Over the weekend, I went to go see the latest MCU film Thunderbolts* with a few of my good friends. It was on a Saturday night and I was feeling alright to see this new flick that potentially could usher in a new era of superhero movie genre. The concept of an antihero becoming a hero is something that has been explored in plenty of movies before, especially in the past decade of superhero films. Guardians of the Galaxy showed that a ravager, trained assassin and a few galactic criminals could rise up to become a team of good guys to take down threats to the existence of the galaxy. The DC Extended Universe had their take with that concept by showing The Suicide Squad, with a bunch of villain-like characters having to step up in order to save themselves from a worse fate of being imprisoned. I haven’t seen that pair of movies from the failed DCEU, but I remember seeing the trailers of both and got the gist of the plot lines. But what the MCU just released was a different sort of anti-hero story, with a handful of rarely-seen anti-heroes in the latter phases of the MCU(post-Endgame except for one) teaming up with Bucky Barnes, now a U.S Congressman, to help take down a threat deriving from an attempt to create a Superman-like hero by a corrupt billionaire businesswoman. I was glad that this MCU film didn’t “give away the lede” like Captain America: Brave New World did with the Sam Wilson vs. Red Hulk fight and what transpired all centered around an unexpected character that wasn’t really shown in the trailers leading up to Thunderbolts*. So let’s jump into it, with a character intro of each of the Thunderbolts*, including one who had a rather short air-time due to her not really being part of the team.

Character Intro

Yelena Belova, the New Black Widow

Well, Yelena is a bit of a controversial character. Played by Florence Pugh, she was a trained assassin in the Red Room, just like her “sister” Natasha Romanoff, who obviously was aided out of the Widow program by Clint Barton and became an Avenger. But unfortunately for Yelena, she remained in the custody of the Red Room until she was freed by a serum that reverses the brainwashed effect that she was enslaved in for years. This occurs in the 2021 film Black Widow, which occurs in between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Natasha regrouped with Yelena after having a battle with Taskmaster, who is another polarizing character. After escaping from the Widows together, Nat and Yelena break their “father” Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian, out of prison and they reunite with their “mother figure” Melina Vostakoff, who leads them into the Red Room, an aerial base that was overseen by its leader General Dreykov. Long story short, Natasha, Yelena and their “parents” help destroy the Red Room and free all of the brainwashed Widows in it, including Taskmaster. Yelena unfortunately is remembered for a cruddy CGI moment shown right before she destroys the jet where Dreykov and his associates are in, killing the leader of the Red Room as the jet blew up midair. The two sisters parted ways and Yelena would unfortunately be snapped out of existence in the events of Infinity War with the Blip. She was brought back five years later into a world without her sister, who had to sacrifice herself in order to gain the Soul Stone on Vormir. With Natasha’s death having already occurred, Yelena goes to a grave for her deceased Widow sister in an end credits scene for Black Widow and she meets up with a character named Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who is a businesswoman in the underworld of anti-heroes in the MCU, and she offers Yelena a chance at getting vengeance at the character responsible for Natasha’s death. Or that’s at least how Valentina made it sound to Yelena, who was shown a picture of Clint Barton. Yelena is next shown in the Disney+ miniseries Hawkeye, in which she goes after Clint and is shown in a rooftop battle featuring the main character of the series in Kate Bishop, the young prodigy who takes on the Hawkeye mantle for herself, and Maya Lopez aka Echo. Yelena would be deterred by Kate and would meet up with her later, explaining to her female counterpart why she was in New York and that she was there to kill Clint Barton. Kate is determined to prevent this, but more shocking news comes from Yelena, who texts Kate that her mother, Eleanor Bishop, had hired her to take out Clint. Yelena is eventually shown at the Bishop Holiday Party, which ends up being a final confrontation between the different forces in the series, and she gets her chance to take down Clint at the Rockefeller Center after going through Kate. But she didn’t kill Clint because he explained that Natasha made her choice to sacrifice herself. In the Christmas Spirit, Yelena spared Clint from death and walked away. This occurred in the MCU timeline in December 2024, so Thunderbolts* shows Yelena more than four years after the Hawkeye incident continuing to do her job of killing “targets” that Valentina wants her to take out.

Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier turned Congressman

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes has had himself a rough journey. From being a brainwashed weapon that HYDRA used to becoming an Avenger in the custody of Wakanda, Bucky was snapped out of existence by the snap of Thanos’ fingers. He got resurrected five years later and participated in the Battle of Earth, which sees the defeat of Thanos and his dark forces. Bucky would see his good friend Steve Rogers travel back in time to place all the Infinity Stones back in their respective places throughout the galactic timeline and he would see that his old friend went back to their timeline in order to be reunited with his one true love Margaret “Peggy” Carter. A 105-year old Steve was still alive and he gave his shield to Sam Wilson, who was reluctant to take it but had it for a short time. At the beginning of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Bucky is shown going through therapy sessions as he is still dealing with the trauma that he inflicted on others as the bad Winter Soldier. But he would reunite with Sam after he found out that he gave up the shield and that John Walker, who will be mentioned below, was awarded the shield. Bucky wants them to take back the shield, but that time wouldn’t come until an emotional confrontation had twisted John Walker into a bad spot. The two counterparts had to track down a group of rouge people displaced by the economic crisis that the Blip had inflicted on the world and had to stop something worse from happening. Bucky Barnes helped Sam Wilson in taking down that rogue group and was shown celebrating in Sam’s home area in Louisiana at the end of the series. Bucky doesn’t appear in the MCU’s main timeline until he makes a cameo appearance in Captain America: Brave New World as he gives Sam some words of wisdom and is mentioned to be running for Congress. Now as a Congressman, Bucky steps into the mess that the fellow Thunderbolts* find themselves in.

