{"id":1190294,"date":"2026-02-17T06:36:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T06:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=567532"},"modified":"2026-02-17T06:36:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T06:36:35","slug":"what-thunderbolts-means-for-the-future-of-mcu-team-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/what-thunderbolts-means-for-the-future-of-mcu-team-ups\/","title":{"rendered":"What Thunderbolts* means for the future of MCU team-ups"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(L-R):
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can either choose to be intrigued by the playful asterisk at the end of <\/em>Thunderbolts*<\/em><\/a>, or you can be annoyed by it. Whichever side of that aisle you come down on, though, it\u2019s clear that Marvel hoped it would raise some questions<\/a>. Thunderbolts*<\/em> answers those questions in the form of a surprisingly fun updated title card that arrives as the movie fades to black.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That card leaves its own lingering questions, though, particularly about the future of MCU team-ups and the comics they\u2019re based on. Those are what we\u2019re here to answer.<\/p>\n

[Ed. note:<\/strong> This post contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*<\/em>.]<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve watched Thunderbolts*,<\/em> you know that the asterisk is there so the movie can pull off its final joke: The heroes at the heart of the movie call their makeshift team the Thunderbolts as a jokey reference to the lousy pee-wee soccer team Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) was in as a kid. But by the end of the movie, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine<\/a> (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has relabeled them as the New Avengers, leading to a visual gag where the movie\u2019s Thunderbolts*<\/em> title card is ripped away to reveal a title treatment for a New Avengers<\/em> movie. The problem for comics fans, however, is that \u201cNew Avengers\u201d is basically the most confusing team name Marvel could have possibly picked. So let\u2019s try to sort out what exactly it means.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Per the Thunderbolts*<\/em> post-credits scene, it seems like New Avengers is the MCU\u2019s name for this new superhero team, made up of Yelena, Bucky (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Bob<\/a> (Lewis Pullman), and U.S. Soldier (Wyatt Russell). In the comic books, however, The New Avengers<\/em> was actually the name of a specific comic series<\/a> that ran on and off from 2005 to 2017, and was about several iterations of alternate Avengers teams \u2014 the original lineup was Luke Cage, Captain America, Spider-Man, and a secretly-a-Skrull version of Spider-Woman.<\/p>\n

Confusingly, though, no version of the teams in these comics actually called themselves the New Avengers, unlike the Thunderbolts* <\/em>team, which seems to have officially tried to claim the name. With that in mind, it seems like this is a case of the MCU borrowing a fun name from Marvel Comics, without necessarily intending to follow any story those comics told. <\/p>\n

\"Hannah<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where things get extra confusing, though: In the comics, the Thunderbolts at one point turn into the Dark Avengers. (This version of the team was created and led by Norman Osborn, and consisted mostly of supervillains wearing masks and pretending to be well-known heroes.) In fact, many people (Polygon included<\/a>) assumed that the whole point of the asterisk in the Thunderbolts*<\/em> title was because this team would be revealed as the Dark Avengers in this movie. And while that\u2019s still very possible in the future of the MCU, it\u2019s also not exactly what happens at the end of the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And all this confusion is before we even mention that Thunderbolts*<\/em>\u2019 finale reveals that Sam Wilson, still acting Captain America after the events of Captain America: Brave New World<\/em><\/a>, is starting a whole other Avengers team that we don\u2019t know anything about yet. <\/p>\n

As disorienting as all this may sound, however, the good news is that it\u2019s probably all semantic. In the end, the only thing we know for sure is what\u2019s most important: Every single one of these heroes<\/a>, along with the Fantastic Four,<\/em> some very old X-Men<\/a>, and more<\/a>, will be teaming up against Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday<\/em><\/a> next year \u2014 whether we know what to call their supergroups or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

The New Avengers<\/s> Thunderbolts* is in theaters now.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can either choose to be intrigued by the playful asterisk at the end of Thunderbolts*, or you can be annoyed by it. Whichever side of that aisle you come down on, though, it\u2019s clear that Marvel hoped it would raise some questions. Thunderbolts* answers those questions in the form of a surprisingly fun updated title card that arrives as the movie fades to black.\u00a0 That card leaves its own lingering questions, though, particularly about the future of MCU team-ups and the comics they\u2019re based on. Those are what we\u2019re here to answer. [Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*.] If you\u2019ve watched Thunderbolts*, you know that the asterisk is there so the movie can pull off its final joke: The heroes at the…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1190295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1190294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Thunderbolts* means for the future of MCU team-ups | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can either choose to be intrigued by the playful asterisk at the end of Thunderbolts*, or you can be annoyed by it. 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