A Review of Marvel’s Thunderbolts
On Coddling and Despair
[Spoilers Below]
The people of New York City are minding their own business. Some of them are on their way to work. Others are headed to pick up their kids from school. All of the sudden, a crazy white guy with issues descends from a skyscraper to ruin their lives.
He waves his arms around and some of them vanish into a nebulous blackness. The people are disappeared arbitrarily, based mainly on whoever is easiest to grab. There’s not much explanation, no due process, only despair. The sad angry white man is hurting, so he lashes out at whoever is most vulnerable to his rage. Some crazy bastards try to stop him but he shrugs off their bullets because he has power and they do not.
When you have power, your personal psychoses are everyone’s problem.
Bob from Marvel’s Thunderbolts could represent any number of sad sick men. He could be Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has made himself a slave to ketamine and Twitter likes. He could be Donald Trump, the most powerful man in history, who uses his office to subjugate others instead of helping them. He could be the guy on the highway driving a Ram 3500, angrilying swerving the largest truck on the road because some dumbass dared to drive a little slower than him.
America is filled with sad sick angry men (most of whom are white) that hurt others just to feel in control. White men with mental illness dominate the Republican Party, and they hold immense power in present day America. Whether it’s Bill Ackman lobbying to get rid of Harvard’s first black president because she made him feel irrelevant, or RFK Jr. shutting down vaccine research because he blames the measles shot for his tiny penis – it’s their world and the rest of us are living in it.
That’s the key insight that Marvel’s Thunderbolts brings to moviegoers. If you want to live your normal everyday life, you better make sure that your local megalomaniac is having a good day. Your peaceful vibrant society is predicated on the assumption that those in power are suitably coddled. And, if they don’t get their regular hug from beautiful starlets like Florence Pugh, you better believe that you and your innocent family are going to suffer.
Because with enough power, men like Bob can act as gods.
The Law is no shield from Elon Musk, or Donald Trump, or any of the sad angry white men that currently wield power in our society. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Donald Trump must give a Maryland Father a trial before imprisoning him in a Salvadoran death camp; Donald Trump ignored the Supreme Court.
The Law said that the President needed to use the money that Congress gave him to prevent the spread of AIDs in Africa to prevent the spread of AIDs in Africa. Donald Trump ignored the Law, and Congress, and the spread of AIDs in Africa.
Sad angry white men control the military, the police, and every lever of power in the Federal Government.
Marvel’s Thunderbolts dares to ask “what if you can’t fight them?” What happens when you are too small and too weak and you have no chance of winning. Previous Avengers films would have told you to fight anyway. Steve Rodgers would have gotten back up; he can do this all day. But Marvel’s Thunderbolts are not Steve Rodgers. They’re not the Avengers. And they quickly accept that they cannot win the fight against Bob.
So what do you do when faced with a madman’s power? You can try fleeing, if you have the means to go abroad. Or you could freeze, waiting out the sad angry white men until Trump’s four years are up. He does have to leave office when his four years are up, right? Marvel’s Thunderbolts takes a different approach to white male rage – Fawning.
The Thunderbolts follow Bob into the shadowy recesses of his mind and give him a big group hug. They do their best to convince him, a man they all just met, that he is loved, actually. Their supposed admiration for Bob is transparently fake, generated in the spur of the moment because he has a gun to their heads. But he doesn’t care that they’re lying; just as Elon Musk doesn’t care that the women he’s impregnating don’t actually love him. The attention makes Bob feel good. And, in a world where Bob can kill whoever he pleases, that’s what’s most important.
Earth’s mightiest heroes, reduced to managing the emotional state of an especially powerful toddler.
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On the same day that Marvel’s Thunderbolts premiered, President Trump released his first annual budget proposal.
Donald Trump asked Congress to cut the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), which helps elderly people get food when they can’t afford it.
He asked them to cut International Aid Programs, which prevent poor people around the world from starving to death.
He asked Congress to cut the TRIO Programs, which help low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and people with disabilities to go to college.
He asked Congress to cut the Federal Work Study Program, which funds opportunities for 18-year-olds from poor families to work off some of their college tuition costs.
He asked them to cut the funding that protects our National Forests because he plans to let rich people chop half of them down.
He asked Congress to cut the money that ensures you get clean drinking water.
He asked them to cut cancer research and the office that prepares us for pandemics like COVID.
The list goes on and on and on.
The one throughline is that the President repeatedly asked Congress to hurt you. To hurt the Average American. And most of all, to hurt the poor and vulnerable.
We know that he isn’t doing this to save money - He’s endorsed a massive tax cut for the wealthiest people in the world, and that tax cut is projected to increase the Federal Deficit by trillions of dollars. He’s not doing this because he wants to be fiscally responsible. He’s doing this because he’s empty inside. And he wants you to feel that way too.
Marvel’s Thunderbolts has a solution for that problem. You should hug Donald Trump. You should tell him that he’s the best President ever. And that you love him. You should dance for him, monkey. Dance! Because he has the power to make you hurt. And there’s nothing that you can do about it.
That’s what major manufacturing firms are doing to score tariff exemptions. It’s what prominent law firms are doing to avoid federal sanctions. It’s what universities around the country are doing to retain their tax-exempt status. Across American society, people are submitting to the sick yet powerful. Battered Woman Syndrome is all the rage, nowadays!
At the end of the movie, Bob temporarily gets a grip, and returns to his skyscraper penthouse to read a book and relax in his recliner. One of his new hostages friends suggests that he could use his immense power and privilege for good. Bob explains that he can’t do that. His power is only for hurting people. But hey, at least he did the dishes! He looks at his prisoners teammates expectantly, waiting for praise.
There is no real resolution to Bob’s instability. He can resume his murder-spree at any time. But at least, for now, he is satiated by the attention he’s coerced from others.
An alarm goes off and the moment is cut short. Bob does not get the thanks he expected.
There is no punishment for misbehaving. There is no Nuremberg Trial. There is no justice, no peace, no hope.
The Thunderbolts and Bob will return.
(Overall, this is one of the better Marvel Movies - 8/10)