Thunderbolts Features The Best Marvel Villain In Ages – Here's Why It Works

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "Thunderbolts*." Proceed with caution.

Maybe it was only fitting that the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first movie starring a bunch of antiheroes, antagonists, and outright superhero rejects would be the one to remember how to craft a proper villain. "Thunderbolts*" isn't the flashiest movie in the franchise to come around in recent years, nor is it even the biggest one in 2025 alone – that title goes to "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," to be released later this summer. But director Jake Schreier's scrappy little underdog movie (if that phrase can even apply to a blockbuster that's an unapologetic part of the Marvel machine) does take its tonal cues from the dysfunctional team in its asterisk-laden title. And not even these wannabe Avengers could have anticipated what kind of threat they'd be forced to go up against throughout the movie.

Thanos will likely top the lists of most fans for the MCU's top big bad, but "Thunderbolts*" adds a surprising contender to the mix in the form of the overmatched, unassuming Bob (Lewis Pullman). Of course, comic book fans knew that he amounted to far more than he initially seemed once he became the super-powered Sentry. But in the early going, only Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova even bothered giving him the time of day, perceiving him as an actual person while John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and the rest of the team only ever saw him as useless baggage. That, however, turns out to be the key to making the emotional arc of poor ol' Bob hit all the harder.

Like Yelena, the script itself (by writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo) treats Bob and his eventual dark turn into the Void as refreshingly human, first and foremost. When the final act rolls around and our heroes have to literally enter his mind to put an end to his destruction of New York City, the creative team has already succeeded where so many prior Marvel movies (and superhero films in general) have failed. By the time the smoke clears, the most unexpected surprise of "Thunderbolts*" is how it unleashes Marvel's best villain in a long, long time.

The Thunderbolts team might make rejection and disaffection look good, but nobody represents the sheer pain of being an outsider quite like Bob does in the quite moments he shares with Yelena. After the villainous and mysterious Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) sets up her various operatives to wipe each other out in the bowels of her secret vault, both Yelena and Bob are initially drawn to one another for reasons that neither quite understand. Yes, his memory loss, lack of physical strength, and obvious mental instability makes him a burden on the rest of the survivors. But, deep down, Yelena clearly empathizes with someone who was dealt a bad hand in life and was never even afforded the opportunity to take matters into his own hands.

Together, Yelena and Bob's arcs work hand in hand to become the beating heart of "Thunderbolts*" as a whole. The sequence set within the vault teases Bob's childhood trauma, particularly when his touch repeatedly conjures flashbacks and memories of each respective team member's own dark pasts. When all this culminates in their daring and explosive escape attempt, the script throws another curveball at us. Bob chooses to sacrifice himself in order to let everyone else get away, which then reveals his superpowers for all to see. Not many other Marvel movies would've then devoted as much time and space to Bob (who's real name is Robert Reynolds) under Valentina's manipulation, playing on the abuse he suffered as a child in order to mold him into the Sentry she envisions him to be.

But by depicting him as a character as opposed to an obstacle, "Thunderbolts*" sets up a harrowing final act that fully establishes Bob as the monstrous Void — a shadowy, inhumane mirror image of everything we know he really is inside.

Move over, Loki and Thanos, because another character has emerged out of nowhere to fight for the crown of Marvel's best villain ... and with much less screen time, too. While the franchise gears up to unleash heavy-hitting baddies like Galactus and Doctor Doom on us in upcoming event movies, there's something perfectly serendipitous about the most overlooked figure in "Thunderbolts*" rising up to steal the entire show. Although he doesn't cause the most property damage, slaughter the highest number of innocents, or threaten the biggest gods and superheroes of the canon, Bob does something very few others have ever managed to pull off: He feels real.

Honestly, the key to his role in "Thunderbolts*" is that he never actually feels like the true villain of the story at all. The closest he gets is when he's transformed into Sentry, dispatches the Thunderbolts without even working up a sweat, and instantly develops a serious god complex. But once Valentina's "kill switch" renders him as a literal shadow of his former self, it's painfully apparent that this is merely the end result of someone who has been nothing but victimized and taken advantage of throughout his entire life. Those suspicions are confirmed once he's reawakened as the Void and promptly turns all of Manhattan into shadows, including Yelena when she willingly allows herself to be swallowed up by his powers and thrown into a nightmarish netherworld located in his own headspace.

It's here where Bob's psychology is finally laid bare and Yelena is able to connect with him on a fundamental, human level. Of course a character wracked by depression like Yelena would be the one to break through to a traumatized individual like Bob, bringing him back from the brink with the help of her loyal friends. By confronting his own demons and learning to accept that he belongs (through an actual hug, mind you, rather than all the usual punching and fighting), Bob's redemption is as powerful and moving as any in the MCU — a testament to one of the most well-rounded and three-dimensional characters of any recent Marvel movie.

"Thunderbolts*" is now playing in theaters.