John Walker, the failed Captain America turned U.S Agent with a new shield

Now we go to John Walker, who ends up being a hero set-up by the U.S government to be the new Captain America after Sam Wilson handed the shield to the Smithsonian’s exhibit on Steve Rogers. But Walker becomes the new Star-Spangled Man Who Can and infused with the super-soldier serum, which is being used at the same time by a group of rogue soldiers called the Flag Smashers, who seek to find a space for themselves in the post-Blip world. Walker helped Sam and Bucky face the group of super-soldiers with his partner Lemar Hoskins and both pairs of super-soldier duos go on their own path to track down the Flag Smashers and their leader Karli Morgenthau. Walker unfortunately is put in a rough situation when seeking to bring Karli into custody as he ends up seeing his good friend Lemar murdered by Karli, who nearly killed him. Walker, in his emotional rage, goes after Karli and ends up killing one of her super-soldier counterparts with the shield. With blood on the shield that Steve Rogers used, Walker tries to retreat, but gets cornered by Sam and Bucky, who take the shield from him in an intense fight. John Walker wasn’t out of the fight yet, as he built himself a new shield and ends up joining the final confrontation in New York with the Flag Smashers, seeking to kill Morgenthau. Walker would help save some civilians in the battle and saw that Morgenthau had been killed in action when Sam flew down with her. After those events, John ends up getting aided by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who ends up providing him with a new Captain America-looking suit with a darker shade and a new shield. Walker also had a wife named Olivia and they had a good relationship in the roughly five years in between the events of The Falcon & Winter Soldier series and Thunderbolts*. But a scene in the movie would show otherwise for poor John Walker.

Ava Starr, the Ghost antagonist turned anti-hero in a ten-year span of time

Now we go to Ghost, or Ava Starr as she is known. Having the ability to disappear and reappear just as fast, Ghost made her first appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp, where she was shown as an adversary to Scott Lang, Hope van Dyne and Hank Pym in their quest to go into the Quantum Realm to save Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp who is still alive. Ava was aided by Dr. Bill Foster, who helped her assimilate to her state of quantum instability after she survived a Quantum Tunnel explosion that killed her parents in South America. Ava sought to drain the energy that Janet had absorbed from being in the Quantum Realm for thirty-plus years, but she was stopped from doing so after losing possession of Hank’s shrinking lab. But she regained possession of the lab and was drawn out of it in a final conflict between herself, Ant-Man/Wasp, and the corrupt businessman Sonny Burch. Ava would eventually get herself back into the machine that had sustained her in the interim and sought to suck the Quantum energy out of Janet, who is found by her beloved Hank in the Quantum Void. But Ava was stopped by Scott and Hope, who would see Ava be aided by Janet, who used her Quantum energy to stabilize her. At the end of the movie, Ava escapes with Bill Foster, who promises not to leave her behind. What happens in the next decade with Ava Starr was unclear, but she was being aided by Scott, Hope, Hank and Janet right before the Blip happened. Scott was shown in the Quantum Realm retrieving Quantum particles for Ava when the Blip happened and Hope, Hank and Janet were snapped out of existence. Scott was stuck stranded in the Quantum Realm for five years, even though it didn’t feel like it for him. Ava Starr returns after a decade not being seen in the MCU timeline and seven years off-screen in real life, so her role as a member of the Thunderbolts* is interesting to see(or not see).

Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian with a fat belly and a big sense of humor

Finally, we have the Red Guardian, or Alexei Shostakov, who is shown as a hilarious character in Black Widow. Alexei poses as a father to two young girls in Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova along with Melina Vostakov. After spending two years in the 1990s in Ohio as undercover agents retrieving something for General Dreykov, Alexei escapes with Melina and the girls from S.H.I.E.L.D agents pursuing them. They escaped to Cuba, where Natasha and Yelena are both knocked out by needle injections and placed into the Black Widow program. Alexei, meanwhile, has some bad luck as he is placed in prison for the next 20 years and backstabbed by Dreykov. But he gets rescued by Nat and Yelena in Black Widow in an avalanche escape from the isolated icy prison that he was held in. After not having any clue where the Red Room was, the humorous Alexei had them go to Melina, who was in an isolated farm where she was training pigs to act like humans. Alexei put on his old Red Guardian suit at the house of Melina and he looked rather fat in it. After an emotional conversation with Yelena that ends with a singing of her favorite song “American Pie”, they are both captured and taken to the Red Room by Melina. Alexei was trapped in a cell, but broke out of it because Melina posed as Natasha in a facial-mask swap while Natasha was confronting General Dreykov. Alexei would fight against Taskmaster on his own and would trap Taskmaster in his cell. Eventually, the two former associates of Dreykov would escape from the Red Room as Nat and Yelena found their own way out. The Red Guardian would help the freed Widows relocate as Natasha went her own way. Now after a decade out of action, the Red Guardian returns to be the one who names the group of misfit antiheroes the Thunderbolts*.

