Marvel comic book "Thunderbolts*": Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan side by side

Almost silently, with a brief hiss, people crumble into dark dust when the black villain in the sky catches them. They are absorbed into the monstrous void that has taken possession of the villain's soul and now threatens to devour the inhabitants of Manhattan.

The Marvel Universe has featured many dazzling antagonists: From Mickey Rourke's eccentric Whiplash in "Iron Man 2" to Jeff Goldblum's demented Grandmaster in "Thor: Ragnarok" to Josh Brolin's mighty destroyer of humanity, Thanos, in "Avengers: Infinity War," the spectrum of evil ranges. But none has yet looked as dark as the villain in the Marvel film "Thunderbolts*." Pitch-black, recognizable only as a silhouette, his figure hovers above the New York skyline, serving as a powerful metaphor for a deep, all-consuming depression.

This Sentry (Lewis Pullman), whose real name is Bob, is a reluctant villain whose dark side involuntarily takes hold of him. This tragic figure is confronted by a group of heroes who are also not what they are supposed to be. First and foremost is Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who throws herself from a skyscraper at the beginning of the film. She, too, has felt this emptiness within herself since her sister's death.

What initially appears to be a spectacular suicide turns out to be the mission of the trained assassin. A paraglider takes her to a middle floor of the building, where, with a bored expression, she dispatches a superior number of armed enemies.

Florence Pugh made her first appearance as a Marvel character alongside Scarlett Johansson in "Black Widow" (2021). Now, her Yelena becomes the disillusioned central figure of a band of misfits with whom Marvel wants to open a new chapter. The company likes to portray its own corporate history as a grand master plan, divided into various phases, intended to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe into infinity as a profit-making machine.

But the proclaimed fifth phase has recently been characterized more by commercial massification than creative originality. With "Thunderbolts*," Marvel is now hitting the reset button, and this fresh start might work.

Director Jake Schreier not only abandons superhero overkill, but also glossier digital aesthetics and over-the-top effects. He gives his film a slightly grungy, independent look that perfectly matches the psyche of the imperfect antihero community.

Together with her colleagues Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Yelena ends up in the secret laboratory of the pharmaceutical company OXE. Its boss, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), has lured the four assassins into a trap to eliminate them as accomplices.

Together, the individualists must now find a way out, which puts their lack of teamwork skills to the test. Joining the outsiders is Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Winter Soldier, the only old-school superhero. And then there's Bob, who was treated as a guinea pig with a superhero gene.

Yelena soon recognizes him as an insecure man who, like her, is haunted by traumatic childhood experiences. When gene therapy proves successful in Bob, of all people, de Fontaine attempts to transform the mentally unstable subject into a mindless superhero with whom she intends to seize all power in the state.

After all, she's currently facing impeachment proceedings before Congress. With this powerful weapon, she could finally act like Donald Trump, bypassing all democratic oversight bodies.

But the manic-depressive superhero soon spirals out of control and begins to spread his deadly inner emptiness. The antihero team fights him not with force, but rather by Yelena literally putting herself in his shoes and facing the traumatic experiences together.

The fact that a therapeutic approach saves the world from destruction and empathy becomes the most important weapon is a welcome change in the destructive superhero genre. The visual resolution, which leads into various traumatic memories, also appears coherent on screen without losing the tension of a classic finale. After this promising opening, the inevitable sequel to "Thunderbolts*" can certainly be anticipated with interest.

“Thunderbolts*”, directed by Jake Schreier, with Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen, 126 minutes, FSK 12