Marvel’s Thunderbolts feels like a moment of deja vu. It began with a post-credit scene in Iron Man when Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) arrived at the Stark Tower to have a chat with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) about the Avengers Initiative; at least he didn’t have to chase him like Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) on the streets of New York. Now Contessa Valentina “Val” Allegra de Fontaine (let me catch my breath for a minute) is seemingly walking down the same path.
We (almost) knew why Nick Fury was so interested in bringing the world’s mightiest heroes together, but the initiative was a success, though we lost a couple of our Avengers by the end of the Infinity Saga. But Valentina? It’s still not clear to me what she is up to, but it looks like she will be the one pulling strings for the new team. And why is Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross coming involved, even as a cameo?
Valentina May Be After All That Vibranium

Going by the history of the character, she is someone who covets vibranium, and she dreams of the United States being in possession of the strongest metal in the universe. Being that she is a get-done type of manipulative human, and so are the Dark Avengers. Now we haven’t reached that part, but the Thunderbolts are usually seen as equivalent to the Dark Avengers, who hold a kind of similar attitude as Valentina.
It was she who arrested Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) for delivering classified information to Wakandans. Their underwater counterparts, Talokanils, already have huge deposits of vibranium beneath them, so she could be after that. The point here is that there might not be another ‘Avengers Initiative’ to bring together a group of remarkable people. She might be recruiting her personal hit squad for that matter. So if we are talking simply about Thunderbolts*, it will be Val herself, at least for the film’s runtime.
How Thaddeus Ross Fits Into the Picture

Thaddeus Ross didn’t really have any solid association with this team until Marvel NOW! came into the picture. Though the version of this team is entirely different from Thunderbolts*, other than Red Hulk, the team had Deadpool, Elektra, Venom, and Punisher in it. The Marvel NOW! story sees Thaddeus Ross leading them to be part of something Red Hulk has planned for Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader. However, the team later begins working on their own accords, as they don’t simply believe the big buy.
Now the path the MCU is heading towards appears the same but with different team members on Team Red Hulk. First off are likely to be the events in Captain America: Brave New World, where Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) will reprise his role from The Incredible Hulk, and a possible cameo of Red Hulk could mean that he too will try to recruit them for his plan for The Leader. To that end, if that happens, he will be no different from Val, as his version too serves as his personal hit squad.
And Finally, There is Winter Soldier’s Thunderbolts

Out of many storylines centered around the Thunderbolts team, there is one where James “Bucky” Barnes, aka Winter Soldier, creates his own team. But Zemo has to be there, given the antagonist leads an attack on this version of Thunderbolts alongside his Masters of Evil.
Sebastian Stan has already compared Thunderbolt*’s Bucky to Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He will be the one uniting them all, despite Valentina being the mistress of puppets. Bucky isn’t really a puppet type; he listens to his own or Captain Rogers, which is not likely to be the case here.
For more Thumb Wars Film coverage, have a look at some of the easter eggs you’ll have missed in the Uncharted film, or how Hugo Weaving actually played TWO roles in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, you just didn’t know it.
Anurag Batham is a Writer at Thumb Wars zeroed in on video games but will also throw himself up on anything in association with anime and cinema. As with his favorite video games, give him anything with a linear story, be it Call of Duty or Braid, and he will be happy. He think of stories as food and wants to feed his readers something nutritious, food for thought.