Could the Thunderbolts ever work in a Marvel film?

[Mr. Sin]

The Thunderbolts were one of the more interesting concepts to come out of Marvel in the 90s-basically, the "Onslaught" crossover for a short time left the Marvel universe without the Avengers & Fantastic Four, with only the 'outlaw' heroes such as Hulk(Well, half of him anyway), Spider-man (Well, his clone) and the X-men left. However, a mysterious group of new heroes showed up. However, these were no heroes-they were bad guys in disguise, The Masters of Evil. However some of them began to like being heroes. The team has since gone through a few incarnations, such as Thunderbolts in name only (The awful boxing issues) and of course formed the foundation for the Dark Avengers.

Since Marvel studios is working on developing the Avengers as a franchise (or franchises) it'd be nifty to see the Thunderbolts at one point. Perhaps if the classic story "Under Siege" (Where the mansion is destroyed) is ever adapted in some form, they could even use the name Thunderbolts instead of Masters of Evil. After all, the X-men movies did change the name of the bad guy group to the Brotherhood of Mutants as oppossed to the Brotherhood of "Evil" mutants.

 

[FPAlpha]

Depends.. you'd have to include memorable and above all alive villains in the Avengers league for them to have worthy opponents to fight and not "waste" time introducing them which would either take up a whole movie or do it rushed leading to a bad movie.

Let's see..

Spiderman:
Green Goblin - dead
Doc Ock - dead
Venom - dead
Sandman - "retired"

Iron Man:
Obadiah Stane - dead

Hulk
Abomination - dead
Gen. Ross - apparently offered a position within the Avengers

X-Men
Magneto - "depowered"
Brotherhood - mostly dead

You see? Almost anyone who's known has also been disposed off by the main heroes so there needs to be a new breed. The Thunderbolts would work nicely but i just can't see them working within the Avengers movie without major introductions for us to believe that they could stand up to Thor, Iron Man and Captain America and have a fighting chance.

In this line of reasoning i'm really curious who the enemies will be in the Avengers movie.. the setup of the team shouldn't take long as they've been working at it for ages in each movie (IM2 being apparently the next major step) which leaves much time for major mayhem. Maybe they'll try and expand into the galaxy.. Kree/Skrull War anyone?

 

[Captain Craig]

Abomination - dead

He was still very much breathing as Hulk tossed him down in defeat. Its actually one of the oft criticized parts of the movie. What was to stop him once he caught his breath after Hulk took off? Anyway.


Thunderbolts could work but it would depend on which of the 4/5 variations of the team Marvel Studios would try to put forth on the screen.

Would you try and lay out mini origins for each character or just a few? How do you let the general public know these are/were bad guys just playing "pretend" heroes. Early cries of failure for the 1st Iron Man movie were "no one knows him, film will be lucky to make $150m", Thunderbolts are a team of unknowns.

I give you Watchmen, a team of unknowns that came out of the gate strong due to fanboys but puttered out to a modest box office. The general public will not identify the upcoming Losers as 'from a comic book' but Thunderbolts, if loyal, would have to look like it stepped off the page.
Look how PUSH did last spring(bad) and that was a blantant rip on Heroes.

A massive PR campaign would have to be done to get people excited and then the movie would have to deliver and generate its own buzz like Iron Man did.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Abomination - dead

He was still very much breathing as Hulk tossed him down in defeat. Its actually one of the oft criticized parts of the movie. What was to stop him once he caught his breath after Hulk took off? Anyway.

Stark's men came and imprisoned him with their tech.

I would love to see a Thunderbolts movie, and I wouldn't even call myself a "fan" of their series. One approach could be letting the audience in on their secret right form the get go, with flashbacks and stuff showing them doing their evil ways, but hiding out as the good guys. Sure, it's not quite what the book was going for, but this isn't the book.

Or, a REALLY good writer can do that, filling in their back stories kind of like 'Lost', with snippets here and there throughout the movie. Then the last snippet of their respective histories is them committing the crimes, doing the evil that they do, just as the story set in the present time shows them taking the world stage with everyone loving them. Setting up the sequel.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Depends.. you'd have to include memorable and above all alive villains in the Avengers league for them to have worthy opponents to fight and not "waste" time introducing them which would either take up a whole movie or do it rushed leading to a bad movie.

Let's see..

