Thunderbolts* is the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s latest film, and it’s honestly very, very good. If you’ve been staying away from the MCU, this is the movie to watch to get back into it. It’s classic MCU goodness in the mold of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Starring fan favorite characters like Yelena Bolova, Red Guardian, Winter Soldier, and John Walker, Thunderbolts* spins out of the events of Captain America: Brave New World, and gives fans an exciting superhero romp, all while dealing with things like depression, mental health, and loss in a very realistic way. Thunderbolts* has the goods, and has a chance to be the next big MCU thing if Marvel Studios plays its cards right. The Thunderbolts aren’t the most well-known Marvel team, but they have an interesting history in the comics, and there are some fantastic stories starring them and characters in the movie.
MCU fans don’t always pick up comics after they go to the movies, but Thunderbolts* will definitely make fans head to the comic store, because so there’s few MCU projects like it. There are some excellent comics that fans could pick up that will scratch the itch that Thunderbolts* leaves them with. These five books — most of them from Marvel, but one from DC — deal with some of the same ideas and characters of Thunderbolts* and are perfect to pick up after seeing the movie.
Mister Miracle
We’re going to start with the DC book. Thunderbolts* deals a lot with depression; throughout the movie, Yelena is dealing with the doldrums that have become her life. While there are a lot of great comics about depression out there, only one of them feels as real as Thunderbolts* does, and that’s Mister Miracle, from Tom King and Mitch Gerads. This book focuses on Mister Miracle, one of the New Gods, who tries to kill himself at the beginning of the book. What follows is twelve issues of perfect storytelling, capturing what depression really feels like, and telling the story of a person trying to find the love and light that life can hold. This is an amazing comic, with a brilliant twist ending that will have readers questioning everything they just read. Few comics feel like Thunderbolts*, but Mister Miracle is able to capture that vibe perfectly.
New Avengers: The Sentry
New Avengers has long been a must-read Avengers comic. It was the most important Marvel book of the ’00s, pushing the line along and establishing the stories that would lead to the biggest events in Marvel history. The Sentry was a member of the team, and there was a lot for the Avengers to deal with. The Sentry first appeared in his own series in 2000, and “The Sentry”, New Avengers‘ second story arc, tells the story of the Avengers trying to figure out how to deal with the Sentry, one of the most powerful beings on Earth, and his mental issues. This story, from Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven, can be a little slow-paced and talky — Bendis never met a story he couldn’t add pages of snark into — but the art is fantastic and the story is compelling. Fans of Thunderbolts* will notice some familiar things, and it’s one of the best Sentry stories out there.
Venom: Deathtrap: The Vault
At one point in Thunderbolts*, Yelena Bolova is sent to stop a thief at a facility out in the desert. It’s called a vault constantly, but longtime Marvel fans will know it’s actually the Vault. The Vault was the first major supervillain prison in the Marvel Universe, and like many supervillain prisons, there were all kinds of breakouts – the best one being a one-shot called Venom: Deathtrap: The Vault, by Danny Fingeroth and Ron Lim. The story sees Venom sent to the prison, and he’s able to start a breakout, with Captain America, the Avengers, Mystique, and her Freedom Force (working with the US government), all trying to stop the worst supervillains in the Marvel Universe from escaping. It’s definitely a hard-to-find book and deals with only a minor part of Thunderbolts*, but it’s a fantastic read.
RELATED: Thunderbolts* Post-Credits Scene Was An Incredibly Last-Minute Addition (& Here’s How Late)
Dark Avengers
The Sentry became something of a big deal in the mid to late ’00s in the Marvel Universe. He was a member of the casts of New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, and an Avengers book that I think is the best Avengers book of the ’00s — Dark Avengers, by Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Mike Deodato Jr., Mike Mayhew, and Luke Ross. Dark Avengers focuses on a team of Avengers formed by Norman Osborn after the defeat of the Skrulls in Secret Invasion (which was very different from the MCU version). Osborn chooses mostly villains for his team, including Venom, Moonstone, Bullseye, and Wolverine’s son Daken taking on the mantles of Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, and Wolverine (respectively), with Ares (God of War) and The Sentry being powerhouses carried over from the previous Avengers team.
This 18-issue series is amazing, showing how a group of villains deal with being the biggest team in the Marvel Universe. The Sentry is a very important part of the book’s story, and fans of Thunderbolts* will get to see some scenes that they recognize from the movie. Dark Avengers also has an excellent X-Men crossover — “Avengers/X-Men: Utopia” — right in the middle of its run. It’s the best of the best and fans of Thunderbolts* will love it.
The Sentry
The Sentry is one of Marvel’s most unique characters, and that starts with the story of his creation. Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee had just come off 1998’s The Inhumans, which had made quite a splash; for their next book, they created the Sentry, and Marvel came up with the greatest way to hype the book. The fictional and real-life lore got mixed into a story about the Sentry being a re-discovered Stan Lee creation that had never been published. This was how they advertised the book, and it got people very excited for The Sentry, where Jenkins and Lee are joined by Phil Winslade, Bill Sienkiewicz, Rick Leonardi, and Mark Texeira.
The Sentry tells the story of Bob Reynolds, an everyman who suddenly has memories of a superheroic life start to surface, while also developing god-like superpowers. As he’s trying to deal with all of that, and his own mental health struggles, a mysterious foe starts to attack the world, and the superheroes quickly realize that it’s all Bob’s fault. The Sentry is a brilliant comic; it’s hard to describe what it was like being there when it was first being released and experiencing the twist in real time, with everyone else. I won’t give up the twist — although Thunderbolts* fans will be able to guess at least some of it — but even after twenty-five years, it still definitely works. The Sentry is comic perfection.
Thunderbolts* is in theaters now
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