Movie Summary

The flick begins with Yelena on one of her missions where she murders a doctor for Valentina and explaining in an opening monologue that there was something wrong with her. She was clearly bored of doing the same old thing and wanting to have a change in her life. After being shown casually walking on the street and detonating a bomb that blew up the lab, Yelena was on the phone with Valentina and she wanted a different job after doing one last job for her. Valentina was shown attending a congressional hearing, where a representative with the last name of Gary was interrogating her on the subject of her business dealings and her overseeing a project called Project Sentry. Valentina uses this as an opportunity to harp on the fact that the Avengers were not coming to save them anymore and that national security was clearly on everyone’s minds after their most recent president in Thaddeus Ross was shown transforming into a giant Red Hulk. Valentina clearly wanted there to be a new type of hero, one that they could create and control with all the strengths of almost every Avenger combined. After leaving the hearing, which Bucky Barnes attended in his congressional role, Valentina consulted with her top aide in Mel(played by actress Geraldine Viswanathan) and told her to order moving crews at their facility to move out anything that could be used against them in a congressional hearing. Meanwhile, Valentina contacted Yelena, telling her to do one last job for her. Valentina ordered Yelena to go to a facility in the desert because there was a shifty character who could walk through walls that was on her radar and she wanted that character taken out. So, Yelena went into the desert facility and she would be snared into a trap that had her collide with other anti-heroes.

Yelena would immediately see a man in armor throw his shield at her and it was John Walker(played by Wyatt Russell), who was looking to eliminate Yelena because he had been ordered to. Pretty soon, Ava Starr(played by Hannah John-Kamen) would show herself in wearing her new phasing costume with a white fiber mask. Surprisingly arriving to the scene as well was Taskmaster, or Antonia Dreykov(played by Olga Kurylenko), as she had a new mask but the same sword and same scarred face that she had 13 years prior in the events of Black Widow. Antonia kicked Yelena down and told her to “stay out of my way”. The fight would eventually split into two duos, with John and Yelena dueling with each other and Taskmaster and Ghost facing off upon one another. Taskmaster was given an unfair ending in my view as she was shot in the head by Ghost, who shot a bullet out of a pistol after being thrown off by the still-rogue former Red Room soldier. So, just like that Antonia Dreykov’s story ended, with no chance at a redemption arc. John and Yelena would be at an impasse in their fighting, with a strange figure coming out of nowhere. A random guy who was in a crate had been awakened while the fight was occurring, as Yelena and John made contact with the crate. The three remaining soldiers pointed their guns at the guy, who said that his name was Bob. John asked Bob how he got into the facility and Bob said that he didn’t remember. Bob explained that he basically got injected with some sleep serum and he was asleep until he was awakened just a few moments beforehand. Yelena, Ava and John would sort themselves out, seeing that they had been lured into a trap by Valentina, who intended to have them kill each other along with destroying the evidence in the facility. This was true when an incinerator was activated in the locked room. Ava tried to get through the locked door, but she was unable to penetrate it as a triggering sound device prevented her from breaking through in the Ghost suit, which she explained later was built by her in order to have her control the phasing powers that she was cursed with. Elsewhere, Valentina was at a banquet that was selling off recovered items from the Battle of New York in the first Avengers film and Bucky was there to observe. After consulting with Congressman Gary, who talked with Valentina, Bucky would be told that he should read through the packet of a resolution set to be passed by Congress in the investigation regarding Valentina and her company, O.X.E. Bucky didn’t like the slow process that Congress had, so he decided to do things his own way as he talked with Mel, who was at the banquet and tasked with informing Valentina of the destruction of the facility in the desert. Bucky would convince Mel that they should keep in touch and that it was never too late to do the right thing, as he had learned in his experiences as the Winter Soldier in having his own redemption occur.

Back in the desert facility, the group of four was in trouble as the incinerator was only a couple minutes away from burning them alive. Thankfully, they found the source behind the sound-triggering device that was keeping Ava from getting through and John destroyed it with his shield. Ava was able to walk through the door and barely opened it with only a few seconds before the incinerator went off. The trio of Yelena, John and Bob were anxious as they barely escaped and ran for their lives through the doorway as the incinerator went off. A collision occurred as they fell onto the floor clear of the flames. When this happened, Yelena made contact with Bob’s hand and she would see a vision from a past memory, where as a young girl enslaved in the Widow program she had an encounter with a girl called Anya, who was shot and killed by a supervisor in the Red Room program. Yelena had called on Anya and told her in her Russian voice “I’m sorry”. Yelena had seen this vision with her in it and she suddenly saw Bob in the memory with her. When she awakened, she saw Bob’s face and was confused. As the group sought a way out of the trap, Valentina was on a limo and then an airplane en route to the desert facility with Mel and she showed her that the group of Yelena, John and Ava had survived the incineration process. Also, a visual of Bob was shown and Valentina ordered that an ID on the guy had to be completed. Eventually, the identification of Bob would be clear as his true name was Robert Reynolds, who was one of the test subjects for Project Sentry, the project that O.X.E had done to create a new superhero. Valentina wanted to know how Robert Reynolds, who was experimented on in Malaysia, had gotten into the mountain of evidence stored, and she was not given a clear answer on that. All Mel said was that he was part of the evidence that was set to be destroyed inside the mountain facility that the group of four still had to escape from. This would be a good time to mention that Bob was being played by Lewis Pullman, the son of actor Bill Pullman. So, you had two Generation Y actors whose fathers are famous actors from their generation of Baby Boomers(Wyatt Russell is the son of Kurt Russell, who played Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, so that’s a bit of an MCU connection there).