Spiderman:
Green Goblin - dead
Doc Ock - dead
Venom - dead
Sandman - "retired"

Iron Man:
Obadiah Stane - dead

Hulk
Abomination - dead
Gen. Ross - apparently offered a position within the Avengers

X-Men
Magneto - "depowered"
Brotherhood - mostly dead

You see? Almost anyone who's known has also been disposed off by the main heroes so there needs to be a new breed. The Thunderbolts would work nicely but i just can't see them working within the Avengers movie without major introductions for us to believe that they could stand up to Thor, Iron Man and Captain America and have a fighting chance.

In this line of reasoning i'm really curious who the enemies will be in the Avengers movie.. the setup of the team shouldn't take long as they've been working at it for ages in each movie (IM2 being apparently the next major step) which leaves much time for major mayhem. Maybe they'll try and expand into the galaxy.. Kree/Skrull War anyone?

I'm pretty sure Spiderman and Xmen exist in separate movie universes from the recent hulk and iron man films. In fact the spiderman franchise sounds like it's getting a reboot, so it would be easy to put it in line with the avengers universe of films.

 

[Trent Roman]

I'm not familiar with the original incarnation of the Thunderbolts, but the more recent conscript-supervillain team would be easy to introduce to the audience. Most people are aware of the 'Dirty Dozen' scenario, even if they've not seen that particular film. One would simply set up, in the first twenty minutes or so, a covert government and/or S.H.E.I.L.D. team made up of individuals who have misused their powers; characters are introduced to the audience simultaneously as they are introduced to whatever poor schmuck Fury assigns to lead this team, and the rest of the film can look into who is genuinely seeking reform and who is just looking to get off the leash at the first opportunity. If Black Widow turns out to be a bad-guy-turned-good in Iron Man 2, she might make a good team leader herself on account of the similar history.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Icemizer]

The original ideao for the Thunderbolts would be way to long a backstory for any movie to deal with. Now had a show like Heroes had a decent writer they could have played this angle out from one season to another, and perhaps even Smallville maybe. But It would take a long time to set up and work correctly. Villians caught, escape, form up and decide to pretend to go good, some like it, some dont, they fight, some stay good, some go back to evil. Yup definitley need a series to tell that story correctly.

 

[Hermiod]

I quite like the idea of a Thunderbolts movie, though I'd probably shoot someone if Moonstone (aka the fake Ms. Marvel) got to be in a movie before the real one.

 

[Mr. Sin]

I remember there was some speculation that the military lady in Fantastic Four was Carol, turned out to be Frankie Raye though.

I think Carol might eventually appear in an X-men movie, as her comics backstory was closely linked to that of Rogue's and Carol was an X-supporting character for a very long time during Claremont's initial run. Then again the movie Rogue is very different from her comic self/(selves?)

 

[Hermiod]

I remember there was some speculation that the military lady in Fantastic Four was Carol, turned out to be Frankie Raye though.

I think Carol might eventually appear in an X-men movie, as her comics backstory was closely linked to that of Rogue's and Carol was an X-supporting character for a very long time during Claremont's initial run. Then again the movie Rogue is very different from her comic self/(selves?)

That speculation came largely from me!

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yes the "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" movie franchises take place in their own continuities thanks to other studios owning their rights while "Iron Man" "Thor" and "The Avengers" all belong to Marvel Studios. I think a "Thuderbolts" film would be grand but as mentioned which incarnation of the team would you use? I personally have enjoyed the 90's Masters of Evil in disguised team along with the current Norman Osborn led mercenary squad.

Indeed Mr. Light...Rouge's backstory and origin is quite different than the comics so I don't think we'd see Carol Danvers. I'd love to see her appear in "The Avengers" or perhaps a later sequel maybe Blake Lively or someone like that could play her

 

[Hermiod]

^I actually wanted ScarJo, but she's taken.

I don't know a great deal about Blake Lively, but she seems a little on the small side to me.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ She is on the small side and she wouldn't be my definitive pick for Carol but she just has the visual looks to play the character. Scarlett would have been my actual pick for Ms. Marvel but alas as you pointed out she's already taken.

 

[Mr Light]

Indeed Mr. Light...Rouge's backstory and origin is quite different than the comics so I don't think we'd see Carol Danvers. I'd love to see her appear in "The Avengers" or perhaps a later sequel maybe Blake Lively or someone like that could play her

You confused me, I haven't posted in this thread yet! But thanks for keeping me in mind