Thunderbolts Confirms One Thing We've Always Suspected About Marvel Movies

It is no secret that Marvel is not where it was before 2018. "Avengers: Endgame" was the perfect bookend of that whole franchise, but when the Marvel Cinematic Universe charged forward, the pandemic messed up any and all schedules for a cohesive release order. Then there's the Jonathan Majors scandal that completely derailed the plans they did have, and when you add that to Disney+ releasing more Marvel Studios TV shows than one could feasibly watch, the interest in the grand Marvel Cinematic Universe experiment has waned significantly in recent years — as seen by the box office results.

This makes the positive response to "Thunderbolts*" — like /Film's own BJ Colangelo writing a glowing review praising the movie's maturity — a much welcome break. Having seen the movie, however, one thing becomes clear about what makes the movie just such a fun time.

"Thunderbolts*" is based on the comic book antihero team of the same name, which is essentially Marvel's answer to The Suicide Squad. Here, the team is comprised of loser antagonists who weren't big enough to be killed or imprisoned, but not small enough to leave behind. We focus on Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) a Red Widow assassin, Red Guardian (David Harbour) the Russian Captain America, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamer) the woman who can phase through objects from "Ant-Man," U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) a super soldier who murdered a guy with Captain America's shield, Bob/Sentry (Lewis Pullman), a superpowered individual with a dark past, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) who needs no introduction.

It is a fun movie with a great sense of humor, some cool visuals, a third act straight out of anime, a poignant exploration of mental health, and of course, a great cast. But what truly makes "Thunderbolts*" shine is the fact that it's a team-up movie, allowing the humor and the drama to emerge from the dynamics between the characters. After watching the movie, it became clear that what we've always suspected about Marvel movies is true — they are better when they focus on a team.

There is a reason why many of the MCU's highest-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes are team-up movies, from "Avengers: Endgame" and "Thor: Ragnarok" to "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." Simply put, team-up movies are what make the MCU so unique and special. Sure, we had movies like these before in the "X-Men" series, but it wasn't until the post-credits scene of "Iron Man" teased The Avengers that it became clear that Marvel Studios was going to do more than just origin stories and standalone superhero movies. They were also going to bring heroes together and form teams like in the comics.

Outside of the Avengers movies, some of the greatest moments in Marvel movies have come from smaller team-ups, like Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) becoming a duo in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" or Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) facing off against Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen).

When these pairings happen outside of the big "Avengers" event movies is what separates the MCU from other superhero franchises, the ability to bring characters from different movies together. In the early days of the MCU, Black Widow and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) would show up quite a lot in a smaller capacity. Not as co-leads, but as more than cameos. Nowadays, this is rarer, with Marvel prioritizing cameos and building up to the big event movies.

And yet, the best recent movies are the ones where we see heroes team up. "Deadpool & Wolverine," though technically kind of separated from the rest of the MCU, was a monumental success because of the pairing of the two titular characters (and then because of them bringing a whole lot of Fox characters into the fold). "No Way Home" was not just a party of Easter eggs and cameos; it was a Spider-Man team-up like no other. "The Marvels" was a delightful adventure that worked because of its three leads, and there has been plenty said about the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies.

"Thunderbolts*" is not a groundbreaking Marvel movie, nor is it as great as the "Avengers" movies, but it does hit at a fundamental truth — Marvel movies are best when they have heroes (or even villains and antiheroes) teaming up.