Many Marvel fans still mourn the loss of the Avengers. While they say time heals all wounds, it has been six years since Avengers: Endgame, and our hearts still break when we think of Earth’s mightiest heroes.
It is hard to move on from the Avengers era because the Marvel Cinematic Universe has thrown poor quality movies and shows at us in a misguided attempt to cover the wound. Flop after flop, they have been unable to produce an Avengers-quality film for some time. It is for this reason that my expectations were exceedingly low for the release of Thunderbolts* on May 2 and it is for this reason that I was shocked when I left the theater satisfied.
But please don’t be fooled. Thunderbolts* is no Avengers equivalent. However it was MCU’s first step in the right direction.
The opening scene follows Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Black Widow’s sister and Red Room assassin, completing another mission for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the director of the CIA. It is on this mission that Yelena expresses her struggle to find any sense of purpose or joy in her life—an important introduction to the role of mental health struggles throughout the movie.
Thunderbolts*, while also being a crucial segue for future Marvel projects, conveyed inspirational messages regarding personal battles and the path to overcoming internal darkness. They handled these serious topics in a well-blended manner, using them for character development.
From there, things get a little more complicated. In a long series of twisted events, Yelena comes face to face with the demoted Captain America, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), the Ghost, Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), the Taskmaster, Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko) and a mysterious new character Marvel fans have not yet met. After initially fighting against each other, the motley bunch is forced to work together and the first few members of the Thunderbolts unite — kind of.
As a Marvel-fanatic, I thought the film did a great job of connecting the characters who have had little to no crossovers in any previous Marvel projects. However, I do think that anyone unfamiliar with a certain portion of Marvel’s 51 miniseries and movies will struggle to understand what is going on and who half the characters are.
Eventually, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), the Red Guardian and Yelena’s estranged father, joins the action along with Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier and new Congressman. The Thunderbolts are now assembled, according to Alexei at least.
Though I enjoyed all the relationship dynamics in the film, I especially enjoyed the make-shift father-daughter relationship between Yelena and Alexei. Sentimental yet humorous, it was impossible not to fall in love with the individual characters and the special bond they have.
Together, the Thunderbolts are forced to work in Avengers-fashion against the Void (Lewis Pullman). Through a powerful scene highlighting the pain of loneliness and depression, Thunderbolts* effectively combines violent superhero action with a beautiful life lesson.
While Marvel still has a lot of progress to make, Thunderbolts* is a sign they may finally be out of their post-Avengers slump. Time heals all wounds, but maybe for us the cure is a scrappy team of misfit heroes.