'Thunderbolts*': Asterisking it All

The MCU's latest manages to feel both fresh and pre-fab at the same time

Thirty-six movies. As of May 2nd, 2025, that’s the Marvel Studios count. Start rolling now on ‘Iron Man’ (2008) and continue all the way through their latest, ‘Thunderbolts*’, and you’ll have watched something like three straight days’ worth of superhero shenanigans. Even absorbing these movies not over 72 unhealthy hours¹, but seventeen years — well, it’s a lot! All the characters to remember, all the motivations, all the friggin’ phases. (‘Thunderbolts'*’ rounds out Phase 5, allegedly.) Even the staunchest MCU acolyte could be forgiven for begging off at a certain point, and maybe finding a less scholarship-intensive hobby, like Catholicism.

At this point I’d describe my own relationship to the MCU as one of cautious curiosity. I’m a red-blooded American fan of The Postal Service who was 22-years-old when Tony Stark built that suit in a cave with a box of scraps — of COURSE I’ll always maintain some baseline investment in these movies², which have backdropped my journey into middle age the same way ‘Harry Potter’ backdropped my journey into adolescence. Millennials! We only understand the world around us through billion-dollar entertainment properties.

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**FYI: We’re going spoiler-heavy today, not just in unpacking the title’s asterisk (which isn’t a spoiler anymore when the movie has been officially retitled) but the full events of the movie. If you’re planning to see it, and want to go in cold, stop reading now!**

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Walking into ‘Thunderbolts*’ the other day, I couldn’t easily remember the last “Marvel” (-Tim Robinson) I’d seen in theaters. Probably ‘Guardians 3’, two years ago? I skipped ‘The Marvels’; skipped ‘Cap 4’. Before that I’d ignored ‘Doctor Strange 2’ and ‘Ant-Man 3’, all of whose subtitles I’m also ignoring in an act of disrespect. Point is: I was out of the goddamn loop, nominally aware of where the overarching Marvel “story” is/is going but arguably more interested in the one taking place behind-the-scenes, where a once invincible company — I believe the most successful film studio in history — was beginning to face the challenges and inevitabilities of middle age. Just like me! I’m ashamed to admit their “guys, this is basically an A24 movie” also probably worked on me.

To some extent, I don’t begrudge the MCU its interconnectivity. That’s the point, right? It’s the most essential part of its design, the killer hook that everyone else tried (and failed) to replicate. To say I’d love these movies “if only they were standalone” is like saying I’d love men if only I “weren’t straight.” I’m asking for elemental, impossible change. Even the best Marvels (say, ‘Black Panther’, or ‘Guardians 2’) buckle a little under the weight of the larger franchise demands placed on them.

By now you're aware that the asterisk after 'Thunderbolts*' is actually for *'The New Avengers', which that ragtag group on the poster up there will transform into (or more accurately, just be called) by the end of the movie. It’s not a spoiler! Log into the movie theater account of your choosing right now and you will see that this is now ‘Thunderbolts*’’ official title, as canon as ‘A New Hope’ became to the original ‘Star Wars’. On the one hand, it’s a marketing gimmick — since ‘Avengers’ movies dominate the list of Marvel’s highest-grossers, well, why not give this one a little titular acceleration? On the other hand, it’s something of an albatross around the neck of a movie that’s otherwise pretty good when it doesn’t have to dance on Kevin Feige’s strings.

I suppose in this strained metaphor, WE are Ultron

When Joss Whedon³ directed the first ‘Avengers’ back in 2012, he did so with the benefit of:

1. three main characters hot off their own feature-length introductions (and a fourth, Bruce Banner/The Hulk, who’d merely been recast)

2. another character (Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow) previously introduced in ‘Iron Man 2’

3. and a guy who shoots arrows, which doesn’t require much explanation

By comparison, ‘Thunderbolts*’’ math is… well, it’s complicated! Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) were all introduced in 2021’s ‘Black Widow’, released simultaneously to Disney+ and theaters. Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) showed up in ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’ all the way back in 2018. John Walker (Wyatt Russell), he’s from a TV show, 2021’s ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’. Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) was one of the 3000 supporting characters established in ‘Black Panther 2’. Bob (Lewis Pullman), he’s new. Bucky (Sebastian Stan), he’s Bucky.

That ‘Thunderbolts*’ works at all is frankly a miracle, given the tributaries it draws from. You’re talking about setup movies that are now four- and seven-years-old, characters no one cares about (I’m sorry, Ghost! Honesty is healing), and — as we talked about — the expectations inherent to any ‘Avengers’ movie, especially the first one since ‘Endgame’ back in 2019. It’s like asking your girlfriend to be your partner, mother, and legal counsel all in one.

And somehow… that relationship largely works here, if only because ‘Thunderbolts*’ remembers another crucial bit of Marvel’s original magic: casting magnetic performers and letting them do their thing. It’s not damning anyone else in the cast⁴ to say that this is thoroughly Florence Pugh’s movie. You feel it from the jump — the literal jump, in fact, as her stunt double⁵ she dives off a building in pure (practical!) ‘Mission: Impossible’ fashion — and all the way through, whether Yelena is depression-fighting waves of bad guys or delivering a casually devastating monologue about the way her life has flattened into one endless cycle of assassination, doomscrolling, and DoorDash. There’s a real human here, and it’s a testament to Pugh’s skills that me never having seen ‘Black Widow’ doesn’t even fucking matter.

Also worthy of Lifting Fog commendation: Lewis Pullman, who not only introduces the concept of METH to the MCU, but manages to play the superhuman manifestation of mental illness in a way that juuuuuuust sidesteps cringe. Again, it boils down to performance. “Depression is the real enemy!” has been done to death already, most recently in ‘Inside Out 2’ and ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ (which ‘Thunderbolts*’ shares more than a few very deliberate moves with, including its composer). But I don’t know — if I believe the guy bringing that trope to life, well, it doesn’t matter! Pullman’s got the goods. He passes the Lifting Fog Nepo Test®️.

I could quibble with ‘Thunderbolts*’’ jokes (I would have happily fast-forwarded through most of the “funny” sections), its pacing (especially an overlong third act whose time could have been up-cycled into character arcs for at least two more of these New Avengers), and its mediocre use of 3D (okay, this was on me for accidentally purchasing IMAX with Laser 3D©️ instead of just Filmed for IMAX©️ tickets). But instead, I’m choosing today to practice gratitude, and celebrate the fact that in 2025… I largely enjoyed a Marvel. The bar may be low! But we have nowhere to go but up*.

*’The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ flies into theaters July 25th, 2025!

1. which some sicko, somewhere, has absolutely done

2. to say nothing of Marvel TV! Which we won’t

3. RIP

4. except Sebastian Stan, who sleepwalks through this after presumably exhausting himself with two stellar performances last year in ‘A Different Man’ and ‘The Apprentice’

5. CORRECTION: Florence Pugh did this stunt herself! Thank you to Lifting Fog superfan Megan Ballew for pointing this out