Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

The Superbowl was not fantastic for trailers this year beyond thirty second shorts. That being said, the Thunderbolts full length trailer helped Alasdair Stuart put some things together. Namely, that Marvel are embracing the mess.

The Mess

The Jonathan Majors situation. The joyless trudge of so much of the Multiverse Saga. The difficult second album syndrome post Endgame. The bad press anything they’ve released that’s dared to not have white guys front and centre has received. It’s been a rough few years to be Marvel, so much so that even Deadpool and Wolverine good naturedly dunked on their new home. Fans are tired, the folks making the movies are pushed to breaking point and as is always the case, the C-Suite executives are happy to blame everyone and everything that isn’t them. It’s a mess. It’s The Mess.

And I think the MCU is steering into it as a fictional entity. That line in the Thunderbolts* trailer about ‘The Avengers aren’t coming’ feels indicative of Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows, just skewed. Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows that the good guys won. No one knows what happens next. Superhumanity is a messy, ragged edged singularity breaking across the universe and if there’s connective tissue between the next two Marvel movies, it’s that.

The Celestial

At last, someone remembers there’s an enormous god corpse sticking out of the Idnan ocean. Captain America 4 looks set to establish this is how adamantium comes to the MCU which is a nice lead up for a possible new Wolverine just in case Hugh Jackman isn’t interested in playing the role until he’s 90. It’s also a smart way of, finally, acknowledging that Eternals actually happened and folding those events into the main timeline.

The Avengers

There’s a line in the last Cap 4 trailer where Sam mutters ‘Should have taken that serum’ that seems directly connected to the ‘the Avengers aren’t coming’ moment in Thunderbolts*. The Earth’s mightiest heroes are, we know, getting the band back together for two more movies but we aren’t there yet. Instead, we’re in, to quote The Expanse, the churn. The post-Celestial chaos, the discovery of adamantium, a new Captain America, new heroes, whatever the resolution of the Kang plot is going to be and Doom with Tony Stark’s face. The Avengers are needed. The Avengers aren’t coming, at least not yet. In fact, Valentina seems to have bought Stark Tower. That leaves a power vacuum, one that can be exploited. Which brings us to…

Bob

The Superbowl trailer seems to confirm that ‘Bob’ is the Sentry, a comic character created by Paul Jenkins, Jae Lee and Rick Veitch. The Sentry, real name Robert Reynolds, is an incredibly powerful Superman analogue. The original miniseries explored the idea that he had always been part of the Marvel universe but had been written out of people’s memories in a bid to defeat his archenemy, the Void. The Void’s shadow powers look an awful lot like the instant flash shadows we see being created in the Thunderbolts* trailer.

What’s interesting about the Sentry is that he’s created, at least at first, by a new Super Soldier Serum and that he eventually becomes a villain of sorts. There are hints of both in the Thunderbolts* trailer.

The Thunderbolts

That brings us to the Thunderbolts or to put it another way: three super-soldiers, a Red Room survivor, a chronic pain suffering thief and the world’s most terrifying human photocopier walk into a bar seconds before it explodes.

While the shabby vibes of this team of delightful losers are immaculate, what got me was the sincerity of the trailer. Not just Alexei’s completely open joy at getting to be a good guy but the fact Yelena especially buys into the idea that they can do some good, even if no one else is stepping up. Especially if no one else is stepping up. That shot right at the end of several of them, at least one of which doesn’t have superpowers, holding up an enormous piece of debris? Those are the heroes we need and deserve in 2025. So full. So filled.

Then of course there’s the possible alternate timeline and large hatted planetary gourmand in Fantastic Four. There’s a lot going on, in every way, across these next three Marvel movies and at last, if I’m right, the mess is the point. I can’t wait.

Captain America: Brave New World is released this week

Thunderbolts* is released May 2nd

Fantastic Four: First Steps is released 25th July