Like most Marvel offerings, Thunderbolts* requires so much background knowledge that fine print seems appropriate, which may explain the asterisk at the end of the official name of the film. That typographical addendum, much discussed by Marvel fanboys during the promotional lead-up, turns out not to mean anything at all, unless one counts an in-joke “reveal” during the closing credits. To the critic, however, it is irresistible. Are our heroes not really streaks of lightning against a rollicking sky? Is Disney afraid of lawsuits? No refunds for the hopelessly confused! Yet this movie clearly has ambitions above its station. If the asterisk is directing us to look more closely, it is not an entirely wasted mark.

I went to see Thunderbolts* with an open mind and a blank slate, having never seen a Marvel movie before. It was, in one sense, easy enough to follow. The film is anchored by Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, a Russian assassin previously featured in Black Widow (2021) and Disney+’s series Hawkeye. In what is only the first of many displays of antihero glumness, Yelena opens the movie with a voiceover confession: Summertime and the killing is too easy. Instead of checking in with her CIA handler (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) after an early job, the young woman visits her father, the Kremlin super-soldier Red Guardian (David Harbour), and receives a pep talk. Service to others, even in the form of lethal violence, can be a terrific way to add meaning to an otherwise empty life.