‘Thunderbolts’: What About Bob?

In an early scene in Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts,’ superheroes are in a futuristic warehouse, fighting one another. This fighting scene is important because it’s the first meeting of a new super-team that will be important to the MCU because, frankly, most of the other superheroes have left the series. This is who they have under contract.

We hear a burp from behind a crate. And into the scene, wearing a hospital gown, crawls a new character, doe-eyed and naive. His name is “Bob”, and we didn’t see him in any of the many Thunderbolts trailers we’ve watched over the last few months. Bob turns out to be extremely significant to the plot of Thunderbolts, so the team has to drag him along. We know his name is Bob because the other characters say the word “Bob” over and over again. “Come on, Bob,” they sneer. “You’re holding us up, Bob.” Even at the end of the movie, spoiler alert, they tell us that the team “and Bob” will return. Oh, Bob!

THUNDERBOLTS ★★★ (3/5 stars)
Directed by: Jake Schrier
Written by: Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo, Kurt Busiek
Starring: Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, Hannah John-Kamen
Running time: 126 mins

This is not Bob’s fault. Bob, played by Lewis Pullman, is essentially the movie’s second lead after Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, the sister of the late Black Widow. He has some charm and depth and appeal. But there’s a lot of him, and a lot of the other characters, of whom there are many, saying “Bob is back,” “here goes Bob again,” and so on, while having few character moments of their own.

The story of Thunderbolts, which seems complex but is actually quite basic, involves a Machiavellian CIA director named Valentina, played as a slightly-more-intelligent Selina Meyer by the always-welcome Julia Louis-Dreyfus, assembling and then trying to murder a gang of rogue MCU misfits. These are: Yelena, who is depressed after a lifetime of being an assassin, an uncharismatic warping lab-experiment called Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen, and a Captain America knockoff named John Walker, played by Wyatt Russell, who is so good he deserves his own movie. The Red Guardian, Yelena’s dad, is a Russian super-soldier played by David Harbour. He weasels his way into the team. Finally, since this is a Marvel movie, we have to have Bucky Barnes, the Winter Solider, played by the always available Sebastian Stan. They encounter Bob, and then the movie begins.

It’s a testament to how far the MCU has fallen that this is the best project for any of these characters yet. Ghost was in a mediocre Ant-Man sequel. We met Yelena in the morose Black Widow movie, same with Red Guardian. John Walker stole a bunch of scenes in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show. Bucky has been around through it all, so he doesn’t really count. I hope Sebastian Stan is enjoying his vacation homes.

Thunderbolts connects the dots adequately. There are some fun action scenes, particularly one where Bucky appears on a motorcycle and does some cool things. Pugh acts as well as she possibly can given the material, and I suppose the script has some poignant things to say about depression if you’re 12 years old and have never really thought before about why you feel sad sometimes. Louis-Dreyfus has some good quips, as do Harbour and Russell. It’s a watchable, likable cast in a basically crisp, unpretentious entry in the endless MCU saga.

But really, this movie is about Bob. It introduces Bob, it enhances Bob, it persuades us that Bob is important. Bob does appear in the actual Marvel comics, so this isn’t out of nowhere, but it still feels like a sneaky play. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a “Captain America and Bob” show on Disney+. The MCU loves briefly showing us characters who never otherwise appear in films, but Bob isn’t going to be one of them. After years of wandering in the post-Endgame wilderness, The MCU may finally have found its new pal Poochie, who will never return to his home planet. DC may be bringing back Superman, but Marvel is putting all its chips on The Fantastic Four. And Bob.