Thunderbolts

The team’s first meeting is tense, awkward, and very un-heroic.

They all get sent to the same mission by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, but none of them know the others will be there. Once they run into each other, it quickly becomes obvious something sketchy is going on and that they’ve probably been set up. There’s a lot of tension, attitude, and mistrust — they definitely do not click right away. By the end, they haven’t bonded or anything; they’ve just realized they’ve all been manipulated into the same situation and might be stuck working together whether they like it or not—just a group of dangerous people who now know they’ve been played and may need each other to survive.

While navigating a secret facility in Kuala Lumpur, the team encounters Bob, who is released from a suspended animation pod. Bob appears as a confused, disheveled patient in a gown who seems harmless, timid, and suffering from memory loss. The team soon realizes Bob is actually the subject of a secret experiment (Project Sentry) funded by Valentina, possessing immense power.

Tue team helps Bob by acting as a support system that enables him to control the destructive Void persona. When the Void threatens to consume him, the Thunderbolts offer emotional support, affirmation, and connection, helping him regain stability and overcome his internal darkness. The team accepts Bob, which helps him regain control when he is overwhelmed by his traumatic memories and inner chaos.

Now, they’re still rough around the edges and definitely not squeaky-clean heroes, but they’ve gone through enough together to actually trust each other. The constant suspicion is mostly gone, replaced with a reluctant loyalty. They argue less to posture and more like people who actually know each other.

In simple terms: they don’t become perfect heroes—but they do become a real team. It’s messy, reluctant, and a little dysfunctionl, but it works.

The Thunderbolts' base of operations is the former Avengers Tower.

Yelena Belova is a highly skilled assassin and the adoptive sister of Natasha Romanoff. Trained in the Red Room, she becomes a Black Widow, later working with and against other heroes, and is known for her dry wit, combat prowess.

She was raised alongside Natasha Romanoff as part of a sleeper-agent family before being taken to the Red Room to be trained as an assassin. She is freed from the Red Room's mind control, helps destroy it, and later becomes a contract killer for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

She retains a sharp, sarcastic, and somewhat abrasive demeanor, often using humor as a defense mechanism to cope with trauma. Despite her emotional state, she remains highly capable, focused, and efficient, bringing a, sometimes cynical, professionalism to the team.

James Buchanan Barnes (Bucky) was presumed dead after a plane explosion, he was recovered by the Soviets, who brainwashed him and replaced his lost arm with a cybernetic one, turning him into the Winter Soldier. Captain America eventually found him, helped break the mind control, and Bucky began to reclaim his identity, sometimes fighting alongside the Avengers.

After his rehabilitation in Wakanda and his time with Sam Wilson, Bucky moves into politics but is forced back into action when he realizes the government cannot be trusted to handle threats.

While initially appearing as a government-aligned figure, Bucky becomes the leader of the Thunderbolts, a group of misfits and former villains. He sees himself in them, using his experience to guide them to fight for a, ultimately, good cause.

He is a complex character with a long history, serving as both a hero and an anti-hero, often struggling with his past and identity.

He carries the heavy burden of his actions as the Winter Soldier, yet he remains deeply protective of others and acts as a stabilizing force. Unlike his younger, more chaotic teammates, Bucky prefers direct, efficient action over complicated, high-stakes antics, often appearing as the "odd one out" in his grounded attire.

Robert Reynolds (Sentry) was a drug addict who gained powers after taking an experimental serum, leading to his schizophrenia and the creation of The Void. He is also a deeply troubled character with schizophrenia, whose dark alter-ego, The Void, is a manifestation of his own self-loathing and mental illness, leading to a constant internal struggle and a history of the world forgetting his existence for safety.

Godlike abilities including super-strength, flight, energy manipulation, and molecular control.

Despite his immense power, he is typically soft-spoken, hesitant, and emotionally withdrawn. He is afraid of his own power, as using it can trigger the Void.

Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian) is the Soviet/Russian counterpart to Captain America, a super-soldier identity with multiple bearers, most famously Alexei Shostakov, a Cold War-era hero who served as a Russian super-soldier He is known for his superhuman strength, combat skills, and a shield similar to Captain America's, often appearing as a patriotic, sometimes comically overconfident, figure. Red Guardian acts as a, often unwillingly, dramatic figure, recalling his glory days and struggling to find a new purpose.

