Thunderbolts

 Based on, but very unlike, the comic series of the same name, Thunderbolts is about a team of the most unlikely superheroes.

 

In the comics, it was Baron Zemo who saw an opportunity when he wanted to reform the Masters of Evil to step into the void the Avengers and the Fantastic Four left, presumed all dead, to get to power through public apporval.  And those weren't D-rank villains like the Suicide Squad...

 

But probably to avoid confusion with the DC team of convicts, the movie instead goes to unite some of the side-characters from previous Marvel MCU movies and bring those together.  The "new" Black Widow Yelena, Red Guardian and Taskmaster (also both from the Black Widow movie), US Agent (Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Ghost (Ant-man and the Wasp) and Winter Soldier are brought together due to circumstances.  

 

Bar Bucky and Red Guardian, they are all secret agents working for Valentina De Fontaine, who is trying to cover up evidence for the OXE "Sentry" project.  She sends them all to the same facility in order for them to kill each other, and Taskmaster is shot in the head by Ghost.  They find a guy named Bob there, and make their escape right before the room is incinerated.

 

When her troops arrive to take them out, Bob draws fire and is shot, but seemingly unharmed, before flying high in the air and crashing back to the compound, taken in by Valentina.  Her new headquarters, the Watchtower, is the former Avengers building in New York, where she figures out the Sentry project worked on Bob.   The group, now led by Bucky to stop Valentina and bring her to trial, face her, but are quickly overcome by Bob, now called Sentry.  As they manage to get through to him, his dark alter ego, Void, emerges and starts transferring people to a dark dimension made up of their trauma's.

 

Yelena enters his consciousness by stepping into this void, slowly getting to him and making him come to his senses.  His Void alter ego tries to stop them from getting out, but the others arrive to save them, and with their help Bob overcomes his inner darkness, restoring the city to normal and freeing the trapped people.  The moment they want to arrest Valentina though, she quickly flips it around in a publicity stunt, introducing them as the new Avengers to help protect humanity now as the newest superhero team.

 

In the post credits scene, they are discussing a trademark issue with the Avengers name with Falcon, when a signal from an extra-dimensional spacecraft bearing a large '4' signal comes in... 

 

Apart from the fact Florence Pugh is a joy to look at, this was a fun movie.  You can already feel the Thunderbolts are going to take the role of the Guardians of the Galaxy as the "comic relief" movies in the mCU, and with Sentry an absolute powerhouse has also been introduced into the franchise.  And we all know with that post credits scene who are coming as well...