Marvel just released a new film, Thunderbolts*, in theaters on May 2, 2025. It takes place about six months after
Captain America: Brave New World and follows Yelena Belova, who first appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Widow. She describes to the viewer what she’s been doing since she was last seen and leads us to our main villain, Valentina DeFontane. She played a small role in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, released in 2021, and during the end credits of Black Widow. She is currently under investigation for human experimentation to create a superhuman. She employs social rejects (Ghost, Yelena, Taskmaster, Walker) to get rid of the evidence and do black ops work for her, minus Bucky, who is now a congressman trying to take her down. Once they have destroyed everything, she has to destroy them since they count as evidence, though in danger, they all team up to survive and end up becoming a team to get revenge.
Bob. It might be the most reused word in the film, and gives us a deeper look into the potential Marvel has. Bob is introduced when Ghost, Yelena, and Walker meet for the first time. He has never worked for Valentina and doesn’t remember how he got there, but the group takes him in anyway. It’s later revealed that he was one of the human experiments and the only one to have survived the testing. He’s able to touch people and send them back to their worst memories or traumas, and he has layers. He and Yelena have a deep talk about feeling a void inside you and being tempted to let yourself fall into it; she offers that she just pushes it down, and later in the film takes this back by replacing it with the fact you have to let it out and find people who can help you fight it
together. This is one of the main subjects of the film. But Marvel doesn’t just leave it there, they make Bob’s “void” into a real person who becomes a secondary villain to the film. He is only a black silhouette who turns people into shadows and spreads darkness across New York, sending them all to their darkest memories. The only way to save the city is by all of the Thunderbolts entering the void and finding Bob to help him fight off his memories one by one together.
Bob is a symbol for depression and the process of healing with the help of others, as well as the fear of falling back into it without control. Marvel has
done something similar with having a deeper conversation about racism and the corruption in politics within Captain America: Brave New World. These qualities make Marvel so much more than just superhero movies. It makes viewers walk away with a new perspective on something real while having a fun time doing it. Fantastic Four comes out in June 2025, and so far from the trailer seems to dive into serious topics such as pregnancy and the pressure to protect the people around you. These movies could be what saves Marvel and brings it back to the legendary series it used to be.
