Thunderbolts is the MCU’s famous answer to the Suicide Squad. It brings together a group of reject villains who do the bidding of a single mastermind, and whether there will be good or evil, they get the job done – sort of. Like the Suicide Squad, the group is made up of small-time bad guys who try to do a little good. Hopefully, they redeem themselves in the end, but that isn’t always the case. Over the years, there have been a number of different teams and a whole slew of baddies (and not-so-baddies) that have been members.
The original team shunted their villain identities and disguised themselves as heroes only as a pretext to garner the people’s trust. Often they only did good ironically. Even their name, the Thunderbolts, was meant to be a crypto-fascist joke. The original team was put together by Baron Zemo, who was trying to reassemble the organization The Masters of Evil. But after being good for so long, some of the team’s members started to enjoy being heroes.
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After a series of complicated betrayals, a few super-villainous conflicts, and the involvement of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, the Thunderbolts landed in some kind of a grey area of justice, seen as villains by some and heroes by others.
Here are some of the members we think might be on the Thunderbolts.
The Original Thunderbolts Members
Marvel Comics
Baron Zemo assembled the first incarnation of the Thunderbolts. The team originally consisted of Goliath, Fixer, Screaming Mimi, Beetle, and Moonstone. However, the only one of these villains currently active in the MCU is Goliath, A.K.A. Laurence Fishburne’s character from Ant-Man and the Wasp. And even he isn’t the same Goliath as the Thunderbolts’ Goliath from the comic books. Zemo is still alive, but we last saw him at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier being locked up in the Raft, a floating supervillain prison in the middle of the ocean. So, we probably won’t see the same start to the MCU Thunderbolts as we did to the comic book Thunderbolts.
But there are other characters floating around the MCU right now that used to be part of the team at one point or another. Swordsman, Venom, Ghost, Iron Fist, and even Ant-Man were all members of the Thunderbolts. There are a lot of different ways Marvel could set up the revival of this comic book series on the big screen. Since, likely, their origin story won’t be anything similar to how it was in the books, it leaves the crew at Marvel wide open with possibilities to hijack one of the Thunderbolts’ plotlines and shoehorn whoever they want in there.
But when Marvel makes their movie, the original cast member likely to be introduced to the MCU is Moonstone, AKA Karla Sofen. The character has spent a lot of time with the Thunderbolts, having been a part of several iterations of the team even when it was led by several different people. She’s been a hero and a villain and regularly swings back and forth between the two.
She started as a mad psychiatrist who gaslighted her patients. She eventually gained control of an object (the moonstone) and gained powers somewhat similar to Captain Marvel with a few extra abilities. While she’s not the only option to add to the MCU, she has probably been part of the Thunderbolts most often.
Fan-Favorite Thunderbolts Team-Ups
Since the Thunderbolts were announced, fans have come up with ideas for an awesome ensemble. And there are definitely some fan favorites that might make the team out of sheer popularity. Remember, the writers will have to operate a little extra outside of canon on this one, so they probably wouldn’t be blamed for mixing and matching some of the teams. Right now, we’ve seen several characters who could make up the team.
A popular pairing seems to include the Punisher, Ghost Rider, Winter Soldier, Venom, and Deadpool. There’s always a Deadpool. Fans really seem to want Deadpool in the Thunderbolts, and who can blame them? He steals the show no matter what he’s in and has always had one of Marvel’s biggest cult followings.
All these characters have been part of the Thunderbolts at one point or another, and they’re all currently active in the MCU. Some other names that have had their membership card stamped in the past are Abomination, Juggernaut, US Agent, Norman Osborn (Doctor Octopus), Luke Cage, and Hawkeye. The team is certainly diverse and bridges a huge spectrum of justice, going from the very good to the very evil.
There are certainly a lot of possibilities when it comes to the Thunderbolts, and just like a lot of Marvel movies we’ve been getting recently, the best part will be the big reveal.
