I've been sitting on this article for something like three years. With the way things played out on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier as well as Black Widow, I feel now's the time I have to just blurt it all out there and get these thoughts down before they end up happening.
It's been clear for a while now that we'd see some incarnation of The Thunderbolts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When, how, where and who, though, is still entirely up in the air, even though it seems it's actively in development and the groundwork has been laid.
Between Thunderbolt Ross, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and a few other characters, if this isn't happening in the next few years, it'll be beyond shocking.
So before all the dust settles and everything is revealed, I'd love to toss out my ideas of which characters I'd like to see be part of The Thunderbolts team in the MCU, made up of characters we've already seen and those that haven't popped up yet.
Characters We've Already Seen
Thunderbolt Ross = Duh. Look at the name. He's the guy in charge. I don't know if I'd go Red Hulk with him, though.
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine = To be honest, she never would have popped up on my radar if I had written this a few years back. I'm not as well-versed in the comics as some others, so I didn't even know she existed.
John Walker / U.S. Agent = Duh. He was an absolute necessity for this as the dark version of Captain America.
Yelena Belova / Black Widow = Duh. Out of the bunch, I think I'd like to see her go flat out good and maybe break out of the team and join the proper Avengers.
Baron Zemo = After his performance in the Disney+ series, it seems even more so they'll go with the idea that he's a mastermind strategist and one of the leaders of the team.
Taskmaster = With those fighting skills and the warped nature of the character, this is a no-brainer.
Ava Starr / Ghost with Bill Foster / Goliath = Ghost and Bill Foster were involved in similar things in the past. Now that she's gotten her abilities more in check, she would be a great asset for stealth missions and has a questionable morality. Foster could stick around as a member of the team's science division behind the scenes. Perhaps, they can even bring Erik Josten into the mix as Goliath, making him a protege of Foster's (and maybe even a love interest for Ava Starr if you want to go down that route)
Emil Blonsky / Abomination = "We have a Hulk." No you don't. But you have an Abomination. Emil Blonsky would certainly sign up for a mission like this, given his time serving in the military and volunteering for the experimental procedures that turned him into the monster in the first place.
Justin Hammer = Basically, treat him like one of the science advisors, too.
Honorable Mentions = Bullseye from the Netflix Daredevil show could have worked, but it seems like that's being tossed out of continuity. Shame, cause Trish Walker's Hellcat could have been a decent fit, too. I wouldn't be opposed to Tinkerer joining the team, but I think we have enough non-active science guys already. That's why I rule out The Leader, too. If anything, maybe he could be the villain.
New Characters to Debut
Abner Jenkins / Beetle = Beetle is more interesting to me than MACH-I and such. Basically, make him your Iron Man. You can even play off that with his suits being "Beetle armor Mach-I" and such.
Simon Williams / Wonder Man = This may be a stretch, but I just have no idea where this guy can fit in the MCU, so I figured I'd toss his name out here for this list. He's far from the most heroic membef of the Avengers team and this might be a fitting start for him.
Trick Shot = It's too silly to make him Clint Barton's older brother. Instead of Charles Bernard "Barney" Barton, maybe they should go with just "Charles Bernard" or something. Essentially, he's just "Evil Hawkeye" from what I understand. That's good enough to make him a one-off or something.
Melissa Joan Gold / Songbird = Frankly, I know almost nothing about the character. However, it's nice to introduce some new people to the mix and it wouldn't hurt to have another woman on the squad. Her sonic powers are different from everyone else's gimmicks, too.
Someone with magic = I have no idea who. I'd love to hear some suggestions. But it would be interesting to get someone like a Baron Mordo type who isn't Baron Mordo, as he should just be a straight-up villain and I can't picture him fitting in here.
Sacrificial Lambs = If this is basically Suicide Squad, let's put some characters that are low-rent and toss them out there for fodder so people can die and it ups the stakes. I don't know any of these characters, so forgive me if they're actually awesome, but a quick glance on the Thunderbolts members wiki page shows a few that I'd imagine could be throwaways. Boomerang, for instance, wouldn't be much of a presence anywhere in the series, I'm sure. Who is Centurius? Metal Master? Paladin? Headsman? Nighthawk? So on and so forth. I'm sure there are a ton of other barely known characters even deeper in the lore that could be drummed up for crash test dummies, so to speak.
WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE AS THE THUNDERBOLTS IN THE MCU?
TELL US YOUR IDEAS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
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