THUNDERBOLTS*: Marvel Studios' Past, Present and Future

For a while now, I have stopped believing in superhero stories. Well, actually, "believe" is an extremely strong verb. I would rather say they haven't convinced me for some time. Not for nothing my favorite movie of all time is Taxi Driver. I relate more to these kinds of broken characters, with a grey morality… a bit more real. I was exactly 20 years old when the first installment of The Avengers premiered in 2012. I was going through a time of personal change, like any young adult. I was discovering myself, exploring cinema through all possible angles and, that same year, I was also starting to embrace the idea that maybe, one day, I could make movies myself. For seven years, I was immersed in each and every premiere of the famous Infinity Saga. The building of a cinematic universe as such fired our enthusiasm, satisfaction and desire for more. There was this magic of chanting an "OOOOOOH" with everyone in the theater at the end of the credits and then, going out to the streets and talking for a while about what was coming next.

Back then, I was another person. The pandemic hit almost a year after that warm hug between Captain America and Peggy Carter—ending an era forever—and then, reality fell to pieces on us. And Marvel also did in a way. Both fans and non-fans started to experience a bittersweet feeling. The things that had excited us the most vanished like dust in Avengers: Infinity War' ending; the present was covering us with a cloud loaded with doubts and the future was no longer as certain as before. Personally, I can say I just enjoyed two out of the 13 films released after the pandemic and Avengers: Endgame, and it just so happened that… Yes, they focus on broken characters, like I mentioned before.

Who didn't shed a tear with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? MCU's funniest squad bid farewell alongside the director who had already signed to join DC. James Gunn changed sides but not before giving us rebellion, some cuteness, a huge dose of companionship and humanity and, most importantly, a great character development. This same optimistic core can be found in the new project of renegade antiheroes who redeem themselves titled Thunderbolts*, the last stroke of luck of a company that NEEDED to refresh in the waters of simplicity to reconnect with an audience tired of cheap visuals, forgettable characters and entangled plots that easily faded into oblivion.

From the very first shot, it's established that this movie belongs to Yelena Belova, played by the absolute star Florence Pugh. The fact that a character's first decision is to jump off a building establishes an interesting parallelism with this ocean of doubts in which Marvel has been floating lately. "And now what do we do?" wonder the marketing guys while Kevin Feige answers 45 calls simultaneously. Yelena's story is one of grief and overcoming, just like ours, since maybe we couldn't yet heal, or fill actually, the void Avengers: Endgame left us. This is a journey of acceptance, in which guilt for what she's done in the past is the heart and soul of her movie. Who would have thought these topics would be the essence of a "Marvelian" film? See, honestly, I haven't watched all the movies following The Infinity Saga, especially the ones focused on most of the characters of this new lineup. Until a couple of days ago, I didn't even know who Red Guardian, John Walker or Ghost were… not even Yelena. But anyway, against all odds and with a smile at the end, I felt I had connected with each one of them. Why?

The direction in charge of Jake Schreier—who was also behind the scenes of several episodes of the amazing dramedies Kidding and Beef—focuses on developing the characters in a way that all the past story is left in the background. Yes, it may be confusing to present it like this: there are certain flashbacks mostly related to Sentry's powers, a type of antagonist/superhero who will be quite relevant in the future and who makes his first appearance in a MCU in the midst of a reconstruction process but, just like this beloved squad, we all need to look ahead. That's what this "restart" is about. Should we give it a chance, or should we look at the past with anger and pain? The metaphor works perfectly.

SO, WHAT'S THE STORY ABOUT?

Like it happened a few months ago in the premiere of Captain America's fourth mediocre movie, danger doesn't even extend to the limits of the whole North American country. Everything is reduced to New York and the surroundings of the old Stark Tower that now belongs to our arrogant villain. The Celestials, Eternals and other cosmic beings went on a good vacation, multiverse themes don't carry much weight for now and God knows what happened to Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, etc. The enemy on call is Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, a manipulating intelligence agent who had already appeared with some unimpressive cameos and who, together with her organization OXE, was working in the shadows to develop the perfect human. Yes, given the absence of some of the gods of our adolescence, Marvel decided to raise the curtain for a character not many empathize with but who I, personally, have always considered at least interesting.

Who is Sentry, also known as Robert Reynolds? "I'm Bob" is the first thing we hear from this unstable, depressive and possibly schizophrenic young drug addict. Bob is just like any other drifting North American. He's the visible face of a nation corrupted by fake dreams; broken due to the family abuse he suffered during his childhood/adolescence. He's so real that we long for him to get the unreal. The Sentry, a character created by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee (no, not Stan Lee's son) at the beginning of this century, represents human being's oldest internal battle: hate versus love.

Controlled to a certain extent by Fontaine, the supervillain/hero is played by the newbie Lewis Pullman, son of mythical Bill Pullman and a rising star. Up until here, everything sounds too messy and cliché, but Thunderbolts* has one strong point: the characters—their dynamics, theirback-and-forth interactions, their wins and screwups. What captivated us from Iron Man, Thor, Loki and company? How real they felt despite having "superpowers." And I'm not talking about empathizing with a multimillionaire or a Nordic mythology demigod, no. I'm talking about empathizing with their decisions and sense of ethics and morals. To look forward to Marvel's future, one must honestly review what was brilliantly done in the past. My eyes are already set on what's coming.

Published on MAY 8, 2025, 21:45 PM | UTC-GMT -3

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