The trapped group of four still needed to find a way out of the mountain and they found it by going up an elevator shaft by combining themselves together on the walls and pushing their legs up. That was Bob’s idea and John did not like it, but it was their best way out. Once they got to the door of the elevator, one of them needed to go onto the door platform to open it. John said that he was going to do that, with the other three not liking that idea. John turned himself towards the door platform and jumped on there, with Ava hanging on by a thread and Yelena catching herself on the side of the wall and shooting a grappling hook to catch Bob, who hung levitating many feet off the ground. Walker opened up the door and he would help the other three up onto the floor. But when he made contact with Bob, John had a flashback to a traumatic event in his life, which occurred in the years between his first appearance in Falcon & Winter Soldier and this movie. John was shown seeing a past vision of himself reading an online story that was negative towards him while not having any regard for the baby that he and his wife Olivia had. Olivia was not happy with John’s inattentiveness to their child, who was crying, and that she could take care of the baby without him. John would eventually come out of this “dream”, with Yelena and Ava wondering what had happened to him. Clearly, this was a repeat of what happened earlier with Yelena. Bob was definitely not a normal dude.

The calvary was on its way as a military group was set to infiltrate the facility and eliminate Yelena, Ava and John. Valentina was on-site and ordered the captain of the team to tell his squad not to kill Bob. The group saw that they were stranded and needed to find a way out. Ava would put on her Ghost costume and she said that she’d go out into the camp and find an escape vehicle for them. Meanwhile, the other three needed to find a way to evade the soldiers on-site who were going in with non-lethal weapons. Yelena had a plan to shut off the electricity and have them run. But that plan did not work, as they had to fight their way through the soldiers. John fought some of the soldiers with his shield while Yelena told Bob to stay behind her, even though Bob said that he could help. Yelena would have to tape Bob to the back of her body as they put on gas masks that were used by the soldiers who shot sleep gas out of their guns. Yelena took down a legion of troops and she would accidentally shoot a few bullets at John, who angrily self-identified himself in a scene shown a lot in trailers. The trio of characters would put on soldier gear, with them wearing gas masks as they walked in their disguises out of the facility. Valentina was literally standing just a hundred feet away as Yelena looked at her through the gas mask she was wearing. The three were waiting for Ava, but thought that she had bailed on them. But a military truck came from behind them and Ava appeared out of her invisible disguise, telling them to get in. Yelena and John sat in the other two seats upfront, while Bob got into the trunk of the vehicle. Right as they were moving out, a military officer stopped them and told them to identify themselves. John tried to give a good excuse as to why they were moving out, but the soldier didn’t believe it and told them to identify themselves. John refused and more soldiers surrounded the vehicle, with Ava disappearing in trying to draw the fire of the soldiers. Ava would return in her Ghost costume and Walker would drive the truck away. But Ava leaving the truck wasn’t what drew the fire of the soldiers, it was Bob, who had exited the vehicle and had an AR with him. Bob would be shot multiple times by the soldiers and Valentina saw that her test subject was being shot, with her getting on a walkie talkie and ordering the troops to cease fire. They did so, but not before Bob was lying motionless on the ground. Yelena couldn’t believe that had just happened, with the truck driving off. However, Bob was not dead, he rose up with some sort of super strength in his bones and his eyes turned a yellowish color. Valentina was shocked, as Bob took off in flight into the air. But Bob flew too high and didn’t know how to come down without crashing. Yelena, John and Ava saw Bob fly in the sky and then saw him fall down fast and crash land into a mountain. The resulting crash caused a rockslide to happen and pushed the military vehicle off the road. Either way, Bob was a superpowered individual and he would be in the hands of the politicking Valentina, who sought to use him to her advantage.

