Spoilers below.
Perhaps you’ll find it hard to believe, but Bucky Barnes’s glow-up blowout isn’t the only reason to stick around for the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene. Marvel’s notorious addendums are, by now, so well-established as to have become an expectation of the franchise, but unlike a number of its recent predecessors, the Thunderbolts* stinger has some important storytelling to establish.
If you’ve wondered why that annoying asterisk seems to plague the otherwise straightforward Thunderbolts* title, the end of the film finally gives us an answer. The latest Marvel chapter’s official, official title is, in fact, The New Avengers. In the last scene before the credits roll, CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) attempts a much-needed PR spin after the spectacular failure of her Sentry experiment, which—rather than creating the perfect government-backed superhuman—thrust Manhattanites into the deepest, darkest corners of their nightmares. To save face, Valentina hastily reorganizes her press conference and seizes an opportunity: She rebrands the misfit anti-hero team previously known as the Thunderbolts—Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Bob Reynolds/The Sentry/Void (Lewis Pullman), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell)—as the New Avengers. They might not look like much, but boy, they sure can band together to advocate for mental health!
The Thunderbolts—erm, New Avengers—aren’t Valentina’s biggest fans. She hired them for her clandestine CIA operations over the years, then tried to have them killed. She awakened the Sentry’s alter-ego, the Void, then ran for cover as the team worked to rescue Bob from his catastrophic depressive episode. She mocked them, up until she needed them. But, as much as the Bolts would rather not work with Valentina, neither are they keen to forego thunderous applause when it finds them. They want to be heroes. And so they agree to become the latest rendition of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes…even if it means keeping Valentina’s failures a secret.
At last, the credits hit the screen, and the Thunderbolts* title card flashes before the audience, only to be ripped away like a comic-book page to reveal the rebrand: The New Avengers.
But as the stinger scene soon reveals, not all of superhero-kind is on board with the fresh honorific. In the refurbished Avengers Tower, now known as Valentina’s “Watchtower,” the players formerly known as Thunderbolts lounge about and lament the power of copyright law. Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Captain America, has filed a trademark for the Avengers name, meaning the New Avengers won’t get to keep their fancy suits for long—unless they’re ready to swim through an ocean of legal fees. Red Guardian thinks the simplest answer is yet another rebrand: Instead of the New Avengers, they can be the New Avengerz! With a “z”! Still, no one apart from Alexei thinks this builds much confidence in their legitimacy.
It’s worth asking: What team might Sam be building? If the Thunderbolts are the New Avengers, might Captain America himself lead a separate Avengers team? Will they be the Mighty Avengers? The Young Avengers? The It-Girl Avengers? The X-Avengers, composed of both X-Men and Avengers? Either way, there are already multiple super-teams at play here. Two’s company; three’s a crowd.
So when the New Avengerz become aware of an “extra-dimensional ship” entering Earth’s atmosphere, they aren’t prepared for what the satellite image depicts: a rocket emblazoned with a “4” logo. The Fantastic Four are en route to the New Avengers’ pad! Pedro Pascal, welcome to your latest mega-franchise, sweetie!
Although we can’t yet know if this space flight takes place before or after the events of the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps, we can be certain it spells trouble for The New Avengerz. Avengers: Doomsday is coming, slowly but surely. With this many heroes vying for a little attention in this economy, we can guess the turf wars might get ugly. And that’s before we even dare to think about the multiverse.
If Thunderbolts* is any indicator, the Marvel landscape might finally be about to get interesting again. It’s about time.
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