Thunderbolts: Marvel Comics Reveals MCU-Inspired New Team

Marvel Comics is reviving the Thunderbolts in yet another new form in 2023, and the latest incarnation of the team looks to be drawing more than a little inspiration from the upcoming MCU movie.

Launching in December 2023, the new volume of Thunderbolts casts Bucky Barnes as the leader of a team fully committed to the mantra “justice like lightning.” In his new role as The Revolution, Bucky is using his newly acquired horde of intel to target some of the worst villains the Marvel Universe has to offer, including the Red Skull, Kingpin and even Doctor Doom himself.

To accomplish these lofty goals, Bucky is assembling a new team with the help of Contessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine. The new Thunderbolts roster includes Black Widow, White Widow (Yelena Belova), Red Guardian, Destroyer (Sharon Carter), US Agent and Shang-Chi.

This new ongoing series is written by Jackson Kelly and Colin Lanzing and spins out of the events of their Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty comic and the recent Captain America: Cold War crossover. The series will be illustrated by Geraldo Borges (Nightwing).

“Welcome to Operation: Worldstrike! The Hivemind is wildly excited to continue the saga we began with Carmen Carnero in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty – while also starting anew with a dangerous and unpredictable cast from across the Marvel Universe,” Kelly and Lanzing said in a statement. “The call has gone out to all those who call the shadows their home; every spy, assassin, and renegade has a part to play in Bucky Barnes’ all-encompassing and uncompromising hit on the singular, monstrous living symbol of fascism: the Red Skull. Alongside our old friend Geraldo Borges, we’re taking this opportunity to tell a very different kind of team book. This is a whole new era for the Thunderbolts and it starts with a four-part espionage epic, an ever-shifting cast and a single overarching goal: to tear down a century of Nazi evil with justice like lightning.”

The cast of Marvel’s Thunderbolts movie includes Sebastian Stan as the Winter Soldier, Wyatt Russell as John Walker (aka US Agent), Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, David Harbour as Red Guardian, and Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross. Steven Yeun has also been cast in an undisclosed role. Be sure to brush up on the comic book history of the Thunderbolts before their MCU debut in December 2024.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.