(This story contains spoilers to Thunderbolts *))
Director Jake Schreier Thunderbolts * caught many audiences by surprise this weekend. Not only in terms of what is behind the name, to which I will arrive, but on its lack of conventionality. The film Marvel Studios turned out to be a success with criticism that has forgiven some Marvel-Isms lately. Positive reception resembles a legitimate change of game for the MCU in the future. And not in the conventional way of the files or the public of the box office to make flips and to screaming in rale in theaters. It is a quieter type of game, deeper and probably more important that shows once again than Marvel Studios is at its best when it is based on outsiders and defies expectations.
The proclamation cycle claiming that “Marvel is over!” Followed by “Marvel is back!” has become tedious because neither is true. Marvel is simply there, a constant which, like all longtime franchises, and as the comics on which it is based, has its ups and downs. For the Marvel cinematographic universe, this has been the case since 2008 Iron has climbed, and The incredible hulkCentered on a more recognizable and loved character at the time, encountered an upper shoulder. The reactions to the following inputs set up and down the graph from there. This is largely due to waiting and what we think that these films will be or should be, stimulated by “scoopers” nourishing rumors with lies. But from time to time, one of these MCU films comes and shakes us with our expectations and desire to have them accomplished as we imagine, or as the comics predicted.
The revelation of the real name of the Thunderbolts at the end of the film, The New Avengers, brings back a feeling of camaraderie that the MCU lacked, because all its heroes were removed in different directions in the aftermath of Avengers: end of game. It does not matter that the team is not the same programming as that presented for the first time in the comics. The importance is rather that it shakes the status quo and throws a ride to Captain America (Anthony Mackie) Clean Assembly of Avengers, making Avengers: Doomsday Feel more exciting and less predictable. Like the series of comics by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch, New Avengers (2004), trained after the decimation of the Avengers, this team feels exciting because this is not necessarily what fans asked.
Although it is now considered a highlight in the history of Marvel comics, New Avengers Also surprised and left many fans scratching their heads to programming. While the team included pillars like Captain America and Iron Man (up to Civil war), he also understood Luke Cage, Spider-Woman, Echo, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Sentry. While Wolverine and Spider-Man are two of Marvel’s most popular characters, Wolverine’s association with the reputation of X-Men and Spider-Man to be a solo hero has made strange inclusions.
Spider-Woman had not appeared in much more than minor roles since the end of the 80s. Luke Cage was then best known as a suitable support character in the Marvel Max series of Bendis AliasDirected by Jessica Jones. Echo, under the cover of Ronin, was a character from Daredevil rarely appeared. And Sentry had not been used for almost four years, its history, largely autonomous and apparently complete. It was not a team of Avengers, the readers knew, and as such, it allowed Bendis to play with expectations, to define the voices of characters rarely used, to darken the door of the most powerful heroes of the earth and to disturb one of the most exciting eras of Marvel Comics. As much as Marvel Studios is guided by the response of fans, a sufficiently strong vision makes a strong argument to give the public not what they want, but what the story needs.
When Marvel is Thunderbolts * was announced for the first time in 2022, many fans met the news with many reserves. Director Jake Schreier had not made a name with himself Beef (2023) However, and if he was known at all, it was for his adaptation of the novel Ya by John Green, Paper cities (2015), The Indie Science Fiction Dramedy, Robot and frank (2012), and various television works. We did not expect him to prove to be a visionary filmmaker, and he seemed to be another example of Marvel studios choosing allegedly cheap directors who were not ready to jump into the world of giant VFX battles while juggling with a multitude of unique characters.
There were grunts on the list featuring characters tried too similar to each other, and lacking heavy strikers like Red Hulk, Deadpool, Punisher, Songbird, Atlas, Moonstone and various other characters who have been members through the team’s many iterations. And above all, there was a confusion on the lack of Baron Zemo by Daniel Bruhl, who in the comics was the creator and the leader of the Thunderbolts. Although Zemo’s mission in the MCU was to get rid of the world of superpowering individuals, and he would not follow his characterization for him to do and lead a team of them, it was concerned that Thunderbolts * was just in the name. Instead of something that aligns with the comics, the fans feared that what they get instead to be a kind of … Suicide Squad.
