What happens when you take a bunch of forgettable side characters a few fans liked from mediocre projects and make them the stars of a big blockbuster movie?
“Thunderbolts*,” Marvel’s newest movie was released on May 2, 2025. When the project was first announced three years prior, many fans had mixed feelings about the movie, especially after its lineup was announced which contained three super soldiers, two ex-assassins and only one team member with unique powers. However, as time went on, exciting new cast members were announced and trailers started to look great, causing audiences to ask “Could this movie actually be good?”
Surprisingly, yes.
Created by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Mark Bagley, the team made their first appearance in Marvel’s “The Incredible Hulk #449”, released in January 1997 before appearing in their own comic series three months later.
After “Avengers Endgame,” Marvel has released numerous projects of varying quality, introducing dozens upon dozens of new characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sometimes these new characters explode in popularity, like Moon Knight played by Oscar Issac, who went on to dominate the comic-book sales chart for Marvel in 2022, beating out Spiderman after the show ended.
Other new popular characters from this modern era includes the newest user of the Hawkeye mantel, Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld; Shang-Chi, played by Simu Liu; and Ms. Marvel, played by Iman Vellani — who went to write comics for her character.
Since their debut, the Thunderbolts has had a large rotating cast of primarily supervillains and antiheroes who were attempting to reform to varying degrees of success. Similar to its source material, the Thunderbolts team in the movie is also made up of primarily anti-heroes and villains. A large portion of them start the movie off already working for the corrupt Director of the CIA, named Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus), as her personal assassins and hitmen.
To save her political career, Valentina attempts to trick her underlings into locking themselves in an underground bunker and killing each other so there will be no evidence of them working for her. However, the group realized they were being duped and escaped the bunker together — with a mysterious amnesiac named Bob (played by actor Lewis Pullman) they found trapped with them. Not long after, Pullman’s character is captured by Valentina. Thus, ensues the team’s journey to expose the corrupt politician and rescue Bob.
The haphazard team is made up of a former Captain America, now known as U.S. Agent (played Wyatt Russel); former S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Ghost (played by Hannah John-Kamen); Bucky Barnes, formerly known as the Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan); the forgotten super-soldier icon of the Soviet Union, Red Guardian (played by David Harbour); test subject of the Red Room, a Soviet assassin training program, Taskmaster (played by Olga Kurylenko) and former Red Room assassin Yelena Belova, who acts as the movie’s lead (played by Florence Pugh). Yelena Belova was created by writer Devin Grayson and artist J. G. Jones in “Marvel Knights: Wave 2 Sketchbook #1” in January 1998. Debuting the following year in “Inhumans #5” by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee. Pugh’s portrayal of the character made her battle with her lack of purpose, isolation and depression — instantly relatable to audiences. The character’s emotional moments and chemistry with her fellow teammates felt very balanced and contributed to her overall arc.
Spoilers Here: Created by writer Paul Jenkins and artist Jae Lee in “The Sentry #1” in July 2000, with Rick Veitch providing conceptual contributions; Bob, Valentina’s abductee, is a character who plays multiple different roles in the film’s story. In this role, it appeared Pullman played three different characters, each with different personalities and purposes in the story. The movie hints at the character having Bipolar disorder. The character discussed how he has good days, where he feels amazing like a god; and bad days where he feels depressed and worthless — leading to many of the movie’s conflicts.
Both Yelena and Bob stole the show with their stellar performances and acting. The two’s emotions and trauma hit home, making it very easy to grow attached to the two characters and their growing friendship with each other, as well as the rest of the team. I am especially grateful that the creators did not force the two characters into a romantic relationship, as it would have subtracted from the cast bonding as a team and the emotional journey the two go through throughout the film. Overall, the rest of the cast is pretty enjoyable but some members were in need of more screen time.
U.S Agent entered the film as the team’s most well known character, but he wasn’t exactly likeable or beloved by fans after his first MCU project. Created by writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Paul Neary in “Captain America #323” in November 1986, the character’s first MCU appearance in “The Falcon and Winter Soldier” Disney+ series. The show focused on the downfall of a hero, with the decorated war hero initially appearing as the second Captain America after Steve’s retirement. With the character becoming more and more antagonistic throughout the series before climaxing when he brutally murdered a suspect in the middle of the street in a foreign country, leading him from being fired before being swept up by Valentina as one of her own personal hitmen.
