This article contains SPOILERS for Thunderbolts*

On Mar. 27, 2024, Marvel Studios revealed a new logo for the previously announced Thunderbolts, titling the movie Thunderbolts*. That simple asterisk launched numerous speculative pieces theorizing the significance of that little piece of punctuation meant for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 36th film. The importance of it was given even more weight following CinemaCon 2024, where Kevin Feige said audiences would find out what it meant after the film was released.

Well, now that the film has been released, the meaning of the asterisk has finally been revealed. By the end of the film, the team is dubbed The New Avengers by Valentina “Val” Allegra de Fontaine to an adoring public who saw these former killers and anti-heroes save the day. Now looking back, the actual name of Thunderbolts* was obvious, and the inclusion of The Sentry was a dead giveaway. Here’s how the Thunderbolts compare to the New Avengers in the comics, and also how Marvel Studios might be merging the New Avengers with another comic team.

Thunderbolts*

3
/5

Release Date

May 2, 2025

Runtime

126 Minutes

Writers

Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo

Franchise(s)

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Who Are The New Avengers in the Comic?

The original roster of The New Avengers in the comics included two past Avengers, Captain America and Iron Man, as well as new recruits like Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, and Luke Cage. The team quickly recruited The Sentry, Echo, and Wolverine within the first year of the comic. In 2012, The New Avengers were relaunched under writer Jonathan Hickman in his epic run that led into Secret Wars.

Despite being titled “The Avengers,” the comic focused on the mysterious, shadowy group, the Illuminati, and their mission to save the multiverse from incursions at any cost. Thunderbolts* post-credits scene jumps forward 14 months later and shows that the team is aware of some space issue, possibly hinting at more multiverse incursions and putting the team in a tough spot.

Thunderbolts* seems to combine two core concepts from The New Avengers comics. It takes the original run of being a team that forms in The Avengers’ absence, while blending it with the 2012 incarnation of the team that deals with heroes willing to make tough calls. For nearly 40 years, The Avengers was the comic that Marvel would put characters in that couldn’t support their own solo title. In that way, the idea of the Thunderbolts becoming The New Avengers is a fun inversion of the concept, as the team primarily consists of D-list supporting characters and villains from other MCU properties now becoming the most well-known name in superheroics.

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Why the Thunderbolts are The New Avengers

The idea of the Thunderbolts* being the MCU’s New Avengers was hiding in plain sight with the inclusion of The Sentry. Despite Marvel being coy about revealing who Lewis Pullman’s Bob was in the film, his identity as The Sentry had been known for some time. This was a dead giveaway to the team’s true identity, as The Sentry was a significant part of The New Avengers‘ initial comic series. Issues #7 to #10, from July to September 2005, detailed the untold history of The Sentry and his recruitment into The New Avengers.

Within the universe, positioning the Thunderbolts as The New Avengers makes a great deal of sense. The team, assembled in New York, fights a threat that no single hero could face, similar to the team in the 2012 film. It even took place in the exact location, as Val had purchased Avengers Tower and converted it into Watchtower, the central base for the Sentry in the comics, and the new base of operations for her newly created hero. Whereas The Avengers came together by Nick Fury to save the world, The Thunderbolts were brought together by Val, a sort of dark opposite to Fury, to die.

Laying it all out, it’s obvious that Thunderbolts was The New Avengers, and why this unlikely group of anti-heroes would make for the MCU’s New Avengers team. Yet it also appears that the MCU The New Avengers with another Marvel team, the top fan-theory fans had about Thunderbolts*. The team is both The New Avengers and The Dark Avengers.

Who Are the Dark Avengers and How They Influence ‘Thunderbolts*’

The most popular theory surrounding the Thunderbolts* title was that the team would be revealed to be The Dark Avengers. This was supported by the inclusion of The Sentry, who later joined The Dark Avengers after The New Avengers. Also, in the Dark Reign storyline, the Dark Avengers were spun off from the Thunderbolts* team that was formed during Civil War and Secret Invasion.

The Dark Avengers saw Spider-Man foe Norman Osborn / The Green Goblin adopt the Iron Patriot persona, create a new team of heroes made up of villains and anti-heroes passing as established heroes. Norman Osborn was also the head of H.A.M.M.E.R., the reformed and more lethal version of S.H.I.E.L.D., and was manipulating Bob Reynolds / The Sentry to use the Void as his ultimate weapon. The MCU has pulled a lot of elements from this storyline for the Thunderbolts*, notably subbing out Norman Osborn for Valentina, who takes the role of the person trying to manipulate The Sentry while also taking a team formerly called The Thunderbolts and parading them out as a new team of Avengers.

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The MCU team could not call this new team “The Dark Avengers,” given that it wouldn’t have looked good in the universe. Even in Marvel Comics, the team was publicly known as The Avengers, with the dark title only being a marketing technique for the comics, and also something the real Avengers referred to their opposing team as. While the Thunderbolts* might be called The New Avengers, they also have a lot in common with The Dark Avengers. However, unlike The Dark Avengers, this MCU Thunderbolts / New Avengers team seems to genuinely want to do good.

The MCU seems to have merged the concepts of The New Avengers and The Dark Avengers for Thunderbolts*. The title card says ‘New Avengers,’ but they are equally the Dark Avengers. Now that the Thunderbolts are going under the name New Avengers, can the MCU support two Avengers teams? Would a hypothetical sequel be called New Avengers? These questions and future answers make the MCU feel more exciting than it has felt in a while, and more will likely be revealed following Avengers: Doomsday.