Еще одна подсказка, что «Громовержцы» на самом деле новый фильм о Мстителях

Громовержцы

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Avengers Tower is Under New Management

The Watchtower Has a Big Role in the Marvel Universe

Watchtower May Have Confirmed Who the Thunderbolts Really Are

Over the years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a hub for many teams beyond the Avengers. Whether it’s something as haphazard as the Revengers or something far more iconic like the Fantastic Four, teams are the most important thing. However, Громовержцы* may be the first time where MCU fans are caring less about who is in the team and more about why the team has formed in the first place. This is especially true when the title itself has an asterisk, having audiences question if the Thunderbolts is even the real name of the team in question.

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Not much is known about the plot of Громовержцы* other than Bucky has brought together a team of anti-heroes and assassins who have no business working together to take the fight, potentially to CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. But things become far more complex when a character named Bob, who is all but confirmed to be the Sentry, forms a wall between the team and Val. Meanwhile, an Empire article confirmed that Val renamed Avengers Tower into the Watchtower. With a name that many comic fans know connects to the Sentry, it furthers the idea that Громовержцы* may very well be a New Avengers film all along.

Avengers Tower is Under New Management

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When Tony Stark sold Avengers Tower after Мстители: Возраст Альтрона, the big question was who was the person that purchased it from him. For years there were speculations that it was a supervillain like Norman Osborn, or maybe the Fantastic Four had bought it with the intention of turning it into the Baxter Building. While the latter could still be possible, depending on what happens in Громовержцы*, no one suspected that Val would be the one to purchase the tower. Even now, it’s hard to ask why she did it in the first place, but seeing that the film looks to be heavily inspired by The New Avengers and Dark Avengers comic runs by Brian Michael Bendis, it’s possible that Val is talking about the role of Osborn.

This could mean that, starting with the Sentry, her goal is to create a new team of heroes that she can control, a team that Bucky and his ragtag group of allies don’t agree with. If so, it would make sense why she would rename the tower «Watchtower.» It’s no secret that Громовержцы* is a visually dark film but, as director Jake Schreier explained: “Who’s the person you would least like to own that tower, that means so much to so many people? Can you use that as a symbol of things taking a darker turn?” Therefore, it’s most likely that Val’s intentions go far beyond protecting the planet and only further add to her mystery.

In the comics, Val is a Contessa and spy who works with Nick Fury, but in the MCU, it seems like she has become more of an antithesis to Fury. She knows all of his tricks and has just as much influence, but from wanting to villainize the Wakandans and take their tech to sending a Black Widow to kill an original Avenger, this iteration of Val isn’t trying to preserve life. Though it’s unlikely she’s a Skrull, she’s definitely a threat and someone who wants power and control above all else. To have Avengers Tower be a watchtower could tease a desire to have overwatch over the world, while also calling back to one of the strangest buildings in the Marvel Universe that shares a direct connection with the Sentry.

The Watchtower Has a Big Role in the Marvel Universe

Perhaps the biggest secret in the Marvel Universe was the introduction of the Sentry. A character who had been around since the Silver Age of the Marvel Universe, a certain chain of events led to the world forgetting the Sentry ever existed. Though the world spun on, he was still there. As Avengers Tower was built and the New Avengers assembled, this led to the return of the Sentry and later the revelation that he had been around all along. This also led to the return of his watchtower, a gothic tower that stood in place of Avengers Tower and was now visually melded into one.

Run by an AI known as CLOC, the Sentry used the watchtower to monitor world communications so that he would always be aware of any dangerous situation. However, the advanced tower was also the reason the world had forgotten him. It was a place that had some impressive capabilities, but, more than anything, was still just a superhero base ripped out of a classic ’50s cartoon or comic. That said, as the events of Осада, Секретное вторжение и Гражданская война took center stage, so did the Sentry. A member of the New Avengers, Mighty Avengers and later Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers, the Sentry’s story became one of tragedy where someone trying to do good was ultimately manipulated by the enemy. As such, even the watchtower took on a more ominous persona that felt fitting considering how the dark fins stretched out over Manhattan.

More shocking were the persistent rumors that the Watchtower was also the place that held the Void, a dark entity that existed within the Sentry, though this officially wasn’t true. That said, the watchtower, before its destruction, became a symbol of the dangerous of people with true power and how, even if they intend to do good, they can still be coerced to do something bad and when that happens, even the strongest heroes could be powerless to stop it. With that in mind, there’s an irony to calling Avengers Tower Watchtower in the MCU as it now represents a place that can twist and manipulate the Sentry and possibly bring about something much worse.

Watchtower May Have Confirmed Who the Thunderbolts Really Are

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When the New Avengers appeared in the comics, it was meant to be a rebirth of the team after the shattering events of Мстители: В разобранном виде. It was meant to instill hope in the masses that here were still heroes protecting them. However, in the MCU, the world has gone on without the Avengers for quite some time, and if President Ross was right about anything, it was that the team’s existence, at least for now, is more about optics than necessity. However, Thunderbolts* proves that a New Avengers team may not have to be a grand statement and could instead be brought together in the same way the original team was: to face a foe no single hero could defeat. If so, that would make the asterisk in the film finally have meaning and set up the real New Avengers as a team that no one would’ve suspected.

The Avengers, on paper, had no right to work as well as it did. Made up of a genius, a God, an assassin, and a soldier, to name a few, it’s not a group that would or should go up against an alien threat. Yet they did and the rest was history. The same could be said for the Thunderbolts as now the threat they must face is something far more terrifying. But none of this would have made sense without the Watchtower in the first place. By renaming Avengers Tower, it’s clear what era of comics the film is embracing and it’s an era that was birthed by the reformation of the Avengers. Therefore, it’s even more likely that, in this case, the team audiences are meeting are actually the New Avengers. They may not have the flair or resources as their predecessors, but that makes the team all the more interesting as there have been Avengers teams that specialized in different things besides being heroes. In this case, espionage and tactical combat is exactly what is being called for.

The introduction of the Watchtower in Громовержцы* is no doubt a big deal and something that audiences should definitely pay attention to not just because of what the story implies but also because of how this could change the movie. Before there were Dark Avengers, there were New Avengers, and the Sentry and Watchtower were a big part of that. As a result, it’s very possible that just like how Сокол и Зимний Солдат изменился на Капитан Америка и Зимний солдат, Громовержцы* could easily be a stepping stone to the New Avengers and also be exactly what the world needs before Sam Wilson appears and Мстители: Судный день comes right behind him.