Meanwhile, Yelena, John, and Ava had to find an escape route and the escape would find them with the arrival of a giant red limousine riding on the desert soil. Yelena immediately knew who it was as it was her “father” figure Alexei Shostakov(played by David Harbour) and he was dressed up in his Red Guardian suit. Alexei started shouting out for Yelena and that he had heard of Valentina’s plan to kill her and the others, for he was shown as the limousine driver earlier in the movie. Alexei had a bit of a side hustle as a limo driver and had his own service called “Red Guardian Limo Service”. Yelena was embarrassed as John and Ava figured out the connection between Yelena and the dressed-up man in red spandex. Alexei would drive the limo on a desert road and made hilarious comments about himself driving endlessly through the night from the East Coast to make his way to the desert. Alexei said that he would “sleep when I’m dead”, with John Walker concerningly saying that he’d like not to die today. Alexei was excited about this potential teamup, but Yelena said that they were not friends and that each of them was trying to “get home”, wherever home might be. Safe to say, the road home suddenly got a little bit more rocky when a convoy of military vehicles was coming up behind the limo. Alexei tried driving the limo a bit faster, but the speed limit on the limo prevented it from making significant separation with the military officers pursuing them. Shots started getting fired and they were penetrating the rear windows of the limo, with John using his shield to prevent the bullets from penetrating inside. Ava tried to go out and deal with the military trucks in her super suit, but the trucks were equipped with the same sound-triggering device that was seen earlier inside the mountain. So, Ava was triggered by that and had to retreat back inside the limo. Yelena started throwing bottles with fire equipped on them to deter the vehicles, but it was only minimally successful. She tried to use her pistol to take down the trucks, but there was thankfully help on the way as a scene shown in the early trailers for this movie occurred. Bucky Barnes came driving in on a motorcycle to take down the three military trucks himself, as he made them crash on the side of the road and used a grappling hook to make the final truck flip over on the road. Using his metallic arm and a gun with magnetic grenades, Bucky was successful in saving the group of misfit anti-heroes, who he was also pursuing for his own purposes as he shot a grenade bomb out at the Red Guardian limo and the limo exploded, landing down on the side of the road. The quadrant of Thunderbolts were now in the custody of the Winter Soldier.

Meanwhile, in New York City, Valentina had set up shop at O.X.E’s new facility, which was the old Avengers Tower that used to be owned by Tony Stark. Ms. de Fontaine had her security team construct an isolated room for Robert Reynolds to be held in as he was transported to the tower in a crate. Valentina went in to see Bob, who was depicted in a background check as a drug addict fallen on hard times and he volunteered for the Sentry Project to help look for a cure to his drug addiction. Valentina assured Bob that she was here to help him become a better version of himself and also to use his powers in a way beneficial to the national security of the United States. Valentina then made contact with Bob and she would have a flashback to a traumatic memory when she was a little girl. Valentina saw her younger self with her father and that she had made a mistake in informing someone on the streets about where they were located. They were speaking Spanish and unfortunately Valentina had to see her father get shot by a business partner of his, The present Valentina then woke up from this vision and was emotionally disturbed when seeing Bob use his powers on her. Bob told Valentina that he could control his powers and Valentina thought that was good as she walked outside the isolated room. Outside the room, Valentina told Mel to alert the press and that she intended to show the world the brand new hope that she created to supplant the Avengers.

Meanwhile, Yelena, Bucky, Ava and Alexei were in custody at a gas station in the desert and Bucky had them all tied up in ropes and handcuffs(specially designed to keep Ava tied up). Bucky told them that they were the last pieces of evidence from the O.X.E mountain facility and they were to testify to Congress at the impeachment trial of Valentina. But Bucky said that there was another avenue that he preferred to take rather than rely on long congressional hearings. Bucky offered the team of four ex-con anti-hero super soldiers a chance to help him take down Valentina herself and to stop whatever she was planning. The team then mentioned their encounter with Bob and that he was dangerously powerful. Bucky then told the team that he knew what it was like having to run from the demons of the past, telling them that they could either do something about it or live with their shame forever. Alexei was especially excited since this was the making of a brand new team of super soldiers. Yelena knew that she was facing those same feelings of emptiness and the same applied to John Walker and Ava Starr. So, this was their chance at ultimate redemption, something that Bucky had partially achieved in his time being free from the grasp of the dark Winter Soldier alias that he had lived under for decades.

One of the reasons why Bucky found the team was that Mel was in contact with him, telling him when he was in his apartment in D.C that the trio of Yelena, John and Ava were in danger and that Valentina was unhinged. He got the same intel from Mel when she was at the old Avengers tower and that Bob was going to be used as an asset by Valentina. Bucky and the team of four would drive in a truck to New York City, and when they arrived they discussed a plan about how they would break into the tower. The logical move obviously was to drive the truck into the front entrance and fight the security forces, which was exactly what happened. After driving the truck into the front lobby, the team came out and took down the security forces. But Valentina’s voice came on the intercom and told the hostile team of five super-powered individuals that they didn’t have to break into the lobby(which she had just had refurbished) and that she left the front door unlocked just for them. So, after that odd encounter, the Thunderbolts headed up to the top level of the tower, where Valentina was waiting for them at the bar. The setting was very familiar as a lot of dramatic moments in the MCU had occurred in that location on that floor, with the showdown between Tony Stark and Loki being one of them, the Avengers’ first face off with Ultron and the Iron Legion being another and the battle between the two Captain Americas of different timelines having occurred in Endgame in the 2012 timeline during the Time Heist of the Infinity Stones. Valentina made mention of this as she greeted her counterparts, who were not happy to see her. Bucky told Valentina that whatever she had planned wouldn’t work to her favor and asked where Mel was. Valentina said that Mel was undergoing a “loyalty issue” and that it would get solved with time. Valentina made a funny comment about Alexei, asking “Who’s this old Santa?” With his grey beard and Red Guardian suit, Alexei did look a little like Santa Claus to be honest. Valentina then made mention of her grand plan to show the world and specifically the U.S that a new form of protection was necessary to safeguard against future threats. Valentina then called on her asset, which was Bob. Walking down the stairs to the bar, Robert Reynolds was shown wearing a new superhero suit, golden in nature and having new blonde hair. Bob had completed his transition into the Sentry and looked exactly like the comic book image of the character.

