Super Scenes: You're Not Alone
Confronting the darkness in the you are not alone scene of "Thunderbolts*" (2025)
I am currently moving, which takes up a ton of time as everyone knows. It’s not keeping me from reading or writing but when it comes to the few pieces I’m working on that require extensive research it’s tough to juggle it all. In that interest, welcome back to Super Scenes, the short form cape media series! I’ve been working on myself the past few years and it’s finally begun paying off. At least for this season of life, I’m feeling genuine community. I have several groups of people who love me and are genuinely happy to see me. Might not last forever, nothing does, but that feeling of having others to help me transcend my depression is quite nice! Few comic films capture that feeling quite like Jake Schreier’s “Thunderbolts*”. The Guardians of the Galaxy films nail that feeling as well and I am eager to give my thoughts on them in the future. For today however, let’s take a look at “Thunderbolts*” emotional peak and see how found family can help you fight your darkness.
“Thunderbolts*” is a super simple film in its premise. A ragtag team of hero adjacent mercenaries, despite their differences, team up to take down their former boss and stop her from turning their friend into a super-weapon. The team? Black Widow Yelena Belova, US Agent John Walker, Red Guardian Alexei Shostakov, Ghost Ava Starr and former Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes. The friend? The Sentry Robert Reynolds. Introduced in the pages of The Sentry #1 (2000) by Paul Jenkins, Robert is a metafictional character who retcons the Marvel universe as if he has existed since the 50s as one of Earth’s first heroes. The catch? The super serum that grants him the power of a million exploding suns also created a twisted alter ego that can manifest and take over Bob’s body to dish out death and destruction. Known as The Void, this alter ego of isolation, and malevolence will stop at nothing to plunge the world into darkness. Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe differs from the comics, The MCU Sentry is only in his legit 30s and received his powers from government experiments to create the next great defender of the Earth. Bob had his own dark past before these experiments full of violence and drug abuse, these traits amplified by the experiments unleashed The Void. His depression, darkness and division made manifest.
“Thunderbolts*” reaches its fever pitch when The Void overtakes Bob, begins consuming New York, and traps the entire team in their own personal purgatories. We see Yelena mourning the loss of a childhood friend whose death she caused and struggling with her alcoholism. We see John witnessing the dissolution of his marriage due to his own emotional vacancy (albeit in an earlier scene). While we don’t see the others’ realms, we know they all have their own dark pasts. We’ve even seen it in previous films with Bucky and we’ve all felt it in our own lives. Everyone has their own “Void”, the things that you still struggle with. The loss, the rage, the grief, the addiction and the depression. The culmination of all the awful within us that makes us feel unlovable and even worse, unworthy of love. Yelena is the first to break her way from it. Not by avoiding it, not by shoving it down, but by confronting it. Not to fix or change it but to accept it as part of who she is, not the entirety. She finds Bob in his own shame room, hiding from his past. “I have these good days, where I feel invincible. Then there are a lot of bad days, where I remember that nothing matters. There’s no use in fighting it.” Bob sullenly muses. We see his abusive father in another room as Yelena sits to comfort him. “You can’t hold it in all alone, no one can, we have to let it out. We have to spend time together and even if it doesn’t make the emptiness go away I promise you it will feel lighter.” Yelena comforts. I talk about it all the time but it’s always worth repeating the importance of community. Your loved ones, your acquaintances, even strangers. All have more in common with you than the forces of division. Whether that’s racism, transphobia, xenophobia or the like, WE are stronger than them. That fight can be more directed and more focused but the fight vs what’s inside us is far harder. That feeling of nothing mattering, that feeling that there’s no use in fighting. Those battles are far, far harder and can feel impossible but just like the external ones, we have each other. We can’t win those without courage to stand up for ourselves. We can’t help anyone else without courage for ourselves. You are stronger than you think, you and what you do does matter. No one stays in the bright and sunny forever, the void comes for all of us, but we can beat it.
The two are soon joined by the remainder of the team, all battling their way out of their own darkness. The bolts fight together to the center of the realm to find The Void himself. “The most shameful thing of all was thinking you could be anything more than nothing.” The Void taunts Bob while restraining the rest of the team as the two begin to clash. Our voids all seek to isolate us, taunt us, demean us, and goad us into violence as we see them trade punches. The Void wants us to succumb to rage, to waste all our energy on it, instead of using it on anything else. It wants us to be as dark and lost as it is. “BOB STOP, THIS IS WHAT HE WANTS!” Yelena yells breaking free of her restraints. “It’ll always be just us” The Void laughs. The rest of the team follows Yelena’s lead, breaking free from their restraints to hug Bob. He’s no longer alone. You’re not alone. Denying the darkness will never fix it, succumbing to the darkness will never fix it. The only way to fix it is to acknowledge it and transcend it. That won’t always be possible with your own strength, sometimes you need those just as fucked up and human as you are. That courage to transcend the void isn’t just for your own sake, others will need you. To find their own way out, to transcend their void. We need each other and we belong to each other. The team, together, pull Bob and each other from The Void’s realm and back into reality. “I’m here, you’re not alone” Yelena whispers.
“Thunderbolts*” is a brave film. It takes a group of powerless outcasts and forges them into something stronger, each making the other better. I will absolutely be revisiting it in the future, especially to discuss the paths of redemption for Yelena and Bucky. Schreier and the writers wonderfully capture the aspects of found family and community. We love each other, hurt each other and try to avenge what we can. Some would even call them, The New Avengers. There are plenty of fucked up people around you. Those filled with darkness, loss, suffering and rage. I’m one of them and without my loved ones, I’d be lost. We need each other. Go out and find them, find the broken and the forgotten. Help them, let them help you. We might not be super and might not be heroes, but we’re not giving up.
Love this. Using it as inspo for my story!!