in his own movie to Wanda Maximoff, who the writers completely destroyed by unwriting every piece of character development she’s earned over the past few years, just to make her a powerful villain.
Overall, the last five or so years have not been kind to the MCU. And when I heard that Marvel was scrapping together a new film about a B-team of anti-heroes and side characters, I sort of had to roll my eyes again. Didn’t they know that their heroes were gone?
It turns out, they did. And so did the characters in this movie.
Bucky Barnes: Look, I've been where you are. The past doesn't go away. So you can either live with it forever, or do something about it.1
The original Avengers left big holes to fill in the world of the MCU, and in Thunderbolts, that much is painfully obvious. Unlike many recent MCU projects, which have taken audiences to fantastical places like Wakanda, sitcom-Westview, outer space, and even other worlds in the multiverse, Thunderbolts returns to the studio’s roots, bringing the characters back to the place where it all started: New York City. Stark Tower/Avengers Tower, which has since been sold, seems utterly empty and echoing as this new team walks through it. As I watched, I wanted to yell at Valentina to stop helping herself to drinks at the bar — that’s Tony’s bar, where he and Loki chatted before the Battle of New York! The movie is utterly grounded in comparison to Marvel’s latest works, and I loved it.
Over and over, this movie seems to propagate an idea: what happens when all the heroes are gone? Surely, someone has to step up, but not a single member of the Thunderbolts — minus Alexei, maybe — thinks it can be him/her. In fact, Bucky even becomes Brooklyn’s congressman, presumably to make a difference in a way that does not involve punching. He has no desire to fight. Characters admire artifacts from the Battle of New York, reminisce on the heroes of old, and ultimately decide that the Avengers set a standard that no one could ever live up to again… so why bother trying?
The Thunderbolts — Yelena, Bucky, Walker, Alexei, Ava, and Bob — are as unbalanced and unlikely as a team can be. They are not chosen by Nick Fury or deemed worthy by Thor’s hammer. They are thrown together by circumstance and kept together by the shared desire to redeem themselves, do something good with their lives, and find peace. Accidentally, they become a family.
There is so much to love about the brokenness of this movie, mostly because the characters learn to own their brokenness. In battle, Walker’s circular shield bends so badly that someone describes it as a taco. He initially talks about having it fixed, but the end credit scene shows that fourteen months later, he’s still fighting with that bent shield. Why? Because it’s his. He is not a knockoff Captain America, and he has finally come to accept himself for the hero he really is. He doesn’t have to be someone else to make a difference.
Side note: Walker and Yelena are the standouts of this movie, in my opinion. They begin as pale imitations of old characters and end entirely new, and stronger for it.
While the movie is a pretty strong ensemble effort, it is spearheaded by Yelena (Florence Pugh), who has spiraled into deep depression after the death of her sister, Natasha. Yelena’s desire to create a meaningful life drives her throughout this story. She has been working as a mercenary, trying to bury her emotions about her sister and her guilt about the past deep down, but all she’s been finding is insatiable loneliness. She is empty inside.
Yelena, just like Natasha, struggles with all the pain and devastation she has caused, but unlike her sister, has next to no one to turn to. She attempts to ask her father, Alexei, about finding purpose, but when he tells her that there is no higher calling than being a hero, she shuts down. She doesn’t see herself as a heroine. Not one like Natasha, anyway. She is broken.
Yelena: Daddy, I'm so alone. I don't have anything anymore. All I do is sit, and look at my phone, and think of all the terrible things I've done; and then I go to work, and then I drink, come home to no-one, then I sit and think of all the terrible things I've done again and again…
Alexei: Yelena, stop. We all have things that we regret.
Yelena: Yes, but I have so many!2
My heart shattered for her here. Thankfully, Marvel did not allow humor to overtake some really dark moments in this movie (a fault of this studio in the past). Multiple times, it is suggested that characters consider ending their lives. Members of the Thunderbolts struggle with drugs and alcohol, suffer from dysfunctional families, were tortured at the hands of scientists, were seen and used as living weapons, and killed others without mercy. None of this is forgotten, and none of it is sacrificed for a cheap joke. The Thunderbolts are forced to sit with their trauma and work through it.
Yelena’s journey to self-acceptance and family is the beating heart of this movie, and it is precisely what Marvel has been lacking in its past several projects. Beautifully, her own pain doesn’t prevent her from comforting others. Alexei describes his daughter as a light, and throughout the film, her light shines for others even when it cannot shine for her. Practically from the moment they meet, she protects Bob. Where everyone else sees an unstoppable force, she just sees a friend. She learns to trust Alexei as a father again, even calling him “Daddy” and “Dad.” She is the only one besides Bucky who seems to acknowledge Walker’s estrangement from his family.
In short, Yelena becomes the big sister of the Thunderbolts. And ultimately, it is her sisterly instincts that save the day. Going into that movie theater, if you told me that the thing that would defeat the Sentry was a HUG, I think I would have laughed and said that Marvel has gone farther off the rails than ever. Not anymore, though. Now, I want to hug them all! The theme running through Thunderbolts is a powerful one: you are never alone, and you never have to be alone.
This group, perhaps even more than the Avengers, has the making of a true family, one that loves and bickers and laughs and cries. After all, they’re named after Yelena’s peewee soccer team. We see that, over a year later, they are still working together, and in that final scene, their familiarity reminds me in some ways of the family established in the 2005 Fantastic Four film duology.
The Thunderbolts are not miraculously healed by the end of the movie, either. Undoubtedly, Yelena still has regrets, Bucky still gets nightmares, and Walker still runs through the what-if scenarios in his mind. What matters, though, is that they now all have people to help them through these traumas. They are still fighting through their horrors, but they are no longer fighting alone.
Dare I say it?
Marvel is back.
I’ve noticed with Thunderbolts* that what separates memorable MCU projects from forgettable ones is meaningful character development and clear themes at the center of the story. Even though I have problems with No Way Home, for instance, Peter had to bear the weight of his grief for the whole third act, not to mention his sacrifice at the end. Doctor Strange 2, meanwhile, just felt like a movie for the sake of a movie, setting up the multiverse saga while, as you said, destroying Wanda’s character and severely underutilizing Strange himself. Hopefully Thunderbolts is a sign of better things to come!
YAY I was wondering if you’d make a post!! Soooo good 💗