For years now, Julia Louis Dreyfus has been running around in the background of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. If you’ve been following, you know what she’s been doing: collecting damaged and used characters to work as shadow operatives for her own ambitions. Now we know some of what those ambitions were. The new Marvel film, Thunderbolts*, introduces us to The Sentry Program, Val’s attempt to create her own invincible superbeing. As comics readers know, The Sentry is a controversial character who has long been known to be the heavy in the new film. Thankfully, the film gives him a much simpler origin.
Two things were certain knowing the characters and cast of Thunderbolts*: the film would definitely use Florence Pugh’s scene-stealing Yelena Belova as the focus character, and it would have to deal with The Sentry’s mental illness. (I’m sorry if that comes as a spoiler to you, but it is the centerpiece of my review.)
On count 1… We encounter the normally banter-y Belova at a very low point. Like all the characters that end up in this movie, she has led a tragic life including severe childhood trauma. Her emptiness and depression introduce these ideas to the film, and it is The Sentry who really picks them up in a major way.
So, then, count 2… Val’s Sentry Program has—unknown to her—produced results. Well, a result: Lewis Pullman’s bipolar addict abuse-victim Bob has become the superman she had been trying to create. But, what happens when you empower a manic-depressive with unlimited superpowers?
The best comics films—like their sci-fi and horror cousins—are elaborate metaphors. Thunderbolts* is about empowerment (literal and figurative) and trauma. Each character is fighting a void at their center, and most can trace it back to a terrible childhood. Bob may not have been trained as a child assassin, brainwashed, controlled, or imprisoned in a lab. But he can stand trauma-to-trauma with those who have been. His abuse and mental illness are sadly banal. Such stories are everywhere in our world. Stories such as mine. And one form of empowerment comes from seeing your struggle empathetically dramatized in a Hollywood blockbuster.
But it’s a messy business. In our times of despair and anger and overwhelm, we can easily hurt our loved ones badly. (I did a little of that last week.) But when those people withdraw for their own protection, it can reinforce our belief that we ruin every good thing. Some attempts to empower us end up empowering our pain instead—they feed the void instead of filling it. What we need most is 1) for those we confide in to believe the extent of our abuse, and 2) for them to put all their efforts into understanding our triggers, wounds, defense mechanisms, and unmet needs. What we need is a true community that is ready to stand beside us in the danger and mess of our inner battles.
And that’s what this film is about. I saw it, and it was good.
And somehow, it saw me.
Great piece, Brett! I just read both your Thunderbolts* and Sinners articles and I loved both, keep it up!
I have also written about those two in case you want to check them out ;)