Marvel and DC Comics have been copying each other’s characters and stories for decades. DC Comics has Bumblebee, Marvel has Wasp. Marvel has Ant-Man, DC Comics has Atom. DC Comics has Aquaman, Marvel has Namor. Marvel has Thanos, DC Comics has Darkseid. DC Comics has Green Lantern, Marvel has Captain Marvel. You get the memo. If one company makes a character or a storyline that’s working the other company jumps on the bandwagon as soon as possible.

The DCEU beat Marvel Studios at the punch with Wonder Woman but then Marvel Studios would come back two years later with Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel would go on to make the most money of the two, earning over a billion dollars at the box office. Marvel Studios however made Black Panther and are now about to unleash Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings onto the world while the DCEU don’t seem anywhere close to making a solo film featuring a predominant POC cast featuring a POC hero.

Now there’s The Suicide Squad, a film essentially made twice featuring a band of bad guys having to save the world from a terrible threat. 2016’s Suicide Squad was a flop but it got people still wanting more from DC Comics’ band of evil (or misguided) misfits. In steps James Gunn to take the reins.

Now The Suicide Squad is being touted by critics as a “must-see” and “James Gunn’s best film.” That’s not a surprise considering that he’s the mind behind Guardians of the Galaxy which is still considered to be one of the best comic book movies of all time.

Considering that fans are liking the idea of bad guy-teams having to save the day, it looks like Marvel Studios is building their own villain-crew to take over the big screen in a few years and they’re called the Thunderbolts.

The Thunderbolts, led by Baron Zemo, are a team of bad guys who take over as an Avengers-type team when the actual Avengers are believed to be killed. With The Avengers gone, Zemo and his team of Thunderbolts saved the world from villains and pretended to be good guys…until The Avengers returned from the dead, so to speak. That was when the Thunderbolts became villains again and they fought The Avengers.

I think that’s how the story goes.

Anyway, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus now entering the MCU and having been in two installments already it’s very clear that she’s building herself a team, of sorts.

Here are the current characters in the MCU who I think could be part of the Thunderbolts; Zemo is in the Raft, Ghost is somewhere but we will definitely be seeing her again, Yelena Belova has now been established in the MCU, Hawkeye, in the comics, was part of the Thunderbolts, and then there’s John Walker a.k.a U.S Agent.

I think Moonstone is about to make her MCU debut in The Marvels, played by Zawe Ashton. Is she is, indeed, Moonstone then that’s just another character who’s known to be one of the major Thunderbolts members.

What seems very apparent is that these next phases seem to be setting up multiple Avengers-level squads. We’ll have The Avengers which will be the core group of heroes facing the bigger threats in the MCU. I have a feeling we’ll have the X-Men sooner or later which, of course, are their own team. The Young Avengers are definitely being assembled with so many core members of the team appearing in the franchise over the last couple of years; Cassie Lang/Stature, Kate Bishop/Hawkeye, Tommy/Wiccan and Billy/Speed Maximoff, Kid Loki, Eli Bradley/Patriot, Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel, and America Chavez.

The Young Avengers are about to come to fruition and that’s going to be awesome!

All in all, Marvel Studios is only about to get bigger and better and I’m here for all of it.

I thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.