The Thunderbolts are back in Marvel Comics with a whole new mission and a line-up that resembles the roster of the upcoming Thunderbolts film, with Winter Soldier and Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine taking the lead and Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), White Widow (Yelena Belova), US Agent, Destroyer (Sharon Carter), and Shang-Chi along for the ride.
So how does the new Thunderbolts team stack up to the MCU version that's been slowly built over the course of films and series such as Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, and more? And what does the new team's mission say about what may be coming in the MCU?
Spoilers ahead for Thunderbolts #1
Thunderbolts #1 by writers Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, artist Geraldo Borges, color artist Arthur Hesly, and letterer Joe Sabino sets up the new team's foundations and its first mission. After taking down the villainous group known as the Outer Circle from within, Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, shows up with a proposition for Countess Val: help him assemble a team to kill the Red Skull.
For their first mission, the new Thunderbolts recruit Sharon Carter, the current Destroyer, and Red Guardian, who shows up complete with his own shield. And from there, the team does exactly what they say they're gonna do.
They kill the Red Skull.
Or at least, they kill Aleksander Lukin, former leader of the Red Room, whose body has been taken over by the Red Skull's consciousness. From there, they vow to track down and destroy the rest of the Red Skull's legacy, wherever their quest for justice may lead them.
As for where it takes them next, it will next take them into the crosshairs of the Kingpin, with Winter Soldier recruiting both Black Widow, who is currently Natasha Romanoff with her own symbiote suit a la Venom, and White Widow, the current comic codename of her MCU protege Yelena Belova.
Right off the bat, there's a big difference between the upcoming MCU Thunderbolts and the new comic incarnation. Though their rosters are fairly similar (more on that shortly), their missions are likely quite different, as the Red Skull is trapped on Vormir as the guide that leads visitors to the Soul Stone.
It's not impossible the MCU Thunderbolts movie will involve taking down a new Red Skull or even possibly his consciousness somehow returned to Earth. But that seems like a longshot, given what we know about the movie as well as what's rumored.
There have been whispers for some time that the plot of the film will revolve around the newly formed Thunderbolts taking on the Sentry, with The Walking Dead and Invincible creator Robert Kirkman seemingly leaking that actor Steven Yeun will play the role of the troubled hero.
Given the history between the Sentry and the Thunderbolts and the team's spin-off group the Dark Avengers, there's a strong chance the film will adapt those long standing aspects of the Thunderbolts comic books rather than echoing a brand new comic story.
What is similar to the MCU is the roster, which shares many of its members with the MCU version, including Winter Soldier, Countess Val, Yelena Belova, Red Guardian, and US Agent - the bulk of the rosters of both teams. The new comic version of the team seems to be directly inspired by the MCU version, though it still includes several members such as Winter Soldier, Yelena Belova, and US Agent who have their own comic connections to older incarnations of the Thunderbolts.
The new comic book Thunderbolts represents a return to the team's more vicious era as black-ops superheroes with their ruthless drive to deliver violent "justice… like lightning" to irredeemably evil villains such as the Red Skull. That's something the new team could have in common with the MCU version, as it seems that Val (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is recruiting her Thunderbolts team to deal with some level of imminent threat, potentially tied to the Sentry.
It seems entirely possible that the new MCU team could have a mission that revolves around taking out high value supervillain targets such as the Sentry, which would be another tie to both the newly launched comic book Thunderbolts, and several eras of the team's long history.
We'll have to wait till the Thunderbolts film's 2025 release to find out exactly what's in store when the team comes to the MCU. That said, we won't have to wait long at all for the comic story to continue, as Thunderbolts #2 goes on sale January 10.
The Thunderbolts MCU roster and new comic roster each include some of the best Thunderbolts members of all time.