In Thunderbolts*, U.S. Agent is, for lack of a better term, a jerk. He talks himself up a lot while throwing harsh comments his teammates way but he’s not a character you hate but rather sympathetic. He’s a character that displays how problematic, flawed and stuck up he is, but is also someone who I want to see get his crap together and become someone. U.S. Agent’s role in the film feels more like a continuation of his arc from his previous appearance, having his arc’s focus shift to him learning to connect with his teammates and work together.. The movie is more of a stepping stone for the character that will lead into his next appearance, which still works for this movie, but it doesn’t have the same emotional conclusion that other characters’ arcs had since his story isn’t over yet.
Ghost is a member of the team who does a lot in terms of moving the story along but she doesn’t have much to do character-wise. Created by writer David Michelinie and artist Bob Layton, she debuted in “Iron Man #219” in June 1987. In the original source material, Ghost has typically been portrayed as a character surrounded in mystery, no one knows their name or what side they are on. But in the MCU Ghost is less of an enigma, which doesn’t allow for as many interesting roles in different arcs and stories. While she has cool scenes involving her powers and some fun banter with her fellow teammate U.S. Agent, she doesn’t have as much character development as the rest of the cast which leads to her feeling like she is a character who is just kinda there.
While Red Guardian didn’t have as much screen time compared to most of the other members of the ragtag team, his scenes were fun and amusing. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema and debuting in “Avengers #43” in January 1967, Red Guardian acts as the fun dad of the group and as the film’s comedic relief. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have any emotional scenes. For example, his heart-to-hearts and relation with his daughter Yelena was very emotional and well done, making me much more invested in the two than in prior films. His arc surrounding his desire to be a hero again was also entertaining seeing it unfold during the film.
Taskmaster was a character I was personally looking forward to seeing more from in “Thunderbolts*” but unfortunately they didn’t get a lot of screen time in the film. Created by writer David Michelinie and artist George Pérez, the character debuted in “The Avengers #195” in May 1980. Taskmaster’s MCU adaptation caused a lot of controversy among comic fans when she first appeared in Marvel’s “Black Widow” film back in 2021, which many fans today speculate to be the reason for Taskmaster’s limited screen time in “Thunderbolts*”. She had a cool fight scene but other than that she did basically nothing, which is a shame because she had a lot of potential in this movie.
Bucky Barnes, formerly known as the Winter Soldier, is the final and most forgettable member of the team. Bucky Barnes was originally created by writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby in “Captain America Comics #1” in March 1941, however his identity and the mantle of the Winter Soldier introduced decades later in September of 2005 with Marvels “Captain America #8” by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting. Bucky’s story in this movie is very disconnected from the rest of the cast, which in turn makes his bond with the other members feel more like a random guy no one knows who just shows up to game night asking to play when the game is almost over. He has some great action scenes in this movie and does have some interesting content, so if you’re going into this movie for Bucky you’ll be happy but he wasn’t as interesting as the rest of the cast in this film.
Watching this team of broken characters and outcasts come together provides some of the movie’s strongest aspects. The cast’s chemistry is addicting, with many fans saying it reminded them of the original avengers team but in its own unique way. However, the most surprising thing about the movie wasn’t the stellar action, well written characters or the cast’s fun chemistry. It was the movie’s central theme that struck audiences: loneliness.
According to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness scale completed by over 124,855 adults between 1979 and 2019, loneliness levels have been steadily increasing among each generation as they grow into adults, with the 2020 covid pandemic causing a spike that’s still being measured by analysts. In this age, the themes of isolation and loneliness in “Thunderbolts*,” shown through its cast, is very relevant to modern day and the film’s emotional ending — starting these characters on a healing path together hits home hard. For the first time in a while, it feels like this superhero movie actually has something to say with modern timely themes.
Overall, the movie is a strong stand-alone film with a good cast, fun characters and themes pertinent to the modern day.
