Marvel's Thunderbolts Trailer Explained: The Team That's About to Reshape the MCU

The MCU is in a bit of a weird place lately. The Avengers as we knew them are basically gone following the events of Avengers: Endgame, and Marvel is still building towards the debut of iconic teams like the Fantastic Four and X-Men. This world needs protecting, and that responsibility might just fall on the shoulders of the Thunderbolts. But why are these washed-up heroes, former villains, and also-rans suddenly fighting together?

With the release of the Thunderbolts teaser trailer, we've gotten our first real look at the team in action: Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, David Harbour's Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost, Wyatt Russell's US Agent, Olga Kurylenko's Taskmaster, Florence Pugh's Black Widow, Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan's Bucky/Winter Soldier, and Lewis Pullman's "Bob"/The Sentry.

Paper Towns' Jake Schreier directs Thunderbolts, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige has confirmed that Thunderbolts will mark the end of the MCU's Phase 5, so let's brush up on the history of the team in Marvel's comics and why they could be a major game-changer in the MCU. These are the topics we cover here:

• Who Are the Thunderbolts?
• The Thunderbolts: The Origin of the Original Team
• The Many Incarnations of the Thunderbolts
• The Thunderbolts Marvel Movie

Who Are the Thunderbolts?

There have been many incarnations of the Thunderbolts over the past 25 years. There's only one common thread linking every version of the team in the comics - they're villains masquerading as heroes to further their own agenda. But though the various leaders of the Thunderbolts often have their own agendas, the team has a surprising habit of becoming a force for good. In the act of pretending to be heroes, the Thunderbolts often find themselves genuinely becoming heroes in the process.

Still, even at their most heroic, the Thunderbolts are more extreme and brutal in their methods than most superhero teams. The Thunderbolts' mission is best summed up by their slogan of choice - "Justice, like lightning."

The Thunderbolts: The Origin of the Original Team

The Thunderbolts were originally created by writer Kurt Busiek and artist Mark Bagley. Following an early teaser appearance in the pages of Incredible Hulk, the team made their proper debut in the first issue of The Thunderbolts in 1997.

Led by a mysterious, patriotic hero named Citizen V, the Thunderbolts make their debut in the aftermath of a devastating conflict with Onslaught. In this period, the Avengers and Fantastic Four have vanished (the premise behind Marvel's short-lived Heroes Reborn initiative), leaving a power vacuum the Thunderbolts are only too eager to fill.

However, despite presenting themselves as worthy successors to the Avengers, the Thunderbolts are hiding a dark secret that's revealed at the end of The Thunderbolts #1. They're all villains in disguise. Citizen V is actually Captain America's nemesis Baron Zemo. Many of Zemo's teammates are former Masters of Evil members using new costumed identities. Even 25 years later, that twist ending is widely regarded as one of the most memorable moments in Marvel Comics' history.

But though Zemo forms the team in order to win the public's trust and gather secrets about the superhero community that he can sell to the criminal underworld, the Thunderbolts find themselves warming to the idea of being superheroes. That shift continues even as the Thunderbolts are discredited following the return of the Avengers and Fantastic Four. By the time the team finally dissolves, even Zemo himself begins to flirt with the idea of redemption.

The Many Incarnations of the Thunderbolts

Though Zemo's version of the Thunderbolts disbands following the events of Marvel's 2006 Civil War crossover, that crossover also paves the way for a brand new incarnation of the team. After the victorious Tony Stark becomes director of SHIELD, Norman Osborn is tasked with leading a new version of the Thunderbolts comprised of incarcerated supervillains like Venom, Bullseye, Penance and Thunderbolts veterans Songbird and Moonstone.

That team is similar to DC's Suicide Squad in that it's a government-sanctioned black ops unit charged with hunting down heroes who violate the Superhuman Registration Act. Also like the Suicide Squad, the Thunderbolts are kept under strict surveillance and fitted with remote-controlled devices to prevent them from defying orders.