Alexei loves to tell stories of his glory days and fighting Captain America, often acting as the loud, attention-seeking "center of attention". He is instinctive, emotionally driven, and occasionally prone to off-topic tangents, but he remains a highly capable and brutal combatant.

Ava Starr’s (Ghost) parents, Quantum physicists, died in a lab explosion that left her in a state of molecular disequilibrium, causing her body to uncontrollably phase through solid matter. She phases through matter and suffers immense pain, but is now stabilized, allowing her to control her powers and act as a deadly, calm, and precise, agent for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

She can turn intangible, invisible, and possesses enhanced agility. Her "Ghost" suit helps her manage her, phase shifts and reduces the pain.

Janet van Dyne provided a temporary cure in 2018. Before Thunderbolts, she has found a way to manage her condition with, more, stability.

With her health issues managed, she operates with higher confidence, sometimes using sarcasm, yet is capable of working well within a team. Fiercely independent, sarcastic, and following her stabilization, a more confident warrior who masks a protective, "softie" interior. Formerly a desperate, pain-ridden assassin, she now utilizes her advanced quantum-phasing abilities with precision, often acting as a team-oriented protector rather than a lone, reckless actor.

John Walker served as a government-backed replacement for Captain America, known for his more aggressive and extremist methods. Originally a soldier who gained powers from the Power Broker, he first became the hero "Super-Patriot" before being chosen to be Captain America.

He is characterized by his military background, combat skills, and a hot-headed, often violent, approach to heroism. a vibranium shield, similar to Captain America's.

John Walker was stripped of the Captain America title and dishonorably discharged after publicly murdering a surrendering Flag Smasher with the vibranium shield in Latvia. Instead of representing justice, he used the shield as a weapon of vengeance, breaking the moral standard set by Steve Rogers.

Unlike Steve Rogers, Walker's moral compass is heavily influenced by his desire to follow orders and achieve results, leading to "ends justify the means" behavior. He possesses an inflated sense of self-importance and feels entitled to the respect associated with the shield, often reacting poorly to defiance or criticism.

Walker has an "act first, think later" mentality, often resorting to violence.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is a master spy and double agent with ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, and Leviathan, often appearing as a mysterious, manipulative figure who recruits anti-heroes like John Walker and Yelena Belova. Originally an alleged Italian noblewoman, her true identity is Russian, and she has served as a leader in S.H.I.E.L.D. and even briefly as Madame Hydra, all while secretly working for her own agenda.

She recruits morally ambiguous, super-powered individuals—Yelena Belova, John Walker, Taskmaster, Ghost, Red Guardian, and Bucky Barnes—to form the Thunderbolts, a black-ops team designed to serve US interests.

Valentina aims to privatize global security, using the Thunderbolts as her personal enforcers to gain power and secure resources like vibranium. She recruits members by exploiting their vulnerability, such as framing Clint Barton for Natasha's death to manipulate Yelena, and exploiting John Walker after his fall from grace.

Facing impeachment, she initially sends her team on a suicide mission to eliminate evidence of her illegal operations, including the creation of the Sentry.

The team turns against her after realizing they were sent to die, ultimately forcing her into a position where they hold the leverage, controlling her to operate without oversight.

She is a sociopathic, power-hungry character, with her greatest weakness being the fear of losing that power.

the malevolent, dark persona of Robert Reynolds (Bob), acting as a cosmic-level threat that embodies fear, destruction, and chaos. As an unstable entity residing within a "Superman-like" hero, it feeds on trauma, often appearing as a dark shadow that turns people into darkness. The Void possesses immense power, capable of wiping out cities, destroying Asgard, and resisting cosmic-level damage. It appears as a shadowy silhouette with glowing eyes.

It is a psychological monster and "dark passenger" to the Sentry.

Yelena Belova and Alexei Shostakov.share a deeply complex, "found family" relationship rooted in trauma, betrayal, and eventual reconciliation. Originally posing as her father in a 1990s undercover mission, Alexei’s later abandonment of Yelena to the Red Room created deep resentment, though he retained a detached, nostalgic love for her.

Yelena believed the three years they spent in Ohio (circa 1988–1996) were real, making her feel abandoned when the undercover mission ended and she was forced into the Black Widow program.

Alexei calls her "sugar plum princess" and acts as a bumbling, emotionally distant father figure who tries to care for her in his own way, while Yelena frequently expresses irritation at his presence.

While she finds him annoying, they are depicted as deeply codependent, with Alexei providing a sense of home, and Yelena needing the emotional connection he provides to feel "complete".