Yelena had seen imagery of the Sentry project at the desert facility and she was shocked to see Bob in his state of new uniform. Valentina then revealed to the team of five that they were drawn to the tower so that they could be the “villains” in a battle against Bob that the press would witness as they were on their way. Bob told his friends that he was sorry that he had to do this as it was his only chance at being seen as “worthy”. The fight then began, as Bob was shown being too powerful to take down. Bob would overpower all of the Thunderbolts, bending John Walker’s shield, catching Ghost in her evasive invisible maneuvers, punching Alexei out of a window and catching him in midair with his mighty grasp to pull him back in, and even took off Bucky’s metallic arm with ease. Yelena stood no chance as she was dealt with easily as well by the all-powerful Bob. The team had to retreat down the elevator, as Valentina watched this from the side and told Bob that he had done a good job. Back down on the street, Yelena was emotionally distressed and that they couldn’t take down Bob, much less rescue him. Alexei tried to rally up the morale, exclaiming out “We are the Thunderbolts!” Earlier in the movie, Yelena had visited Alexei at his house in the Beltway area in Baltimore suburbia and that Alexei showed a picture of an old soccer team that Yelena had played on as a little girl in Ohio, in which the soccer team’s name was the Thunderbolts. Yelena mentioned that the team was so bad they didn’t even win a game. Back in the present moment in the movie, inching closer to the climax, Yelena walked away from the team as she felt that they weren’t good for anything. This moment of defeat was bad for the “Thunderbolts”, but something worse was about to happen.

Back at the top of the building, Bob questioned Valentina about why he had to obey her and said that he should have unrestricted power since he just took down a group of superpowered individuals. Valentina tried to convince Bob that she was on his side, but Bob wasn’t buying it as the darker emotions within him took hold and he would act on his hateful instincts by holding Valentina in a chokehold. Bob thrusted the helpless businesswoman into a wall with his grasp and he was set on choking her, but instead he was stopped by a kill-switch that had been placed into his skull. The kill switch was activated by Mel, who saw that her boss was in danger and she acted quickly. Valentina was relieved by that as she and the “dead” corpse of Bob collapsed onto the floor of the bar room, with Mel telling her boss that she needed a raise. Valentina acknowledged that and told her to contact their security team to clean up the mess on the top floor. But suddenly, a dark shadow came over Bob’s body and that was not a good sign.

On the streets, Alexei continued following Yelena and she told her father figure to stop following her. Alexei caught up to Yelena and tried to make her feel better about herself. Yelena spilled some real emotions out of her inner self and that she didn’t feel worthy of being a hero. But Alexei told her that when she was a little girl, she provided a “light that could brighten any room” she was in. Yelena was comforted by hearing this from Alexei, who still believed in the goodness in her after all the bad stuff that she had done. Suddenly, Yelena and Alexei looked up at the skies and saw a terrifying figure levitating above. Other civilians saw this as well and over at the Avengers Tower, where Mel told Valentina that there was no body in the bar room to recover. The soldiers under Valentina’s command took notice of this and saw the flying dark figure that had engulfed Bob’s body. This was the Dark Sentry character that was the darker equal of Sentry and Robert Reynolds had become dominated by his internal demons. The darker half of Sentry was more dangerous and unstable than the lighter half of Sentry, as Bob used his darker powers to turn anyone that came within his range into a shadow of themselves. This happened with the soldiers on the top level when they opened fire on Dark Sentry, who put his hand out and turned the physical form of the soldiers into powerless shadows. Bob did this with the leader of the military unit in a helicopter and the pilot of the chopper, which would start spiraling downwards out of control towards the city. A chaotic sequence occurred as debris from skyscrapers came down on the city and the civilians below were protected from destruction by each of the Thunderbolts. Yelena, Alexei, John, Bucky and Ava helped protect people from the debris that was caused from the helicopter accident. But after Alexei prevented a little girl from being crushed by a falling piece of cement, she was turned into a shadow by the darkness of the evil Dark Sentry, who came down to confront the team of anti-heroes.

Bob, consumed by the darkness within himself, told the Thunderbolts that there was no way that they could defeat him because they were all loners and that each and every one of them would always be alone. Dark Sentry then used his shadow powers to start enveloping the whole area around the O.X.E Tower into darkness as people were running for their lives to avoid getting turned into shadows. The team of anti-heroes started evacuating citizens and directing them inside buildings, where they could be more safe from the shadow purge occurring outside. But scores of civilians started getting engulfed within the massive shadow that was coming from Dark Sentry, who was too powerful to overcome on the outside. Yelena turned towards the growing shadow and knew that there was only one way to stop this darkness from engulfing the whole of New York City and the world. That was to go into the shadow realm that she had seen earlier and find the real Bob in his memories of trauma. Yelena already experienced this earlier in the movie when seeing the vision of herself as a young girl training in the Widow program in the instance where the older girl Anya was killed by a gun shot by a supervisor of hers. But Alexei did not know this as he saw Yelena walk towards the shadows and into them. Alexei screamed out in emotional pain as he thought that Yelena was dead, but she was not as John Walker told the distressed Red Guardian that he had been teleported into a vision of a traumatic memory of his when he touched Bob. So Yelena making contact with the shadows that came from Bob’s darker alias transported her physically into the shadow realm, with her shadow remaining on the outside.

