Over the weekend I went to see the newest addition to the MCU’s roster of Blockbuster films, Thunderbolts*. This is the 36th film they have made.
I’m from the generation who grew up with Phase 1 films like the first Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, and I followed the whole 10-year saga as it concluded with Avengers: End Game. That’s a long time to spend emotionally invested in a film series, and I’ll be honest, it can be hard for me to get excited about a new Marvel film these days.
Which is why this new addition felt so refreshing.
Fair warning there will be spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen Thunderbolts* and you don’t want it spoilt, I suggest you stop reading.
What pulled me in about the film?
I wasn’t initially drawn into the film for several reasons, but what changed for me, and what started to intrigue me was when they started showing trailers with darker and more complex themes.
We’ve all grown up over the course of 10 years, so sometimes a bright and shiny, morally clear film just isn’t as interesting to us anymore. A more complexed, nuanced, exploratory narrative is what might be more engaging, and to have that portrayed within a Marvel film, now that was interesting.
The motley ‘Thunderbolts’
None of the ‘Thunderbolts’ have God-like powers and their existence is ‘of this realm’, not from a distant planet nor from another Universe. As Yelena says, they “just punch and shoot”. Don’t get me wrong, they are highly trained assassins, some with enhanced strength and the ability to become intangible but they’re certainly no Thor, Scarlet Witch, Vision or Captain Marvel. But do they need to be?
They are flawed, gritty and have done HIGHLY questionable things in their pasts, so exploring these morally complex characters is much more relatable and interesting than other clear-cut characters who exist within the MCU.
What sets Thunderbolts* apart is that they are ALL considered the ‘anti-hero’ or ‘morally ambiguous’. Theres no righteous super soldier or worthy God thrown in with them. They all suffer, they all struggle and they all have done very regrettable things in their pasts. So put all of that together, you’re bound to get a much darker tone.
Some Themes Explored
For these themes to be explored within the context of a Marvel film, the studio that brings us the classic ‘good guy vs. bad guy’ trope, is really refreshing and almost shows the progression we are in as a culture. The era where we explore complexity.
The below is just a selection of some of the themes I picked up on first viewing of the film, but you might have picked up on others. Sound off in the comments.
Share your struggles – it will lift the burden. You are not alone.
There is a small part of the film where Yelena opens up to Alexei about how hard she is struggling with her life. She is consumed by depression and grief and doesn’t see the purpose in her life anymore. She is angry and sad that Alexei has not been there or reached out to her. He is her father figure, and she wants support and guidance from him.
Alexei then lovingly proceeds to tell Yelena a story from her early childhood about the terrible football team she was in called “the West Chesapeake Bay Thunderbolts” and what position Yelena chose. We are told she wanted to be the goalkeeper because as Yelena put it, she “wanted to be the person everyone can rely on”. Alexei is proud as he tells her this story, letting her know he can still see that part of her, and as we slowly zoom into a close up of Yelena’s face, we can see this is the validation she wanted and needed.
Additionally, when Yelena is confessing that she is consumed with guilt and shame, Alexei simply says “when I look at you, I don’t see your mistakes”, which is again, a much needed moment of acceptance and connection for both characters.
Alexei also reveals something himself and admits that he believes his life is in shambles and that he thought Yelena didn’t want to see him. That’s why he hasn’t reached out.
Here both characters manage to get something difficult off their chest, showing the importance of opening up and sharing what you are struggling with. Alexei also mentions to Yelena that she seems to be “getting her spark back” since she shared her struggles and began working together with the rest of the ‘Thunderbolts’.
I really like this moment between them, as in a franchise that is traditionally about superheroes, dealing with superhero issues, here are 2 human individuals opening up and sharing what they’re struggling with. This is an important aspect that connects audiences to the film.
This conversation is briefly referred back to again during the sequence where the ‘Thunderbolts’ are trying to save Bob from his own darkness. Bob, now as the troubled Void, has unleashed his darkness over New York, trapping the citizens in a maze of ‘shame rooms’. Yelena is the first one to find Bob in this maze, but not before briefly journeying through her own past trauma.
Upon finding Bob, Yelena explains that it is ok to share your struggles and what you are going through. Bob is not convinced but Yelena explains “It works. Because it has already started working with me” briefly alluding to the conversation she had with Alexei, and now we understand that she has indeed started to lighten from sharing what she has been struggling with.
Finally, another sequence where we visually see how sharing and support can positively impact us is when Bob faces off with his Void. Bob jumps Void and starts to punch him on the ground. As Bob is on top of Void becoming increasingly more violent, we slowly see the darkness creep up his legs and begin to consume him. Yelena is the one to come to the rescue, immediately throwing her arms around Bob and simply saying “I’m here”, to make him aware that she has got him, and he is not alone. She is preventing him from submitting to more darkness. The rest of the ‘Thunderbolts’ join to help Yelena and SUDDENLY, we fall back into the streets of New York, the darkness slowly fading into the atmosphere.
I think this is a great visual representation that you can’t beat your shame into submission, you need to slowly embrace it, become curious about it and be open to being vulnerable about it because as Brené Brown says “vulnerability is the antidote to shame”.
You can’t have the light without the dark.
This observation came from a small line Bob has in the second post-credits scene. Alexei wants Bob to bring Sentry out to investigate the mysterious rocket that has just entered the atmosphere (Turns out this is a Fantastic 4 reference, and a link to Doomsday) but Bob declines, and explains that you “can’t have Sentry without… the other guy”.
This shows to me that Bob now has some self-awareness about how his personality and disposition affects his powers, but has still got a way to go to fully master and control them. Pretty refreshing honestly, to have a superhero as powerful as Sentry display a good level of self-awareness.
It also made me think that as humans we have a combination of good and bad within us, and we are all on a journey to become aware of that, and to embrace it, understand it and learn to love what comes up for us. We are all a spectrum of dark and light.
The need for power and control
In the film there was also a small snippet into Valentina’s past and perhaps showed us the reason why she plays so hard for power and control.
We see Sentry/Void use his powers briefly on Valentina, showing her a memory of when she was a child, and presumably in Italy before she immigrated to the US. She is with her father who is telling her to “hide and don’t come out” as someone from what I assume is the Mafia, is banging on their door, demanding something from her father.
In the end Valentina’s father is shot in front of her. She wasn’t able to stop it or save him, thus creating this insatiable need in her to have all the power and all the control, way into adulthood in her attempts to never have that situation or feeling happen to her again.
This is why she becomes who she is.
Comedy and Darkness
The comedic moments in the film are much needed and well written in. There is a delicate balance struck between the comedy and the darker moments, balancing the ridiculous and boisterous nature of Alexei, the quips between the team and the darker shameful memories brought on by Void. I’m really impressed that a Marvel film chose to showcase complex characters and narrative at the forefront, making a bold statement.
I didn’t leave the cinema with a swell of adrenaline that the good guys defeated the bad guys, I left feeling a lot more thoughtful and calm and almost proud that a film of this scale had just explored those topics.
I hope this film gets people thinking and talking about what it means to them and starts conversations in their lives. Huge well done to all the people who made this film possible, they did an incredible job and I hope to see more of it in the future.
The Mind Library 
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