While there’s no denying that Marvel hasa pretty deep cast of likable charactersin their roster, the majority of them are fairly simple in their appeal.They tend to not have a level of complexity that matches real human beings, and usually have internal lives that become fairly played out fairly quickly. That’s why it’s such a breath of fresh air thatThunderbolts*brings us Bob (Lewis Pullman) and how it fills out his character. While part of me will always wonder justhow greatSteven Yeunwould have been in the role, Lewis Pullman is a key factor in why it’sone of the best Marvel films in years,because of how he’s allowed to embrace so many different sides of Bob’s fractured makeup.
We Only Get Emotionally Invested Because of Lewis Pullman
For most ofThunderbolts*’s runtime, we really don’t know anything about Bob. Due to his amnesia, we get the tiniest scraps of information about him that basically amounts to that he knows he wants to do better with his life and is just happy people are talking to him.All we have to go off of to get truly emotionally invested in him is Lewis Pullman’s performance,and he initially sucks us in with his affability, his baby-deer-on-ice skittishness, his hesitant glee at being seen as a human being.Everything about him reflects the need to keep him protectedfrom the same forces that are after the Thunderbolts*, like a shivering puppy left in a cardboard box. He has particularly strong chemistry withFlorence Pughas Yelena, with rare hints of, gasp,actual attractionand truly exciting banter between two Marvel characters!! Granted, things don’t go down that road (curse you, mouse-mandated chastity), but seeing one of the most beloved vanguards in the current state of the MCU feel so inspired to ensure his safety is a sign of goodwill that doesn’t land as plausible without Pullman being such a good hang. His gentle goober energy is imperative to making the revelations about him hit so hard, and here’s where things get truly thorny.
Bob’s Backstory Breaks Ground For Marvel
Thanks to some soft gaslighting by Countess Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Bob is motivated to turn against his former compatriots and succumb tothe dark side of his superpower identity, the Void. In trying to figure out how to stop the Void from banishing the whole city to a dark phantom zone,the Thunderbolts* learn more about Bob’s backstory, which is nothing short of devastating. Bob grew up in an abusive home, fiercely physically beaten by his father, and he turned tomethas a way of coping with his trauma. His meth addiction is what led him to the secret program that gave him his powers, growing despondent at how much he’d torn his life up and inspired himself to do good in the world. While this is far from groundbreaking in the pantheon ofdrug addiction cinema, the inclusion of such conditions as key to the foundation of somebody the audience is supposed to see as a Marvel hero is fairly daring.
Marvel has never broached drug addiction as a topic before, let alone using drugs as a way of coping with severe trauma. More importantly,there’s no demonization of Bob for his being a survivor of abuse or for being a drug addict.While one could quibble that the audience never saw him actually take any drugs, even I’ll admit that’s probably too mature for a Marvel film to depict, and Lewis Pullmann’s shrunken defeat shows us how greatly his past choices weigh on him. A less-considered attempt at material like this would have seen the Void as a mutation of Bob’s “true form” that must be defeated and banished, like the cheap melodrama ofa network showwhere a character’s “evil side” is inevitably killed and never dealt with again. Instead, the Void is the collective result of unthinkable anguish that Bob doesn’t know how to properly handle until he’s surrounded by his…well, not quite friends, but let’s say allies. Rather than fully taken away,Bob learns to coexist with what’s a part of him, in a touching resolution that’s reminiscent of howThe Babadooktreated its own examination of mental health as a spooky metaphor. Not only is this a more emotionally honest conclusion than the average platitudes that many vain attempts at mental health commentary vomit up, but it’s exactly how more Marvel characters should have been treated to make them even richer.
The MCU Has Inconsistent Character Complexity
Part of the appeal of serialized storytelling is that it’s supposed to provide more opportunities for progression and evolution in both worldbuilding and character. We get to spend more time with people and witness how they either move forward or regress in their approach to problems and how their relationships with each other change, ideally leading to even greater emotional gratification for the audience.The problem with many Marvel characters is that they simply aren’t that flawed to begin with, usually being saddled with one significant character flaw that’s either a staple of their personality or is dealt with swiftly. On the one hand, Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) wouldn’t be Tony without his gargantuan arrogance, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) needs to be a peacekeeper at all costs, and Drax (Dave Bautista) was always socially incompetent, much to Bautista’s chagrin. On the other hand, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) gets over being out-of-time fairly quickly until he suddenly wants to go back home inAvengers: Endgame, and we’re told that Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has learned to be more of a team-player, but it still doesn’t feel that way.Such inconsistency with internal character complexity is a real detriment to what the MCU is supposed to representas a playground for storytelling, and Lewis Pullman’s performance as Bob should be held up as a shining example of how they can improve moving forward.
Thunderbolts*is now playing in theaters.
Thunderbolts*