Quite funny, and what looks like an intelligent passage on the part of Schreier and writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, Thunderbolts * is a kind of Squad suicide. Although unlike DC X’s operational force, the reluctant team, composed of the former murderer of the Red Salle Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh (Florence Pugh), the terrorist who has become the member of the congress who has become a vice shield shield (Hannah John-Kamen), and the former addict of manic methamphetamine (Lewis Pullman) are not at the mercy of being physically controlled by external forces which have placed bombs in the neck. Instead, these individuals are linked by unique cases of mental illness, depression and suicidal ideas.
At the start of the film, there is an overwhelming feeling that none of these characters is long for this world, and the early execution of Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) underlines it. End of Black widow (2021) gave her a new lease on life, with Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) stressing the freed widows that she has gone through more than any of them and to take care of her. Despite this, it is obvious that in the past released from her programming, she continued to work like an assassin because that’s all she knew. And as Yelena says Ghost, she did a lot of bad things and was killed by someone else who does bad things, a spell that awaits them all. What works in terms of Taskmaster’s death is that it is not a source of lightness (with sabretoth Deadpool and Wolverine), or a way to cause pain to another character (the death of Maria Hill in Secret invasion), but a way to simply count with the lives they have chosen and their lack of potential more.
It is surprising to see a film McU taking care of these problems in a way that resonates and feels honest with each character. Yes, we saw the sorrow given its share of examination, and phase 4 in particular revolves around sorrow. And the MCU does not lack psychological examinations, with Black panther (2018), Wandavision (2021) and Loki (2021) being key examples. But Thunderbolts * is clearer than what has been preceded. The film obliges the characters to face their shame, their lack of belief systems and their erroneous morality. The easy route would be to build the film around who will die and how. The announcement of Thunderbolts * the actors taking their roles in Avengers: Doomsday was accused of having spoiled the fate of the characters and of having removed the fascinating threat of death. But Thunderbolts * is not built on the number of bodies and the way the characters die, but how they can survive when the survival hangs on their list of priorities.
The void, a perpetual vacuum, is something they all feel and later receive a physical form when Bob is transformed into a sentry, and his secondary personality, the void is unleashed through New York. But the manifestation of emptiness in the individual sense varies from Yelena by trying to push all the bad things she has done by drowning memories with alcohol to John Walker pushing her wife and child and her feelings of inadequacy leading to overcompensation. There is a specificity to what each character deals with, and although the film is often quite funny, this never decreases the weight of what these characters treat individually and together.
Of course, in terms of psychological insight, the film cannot be everything for all audiences. Some criticisms have rushed against the solution of the film, in which depression and ideation are something that cannot be beaten, has only lived with it, but facilitates use by allowing others to help it with the weight of it. Thunderbolts * It is not a personal therapy session, but a film made for mass audiences. But the ability to balance the deeper and darker considerations of mental illness, as well as the delivery of a very entertaining superhero film, enchant the MCU and leave it from the Kingdom of Comfort.
Advertisement Thunderbolts * is outside the area of comfort may seem ironic because the void is finally retained by a group hug, and the ability of these characters to find comfort in each other. But for a frankness which frequently sees its bad guys meeting their ends by physical prowess, McGuffins and the destruction of the beams of the sky and the falling towers, Thunderbolts * Shake the MCU from its comfort zone.
He energizes the MCU in a way that feels comparable to Galaxy goalkeepers (2014), in which we have a group of misdeeds that are not moral bastions, or extremely intelligent, but are so clearly defined in terms of defects that it is difficult not to root for them. Or Galaxy goalkeepers Centered on Found Family, and also saw his antagonist defeated by the unconventional means of a dancing evening, Thunderbolts * is highlighted as a team of found friends.
This already distinguishes them from Avengers, who were colleagues with friendly relations (most of the time) but had the impression of being able to manage things by themselves when the time comes. But the co-dependent nature of these individuals has a lot of potential in the future. These are not the new fans of the requested Avengers, but they are the most exciting team to get out of the MCU in more than a decade. Hopefully these new Avengers continue to challenge fans’ expectations and fill a void in the MCU which lacks a group of outsider.
