Marvel’s Thunderbolts* (2025) directed by Jake Schreier is not only another nervous anti-hero team, but also a creative shift for the McU. The film demonstrates characters such as Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Ava (Hannah John-Kamen), each bringing their depth and complexity into the story. Over time, many spectators began to ask how Marvel had treated his female characters in the earlier phases. For example, we take Natasha Romanoff, who was not presented with a convincing background story or an inner life, but as a puzzling figure in tight leather suits, which are mainly designed for the male look. Natasha did not have the same emotional space or the same agency compared to her male colleagues.
But Thunderbolts seems to do things very differently. It is about nuanced characters, of whom many women are who are not only strong, but also complex. These are not women who just fight; They question the system, survive and command the narrative. The film does not provide its femininity, but calculates it as a source of Layered Power.
Thunderbolts may have only redefined what it means to be a hero in the MCU. This special step – it is not just inclusion, but evolution. It’s not just about representation, but about the redesign of history itself.
From objectified to observed: the rise of the female look
We can see the difference in how Thunderbolts framed his women. In the early phases of the Marvel films, female characters such as Natasha Romanoff were often captured over the lens of male views in slow motion walks, hyper-sexized suits and deductive dialogues. But Thunderbolts shows how far Marvel has come not only as a feast for the eyes, but also as actual people.
Source: Inverse
Characters like Yelena and Ava are now shot through another lens – one that emphasizes their emotional depth and resonance instead of concentrating on their physicality. Your body is not in focus, but also her anger, loyalty, humanity and pain. The female look finally takes the lead. And with the female look it is not just pleased what we see; It is also reoriented how we interpret strength. There is now space for dry humor, uncomfortable silence and reactions that do not need an explanation. These women do not serve history, but they are history.
The MCU has enabled them to fill more areas without depriving them of their own agency. The camera doesn’t just look; It listens now. And this difference has changed everything.
Women who lead: Valentina and the politics of power
This female tour can finally be in the cinema and in the MCU on their conditions. It is not the stereotypical mentor or the symbol of a moral compass. It is older, strategic, illegible and control of her narrative. And that’s something worth celebrating. The leadership of women in Mainstream franchise companies was built into traditional tropics for too long -the nourishing mother, the emotional leader and the redeemable villain. Valentina does not tick these boxes and above all she doesn’t have to have to.
Source: IMDB
Take Maria Hill as an example in the earlier phases of Marvel – she is a clever and capable character, but is largely shown as Nick Fury’s buddy and not as an independent leader. Your lead was calm and sometimes almost invisible. Thunderbolts, on the other hand, gives Valentina the space, sharp, ambitious and apologetically powerful. The film includes a lot and complex storytelling, and Valentina is the definition of it. It shows us that leadership does not have to be made soft or tasty – it does not have to be connected to the sympathy. It takes presence; The command is needed. And exceptionally Marvel finally lets her have her.
Superhero costumes are not only about fashion, but also for metaphors. And far too long, women’s uniforms in superhero films have served male imagination rather than functional. There Thunderbolt makes a shift. Gone are the days of latex types with strategic cuts. Let’s look at the costumes of Yelena and Ghost for a second. First, Yelena’s costume has a rough seams and visible wear that feels like it has been lived and it is not just a form of the cosplay. Ghost’s suit is less a costume, but rather an expansion of its broken being, which is incorrect, faulty, but never whole. This shift is very important. They do not hide the physicality of the characters, but they improve them without objectifying them.
In the cinematic memory it was expected that women’s costumes in the action cinema look a certain way and take care of the male look. In Thunderbolts it takes good to look good to look real. These are not only outfits that are supposed to impress, they should survive. It is very refreshing to see how Thunderbolts’ costume priorify the story and not just novelty.
Not only strong – complex: women with emotional gravity
Thunderbolts does not box his female characters in the same old tropics: The Cold Killer, the love interest or the strong female figure without depth. We see a strength in his female characters, which includes vulnerability as part of power. Yelena hides her pain behind sarcasm. She often jokes too much because silence reminds her of loss and abandoned. And with her constantly phating body, Ghost is physically showing what it is like to be dissociated by the world. They are not damaged women, but survivors. And their strength is not to suppress their feelings, but to confront them and adapt them.
In Thunderbolts, emotions are not only decorative, but very ready for operation. Thunderbolts lets his characters be all the things that women are often denied on the screen – emotionally, inconsistent and deeply human. There is something valuable in this disorder: authenticity.
Feminism is not a detour – it is the plot in Thunderbolts
There is a persistent complaint in certain corners: Why is Marvel so feminist now? The answer is simple because it makes the stories much more convincing. Women received more agency than in the comic story. And Thunderbolts is a wonderful example of this. It lives in identity policy. It is a story about broken people who navigate their broken system.
Source: IMDB
For performative reasons, feminism here is no men at all or stages women. It’s about narrative texture. Yelena is not just a buddy; It is a moral compass. Ghost is not just angry; She literally tries to stick together. Valentina is not only responsible; She is an architect of chaos. These are well -written characters, and what is more important, they are proof that feminist stories are not a detour of action. It is what he has weight. When stories take women seriously, not only as a fighter, but as humans, it shows.
Thunderbolts: A universe that is big enough for all of us for all of us
Thunderbolts is not only a radical departure from Marvel’s legacy, but also offers a new and fresh direction. In Thunderbolts, women are not framed, simplified or saved, but centered. It shows us that strength comes in many forms: in grief that they do not break, in plants that become invisible, and in bodies that heal according to their own terms. We not only observe how women enter their own power, but we also watch them how they redefine them and also on their own conditions. And that’s not just a good feminist stories; It’s a good cinema. The MCU, which was once tight and exclusive, is now spacious enough to reflect the real world and all its complexity. This is no longer a world for the few – it is a world for all of us.
Juhi Sanduja is an editorial intern at Feminism in India (FII). It is passionate about intersectional feminism, with a great interest in documenting resistance, feminist stories and identity questions. Previously, she was as a research intern in Delhi in the Center for Political Research and Governance (CPRG), Delhi. She is currently studying English literature and French and is particularly interested in how feminist thinking can influence public order and drive advantage of social change.
