**Warning: this article may contain spoilers**
In the past few weeks, die hard Marvel fans and casual movie lovers alike have flooded into movie theaters around the world to watch the latest addition to the ever growing list of movies in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), “Thunderbolts,” now known as the “New Avengers.”
“Thunderbolts” originally released in the U.S. on May 2, and topped U.S. box offices with an opening week earning $74,300,608, “which is way less than ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Wolverine’ ($211 million), but still more than ‘Eternals’ ($71 million) and ‘Ant-Man’ and ‘The Wasp’ ($75 million) in the U.S.,” according to movie website Digital Spy.
To help with branding of the movie, about a week after the release, Marvel rebranded using a new name, “The New Avengers.” This was done to represent the desire for the main characters to be the new faces of the MCU. Despite the official name change, fans and advertisements still refer to the movie by its original name, “Thunderbolts.”
Whatever you want to call it, the classic Marvel one-liners combined, with producers bringing in new issues to Marvel like mental health struggles, and the weight of characters’ past decisions, has turned “Thunderbolts” into what fans consider to be one of the best Marvel movies in recent years.
This movie is also atypical for Marvel movies because it features multiple previously cast aside side characters from past movies and shows. These characters, such as Yelena Belova (sister of dead Avenger Black Widow), John Walker (AKA U.S. Agent), Ava Starr (AKA Ghost), and others, are forced to work together when their former boss, CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine tries to kill them to cover up evidence of her illegal activities. Since they knew too much and could be used as witnesses against her, she attempted to trap them all in one of her company’s high security storage facilities, which they managed to escape.
Now working together under the name Thunderbolts, they team up with Red Guardian (Yelena Belova’s father) and long-time avenger Bucky (known as the Winter Soldier) to hunt down Valentina to get revenge. When they find her, she shields herself using the Sentry, a new character also trapped with the Thunderbolts.
The Sentry, introduced as Bob, was unsure how he ended up trapped with the Thunderbolts originally, but later learned that Valentina experimented on him for her own personal gain. As a result of this experimentation, he got every superpower, making him extremely powerful. Bob, who struggled with mental health issues his whole life, quickly turned on Valentina, but the dark side of his mental health quickly got the best of him and he almost destroyed everything before Yelena Belova got to him and convinced him to be good again.
Though dealing with complicated mental health issues, this seemingly simplistic ending left fans feeling like it could have been better, both production and the story in general. Regardless of this movie, it is clear that it set up the MCU for years to come, and laid the foundation for future movies and storylines.