This was indeed the case as Yelena saw the same memory of her as a little girl. Physically being within the memory, Yelena tried to prevent Anya’s death, but Anya herself resisted as this was a portrayal of the Dark Sentry’s effects. Yelena eventually broke through the barrier of that memory and she made it into another traumatic memory that she had when she was a slightly older girl. Yelena was in a classroom with fellow Widow trainees and all the girls were practicing loading their guns quickly. Yelena was the fastest one in this instance and the teacher of this “Widow ROTC” class spared her from suffering the punishment that the others went through, which was being hit by a very large whip that the teacher had. Yelena eventually broke through this memory wall and made it into a more present memory, where she was sitting on the floor drinking shots of vodka and sleeping in her distress. The present Yelena actually had to fight against her other self and a replay of the memory was shown time and time again. Yelena shouted out to Bob and he answered her as a window was shown where the real Robert Reynolds was sitting down on the floor. Bob was sitting in the attic room of his family’s house and Yelena would crawl through the window to talk with Bob, who said that he had found a “safe room”. What Yelena saw underneath her was a scarring memory of Bob’s past, when he witnessed both his parents fighting with each other at the Reynolds family dinner table. Yelena told Bob that she was going to get them out of this dark situation and that he shouldn’t have to feel alone anymore because there was a different meaning to family that sustained individuals.

Suddenly, the other members of the anti-hero family appeared as Alexei, Bucky, John and Ava were shown in the attic room, as each of them had gone through their own traumatic memory visions in order to break through to rescue Bob. Bucky sarcastically said that he had a treasure trove of traumatic memories as the Winter Soldier as the team of six looked to break through Bob’s memory visions in order to find the dark force that was causing this shadow mess on the island of Manhattan. They went through Bob’s first memory wall of his parents abusing themselves and then made it into a funny memory showing a younger version of Bob wearing a chicken suit and running at the team with a sign for a fast-food restaurant that he was working at. The real Bob said that this was bad because he was on meth, with Alexei kicking down the drugged chicken-suit wearing figure. Finally, the team made it into a laboratory location and Yelena said that she had been in this location in the real world.

This was the lab shown at the beginning of the movie, where Yelena had killed a doctor working on the Sentry project that Valentina had overseen. Bob said that this was where he had been experimented on in Malaysia, with the dark shadow self of Robert Reynolds being shown in a room where physical examinations had taken place. This was the Dark Sentry shadow demon that Bob had within himself and he had to defeat it before it consumed himself and the world. But the shadow self would use the materials inside the lab to restrain the team of six, with each of them being jammed on tables and walls in the lab. The Dark Sentry demon told Bob to give up because they would always be alone, as a theme discussed during this movie was the void that each and every person had within themselves and this applied to a couple of characters. Bucky made mention of it during his speech to the captive quartet and Yelena mentioned it as well in her opening monologue. In the present time, Bob broke free and started fighting against his darker half, which overpowered him initially, but eventually Bob would get the shadow demon on the floor and started pounding it. Yelena was being choked by a wire, but she broke free of it and her trap in order to stop Bob from using his aggression to destroy the shadow demon. Bob was turning dark as he laid down punches on his dark half, with the other Thunderbolts freeing themselves from their stuck positions. Yelena held onto Bob with a hug and John stopped Bob from continuing to punch the demon, with the other team members hugging Bob, who cried in emotional relief. Bob then was freed from his dark-colored shade and the Dark Sentry demon was destroyed.

Back in the real world, the shadows started to fade from Manhattan as all the people who were turned into shadows by the shadow demon were brought back to their physical forms. This included the team of anti-heroes and Robert Reynolds himself, as the world had been saved from darkness itself. The team was relieved this conflict was over, but they looked to detain the one responsible for this situation in the first place in Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who was standing over by a covered area. Valentina told the team to take it easy on her and that she had an offer for them, but the Thunderbolts were not interested in that. But when they followed Valentina through the cover, they were greeted by a team of media reporters taking pictures of them. Valentina then announced that the city and the world had been saved from darkness by “the New Avengers”. The team was surprised by this, with Yelena whispering into Valentina’s ear “You owe us”. So, in this media stunt which was originally supposed to be the glorifying of Bob as the Sentry, the world instead got an introduction to their newest team of Earth’s mightiest (anti)-heroes. Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, John Walker, Ava Starr, Alexei Shostakov and Robert Reynolds were all now going to be glorified as the New Avengers in the not-so-futuristic year of 2029. What could go wrong?

The animated mid-credits started rolling, with images from local New York newspapers with fictional headlines that were critical of the New Avengers craze. There was even an image of Yelena that had her posing as the famous World War II factory working “We Can Do It” woman that had Yelena say “Can We Do It?” After the hilarious newspaper credits had rolled, the movie title of Thunderbolts* was predictably changed to “The New Avengers”. There have been rebrandings of movie titles before, but those usually occur years later when a movie franchise expands or is centered around one star character. But this is a curious rebrand that explains the asterisk on the team name, which went from being named after a girls soccer team that the main character played on as a little girl to a bold new titling. If the “New Avengers” avenged anything, it was their dark past memories and they made themselves into better people worthy to step up when all the other more-known Avengers were scattered doing other things or because they were either retired/dead.

