Marvel has three MCU movies premiering next year: Captain America: Brave New World in February, Thunderbolts* in May, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July. I’ll watch them all as soon as they come out. But if I had to choose to watch just one of the three, that would be Thunderbolts*, and there’s no question about it.
The reasons are multiple. First, Brave New World is the fourth installment in the franchise, and I’ve already seen Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney Plus. As for The Fantastic Four, this is a reboot, no matter how exciting it might be. Thunderbolts* has the more original take.
Second, we have plenty of plot spoilers for the three movies, especially for the first two. The most exciting one concerns the asterisk in the Thunderbolts* title, which might turn out to be a big plot twist with massive implications for Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Then we have leaks like the ones I’m about to show you, tiny plot spoilers about the Thunderbolts team that makes me want to watch the film even more. This is connected to my first point, that Thunderbolts* is the more original project of the three. Spoilers might follow below, so avoid what follows if you want to be surprised.
Some people liken Thunderbolts* to the Suicide Squad movies. I know I have, too. Thunderbolts* might be original for the MCU, but not for the comic book movie machine.
However, the more Thunderbolts* leaks I’ve seen over the past few years, the clearer it was that we’re not looking at the same take on former villains and antiheroes. The Thunderbolts members aren’t locked up and sent on a dangerous mission, many of which will not survive, as in the Suicide Squad movies. Well, somebody wants them dead, but that’s a different story.
Unlike the Suicide Squad team, which had to accomplish the mission to survive, the Thunderbolts will have to join forces to survive. Saving the world and performing any additional tasks that might be seen as superhero business seems to be secondary to that.
That’s why the relationships between the Thunderbolts members will be so important to witness and enjoy. We’ve already seen some of that in the trailers Marvel released so far.
Most Thunderbolts team members know each other from their shady and not-so-shady lines of work. Some of them have worked together; some are family. Some like each other, some done. And, hilariously, some are excited to be here, while others have no choice.
This is where the new Thunderbolts* plot spoilers come in, as they concern some of the dynamics between the various members.
Obviously, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) know each other, having interacted before. Then there’s the Bucky-US Agent (Wyatt Russell) relationship from the Falcon show.
Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), meanwhile, seems to be the only team member who’s not connected to the others from pre-Thunderbolts* adventures.
Daniel Richtman is one of the Marvel insiders providing some details about the relationships we’ll see in the movie. For example, he claims that Taskmaster and Ghost will become close, with the latter supporting the former:
Antonia has memory problems; she has a broken memory because her mind was damaged and rebuilt. So, she needs reminders. Ava helps her keep track of things, and through this, they develop a close friendship.
Richtman also offered some information about US Agent, saying that his wife dumped him, likely after the events in the Falcon TV show.
Richtman’s claims indicate a stronger bond between Taskmaster and Ghost, but Alex Perez somewhat contradicts that. Perez, also a well-known MCU insider, says that Antonia and Ava are more of “friends from work” buddies rather than friends in the non-superhero life. He makes a parallel with Suicide Squad to explain the relationship:
Think of it as a Suicide Squad scenario. They team up, and they’re work buddies at best, but it’s not like a “let’s keep in touch” relationship yk?
I suspect this only scratches the surface of what we’re about to see in Thunderbolts*. The reason these tiny plot spoilers are exciting to me concerns the film’s title. Rumors say the team will end up calling themselves the “New Avengers.” That’s the film’s big plot twist.
The “old” Avengers actually grew into a team of mostly friends. A rewatch is enough to see how far they’ve evolved between The Avengers and Endgame, and that includes the massive conflict in Captain America: Civil War. With the Thunderbolts, I suspect we’re in somewhat early days of The Avengers relationship-wise. Again, some of these characters already have history.
The movie comes out on May 2nd, so we have plenty of time to see more promo clips teasing the relationships between the Thunderbolts. Not to mention that we might get plenty of plot leaks along the way.
