In the Dark Reviews

Grant Morrison, who's written some of my favorite superhero comics, has frequently advanced the idea of superhero characters, and even entire superhero universes, attaining self-awareness about their status as fictional storytelling constructs.

It's an admittedly heady concept, but it's the first thing I thought of while watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Thunderbolts*," because Florence Pugh plays mercenary assassin Yelena Belova - the MCU's surviving Black Widow, in the wake of Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff dying in 2019's "Avengers: Endgame" - like she's a self-aware avatar of the MCU itself.

Just as a number of critics and former fans have accused the MCU of doing, in the wake of "Endgame," Yelena is just sort of soullessly going through the motions, in the absence of the Avengers, carrying out missions that she doesn't really believe in, and that she's not particularly proud of, simply to stay in practice.

But to CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine - played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus as an even more ruthlessly power-hungry version of her Selina Meyer character from HBO's "Veep" - Yelena and a number of other characters are merely loose ends, in need of tidying up.

This includes unsuccessful substitute Captain America John Walker, last seen in 2021's "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" on Disney+, whom Wyatt Russell continues to play with an appealingly off-putting presumptive impatience and arrogance, and Lewis Pullman as the initially amiable yet enigmatic "Bob," whom comics fans should soon recognize.

Without spoiling the misadventures that follow, our ragtag band of misfits and outcasts eventually expands to include Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, who's feeling ineffectual and out of his depth as a freshman member of Congress, and David Harbour of "Stranger Things," reprising his role from 2021's "Black Widow" as the has-been Soviet super-soldier Alexei Shostakov, a.k.a. the Red Guardian.

As much as none of these characters, except for Alexei, want to be working together, what ironically unites them is their shared self-awareness that none of them are anyone's favorites.

Just as many MCU fans have drifted from the franchise, as Chris Evans' Steve Rogers and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark have retired from it, so too do all of the "Thunderbolts" seem to labor under the sentiment so famously expressed by the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia:

"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."

Bucky seems equally embarrassed of being a Congressman and becoming the de facto leader of this mismatched team, while Walker's bravado masks his shame at failing as badly in his personal life as he did as Captain America.

Hannah John-Kamen, reprising her role as Ava Starr, a.k.a. Ghost from 2018's "Ant-Man and the Wasp," is insulted when Yelena tells her, "You're not a hero. You're not even a good person," but neither does she even bother to argue the point.

As for Bob, his sense of self-worth is so catastrophically low that he's willing to sacrifice himself for people he's barely even met.

Even though it's intentionally pathetic how Alexei imagines he was a far bigger deal as the Red Guardian than he actually was, his never-say-die enthusiasm and fast fondness for his suddenly acquired comrades-in-arms is remarkably touching and uplifting.

Yes, he qualifies as a loser, even among these other losers, but Harbour's Alexei is inspiring in his determination to go down fighting, in order to help out others however he can, and it gives Yelena the heart to help all of our unloved warriors heal from their emotional wounds.

Florence Pugh has long since demonstrated a Carey Mulligan-style capacity for carrying the weight of a leading lady role, but audiences shouldn't sleep on Wyatt Russell or Lewis Pullman, both of whom show signs of their famous fathers' talents (cowboy-tough Kurt Russell and the literally irreplaceable Bill Pullman, respectively).

In particular, Lewis Pullman's twitchy diffidence brings a sensitivity and vulnerability to Bob that not even his comics counterpart possessed, which manages to make credible this film's reliance upon a "Care Bear Stare" for its resolution, of the sort that Kurt Busiek would have written in his best issues of the "Avengers" comics.

Given how certain critics have reflexively labeled the superhero genre as "crypto-fascist," it's always worthwhile when we see heroes prevailing, less because of their inherent might or super-powers, and more because they take the time to care about others.

The post-credits scene was amusing, but felt like a bit of a damp squib, although it did tease a long-awaited set of superheroes, making their impending premiere in the MCU.

Author Bio

Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
kboxleitner@masoncounty.com