Post-Credits Scene: A Special Look Towards The New Avengers’ Role In Avengers: Doomsday

After a humorous mid-credits scene showing a slightly clean-shaved Alexei in a grocery store holding a box of Wheaties with the New Avengers on it and talking to a woman shopping in the cereal section about it, an image is shown that says “14 Months Later”. In it, the New Avengers are headquartered at the New Avengers tower, which they bought from Valentina and O.X.E. Yelena asks Bucky what Sam Wilson thinks about their team and branding it with the Avengers name. Bucky said that Sam was not happy about it and that he was filing a trademark lawsuit regarding the usage of Avengers on it. John Walker, wearing his military cadet cap, was not surprised when hearing that and Ava Starr stood by hearing this as well. Alexei then walked in wearing a humorous shirt that had the signage “New Avengerz” on it, saying that they could advertise themselves with it. Yelena said that wasn’t how that worked as the team was given an alert to space. Yelena clarified that it was outer space after some confusion from Alexei, who said that they could have used Bob to fly up into space to see what the issue was. Bob was shown sitting in an isolated room in the top level and said that he wished he could do that, but added that he couldn’t be the Sentry without embracing his darker half. The New Avengers then saw a visual of a “multidimensional breakthrough” in space and what they saw was a rocket spaceship with the number 4 on it. Oh boy. This means that the Fantastic Four team that is about to be seen on the big screens in late July comes from a different universe than the main one in the MCU. A multiversial collision is bound to happen as the main antagonist to the Fantastic Four in Doctor Victor von Doom will arise as the ultimate threat to the multiverse itself. This will come after the team of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Touch and the Thing take on a threat to their world in the form of the Silver Surfer and Galactus.

I can’t wait for that, but this movie of Thunderbolts* created a new team of anti-heroes turned into superheroes. It dipped into the emotional pain of a couple characters(mainly Yelena and Bob) and made that the main focus along with a new team coming together. The director of the movie, Jake Schreier, along with all the other production crew members, were very wise to hide some details about this movie, like the unexpected early death of Taskmaster and the true title of the movie. The asterisk always meant that the team was going to be called something else than “Thunderbolts”, which is a good name but it is not as bold as New Avengers, who will inevitably collide with the old guard of Avengers characters such as Sam Wilson, Thor and other unassembled characters such as Shang-Chi in the future. The MCU is hanging by a thread, so it’s going all-in on anti-heroes and other team-ups to save them. It’s not just the Avengers anymore; it’s now X-Men, young Avengers potentially, the Fantastic Four and the New Avengers to keep this expansive franchise alive beyond this decade of perplexing Disney+ mini-series and theatrical releases that have generated some box-office ratings but mostly negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. In my opinion, this movie really dipped into the darker elements of human emotion that any one of us can suffer or have suffered through our lifetimes. Loss of a loved one(or loved ones) and the emotional void within us that is filled by dark things like drug addiction, alcoholism and other mental conditions sadly affect all of us. And not everyone makes it out alive from those addictions. Robert Reynolds searched for a cure to his grief and found the Sentry project, which only exposed him to his darkness further and turned him into a tool to be used in political theater and the court of public opinion. Valentina abused Bob for her own personal gain, but she made it out on the other side unscathed with her branding of the New Avengers, some of whose members she tried to destroy(and one of them in which she apparently succeeded in Taskmaster, who was being criticized for her female character by plenty of trolls online). The questioning retitle to The New Avengers clearly has stunned some people, but I’m not surprised by it. Not even a bit. I was when I saw it at the end, but the asterisk was always a clue that there was a hidden title behind this movie. Some will still call it Thunderbolts*, but others will call it New Avengers. Call it what you will, I personally don’t care. But I’ll give this movie a solid rating of 7.5 out of 10. Alexei Shostakov brought a humorous twist and some much needed comedic relief to an otherwise sour-tasting plot. Bucky Barnes obviously had a bit of a minor role, but he was definitely keen on his anti-hero roots in bringing a team of them together. Lewis Pullman’s portrayal of Robert Reynolds was solid, but it could have featured more independence on his part and his willingness to be a hero rather than be seen as worthy. Ava Starr’s brashness and phasing was alright, but a lot of people couldn’t shake the visuals of her being a villain. Especially since she was still willing enough to put a bullet through Taskmaster’s head, even though it did save Yelena and John Walker. The disgraced Captain America of John Walker had to face some of his character flaws in being too pushy and cocky, but he clearly was probably like that before receiving the super-soldier serum. He was pretty funny as well with his commentary and whatnot. And Yelena was just a mascara-wearing bad girl with a lot of trauma in being a formerly-enslaved subject in the Red Room and the hairstyle that Florence Pugh had for her was definitely more tomboyish than in her previous appearances. This assembling isn’t as epic as the ones that we had with the first four Avengers movies, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Who knows if they will expand and include other anti-heroes such as W’Kabi from Black Panther or Daredevil or the nameless(to everyone but himself) Spider-Man? But for now, they stand at a tally of six and set to participate in the upcoming duo of Avengers movies that will end the long-stretching, plan-changing Multiverse Saga that has received mostly negative reviews for its confusing and twisty path towards a final conflict that will hopefully be worth the price of admission.