Zemo Can Make Thunderbolts The Suicide Squad Of MCUs Phase 4

Zemo Can Make Thunderbolts The Suicide Squad Of MCU’s Phase 4

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With the Avengers in disarray after Endgame, it’s the perfect time for Falcon & The Winter Soldier to plant the seeds for Zemo’s Thunderbolts team.

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Zemo Can Make Thunderbolts The Suicide Squad Of MCUs Phase 4

Helmut Zemo’s return gives him an opportunity to introduce the Thunderbolts and make them the equivalent of the Suicide Squad in the MCU Phase 4. First introduced in Captain America: Civil War as the mastermind behind the conflict, Zemo is one of the few MCU villains still alive by the end of their movie, setting up a return down the road. Sure enough, he will play a major role in the upcoming The Falcon & Winter Soldier series on Disney+. But his appearance in that show sets him up for an even larger role moving forward.

The recent Super Bowl trailer for Falcon & Winter Soldier, dropped during this year’s Big Game, positions Zemo in a significant light. He hasn’t given up villainy after losing in Civil War, hasn’t seen the error of his ways or that his anger at the Avengers is misplaced. Instead, his scope has become larger, his plans grander. Instead of tearing apart just the Avengers, he’s now focused on ridding the world of superheroes in general. “Superheroes…can not be allowed to exist,” he says in a voiceover.

If the MCU version of Zemo is anything like the one in the comic books, however, his ultimate plan may not be as straightforward as wiping all superheroes off the map. Instead, he could very well be playing a long game, continuing what he started in Civil War and getting public perception to finally, completely turn against superheroes once and for all. He could do it in MCU’s Phase 4 with his Thunderbolts team from the comics, which has the potential to be Marvel’s equivalent of the DCEU’s Suicide Squad.

The Thunderbolts’ Comic Origins Align With Zemo’s MCU Strategy

Zemo Can Make Thunderbolts The Suicide Squad Of MCUs Phase 4

In the comics, the Thunderbolts weren’t a straightforward superhero team, nor a supervillain team. The very first issue they ever appeared in, Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley’s The Incredible Hulk #449, initially framed the Thunderbolts as another superhero team like the Avengers. However, the end of the first issue revealed that the Thunderbolts were really Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil in disguise.

It was all part of Zemo’s new plan to take out the good guys from the inside. After the Avengers and Fantastic Four had been declared dead in the wake of the “Onslaught” crossover event, there was a power vacuum. Zemo quickly realized that if he and his team positioned themselves as superheroes (which the world did actually need), they could step into the role left by the Avengers. After gaining the trust of the public and government alike, his plan was to then gain access to all the knowledge the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. had and sell it to other criminals on the black market.

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Zemo’s strategy of misdirection and working multiple angles in the comics is quite similar to his strategy thus far in the MCU. The exact plan may have differed, but that instinct to work from behind an assumed identity in order to tear the Avengers apart from the inside is still very much the same. In the wake of Avengers: Endgame, the Avengers – and superheroes in general – are very much in disarray. Captain America is retired. The new Captain America, Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, is trying to figure it out, as is Winter Soldier. Black Widow, Iron Man and Vision are dead. Bruce Banner is now Smart Hulk and semi-retired. Scarlet Witch is currently dealing with her own things in WandaVision. Spider-Man has basically become public enemy #1 after being outed by J. Jonah Jameson. Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain Marvel are all off-world. If there ever were a time for a new “superhero” group to step into the vacuum and take control, it would be in the months immediately after Endgame.

Some Thunderbolts Characters Are Already In The MCU

Zemo Can Make Thunderbolts The Suicide Squad Of MCUs Phase 4

As with any superhero team lineup in the MCU, the characters are likely to be modified somewhat from the exact same lineup in the comics. Still, there are already a few key players in the Thunderbolts comics already in the MCU, both from the original iteration of the team and subsequent ones, including Thunderbolts founder Zemo himself, Winter Soldier, Thaddeus Ross, a.k.a. Red Hulk, who has been confirmed to be appearing in Black Widow, Deadpool, Hawkeye and others.

However, the most recent incarnation in the comics, formed during 2020’s “King in Black” crossover event, has some particularly interesting names on the roster, namely Taskmaster, who will be introduced in Black Widow and Batroc the Leaper, who will be returning in Falcon & Winter Soldier with Zemo. Unless Batroc’s role is another brief appearance like his cameo in Captain America: Winter Soldier, it’s likely that the two villains will cross paths at some point, or that Batroc is even working for Zemo outright as the mastermind’s muscle. The seeds of Zemo’s Masters of Evil (and thus, the Thunderbolts), are already there in the MCU, or soon will be, albeit with a slightly different configuration than the comics.

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The Thunderbolts Could Become The MCU’s Suicide Squad

The Thunderbolts didn’t actually stay villains in the comics, and that’s important. Initially, the Masters of Evil in disguise were all in on Zemo’s plan to take down the world of superheroes from the inside. However, when they initially found great success posing as superheroes, for the first time they found themselves being adored rather than feared. As time went on, more of Zemo’s team started viewing themselves not as supervillains playing a part in an evil plot, but as former supervillains who had been redeemed and wanted to do the right thing. When Zemo betrayed them, the majority of the Thunderbolts turned on him, overthrowing their former leader and striking out on their own.

Over time, the Thunderbolts morphed into something that was closer to a team of antiheroes, attracting a mix of former villains who wanted to redeem themselves and superheroes who had to go underground as fugitives. In that way, they eventually became something akin to a counterpart to DCEU’s Suicide Squad, true antiheroes who get the job done. They’re far from squeaky clean, often aligning themselves with supervillains to complete their missions, and, in some iterations, even wanting to usurp the Avengers and other superhero groups. It’s the right time for Zemo and his Thunderbolts to serve the same purpose in Marvel’s movie universe.

Introducing a group like the Thunderbolts to the MCU would give Marvel something it hasn’t yet had. While the superheroes have certainly argued and split into factions, their intentions have always been rooted in noble motivations. The morally gray Thunderbolts, however, would be an interesting foil for the Avengers and even the Guardians of the Galaxy. A team like that could serve to point out the ways in which the Avengers’ overall rigid moral code sometimes holds them back from accomplishing their goals, or how crossing a line is sometimes the only way to get something done for the greater good. It would give superheroes-turned-fugitives like Winter Soldier and Hawkeye a new team to lead after their individual series. There’s certainly room to play in the MCU Phase 4 with more of the gray area in between the black and white. Now that the Avengers’ legacy as a team has been preserved, it might be time for a new kind of team like the Thunderbolts to take center stage.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/zemo-thunderbolts-suicide-squad-mcu-phase-4-equivalent/

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