Marvel
Yelena & Bob in ‘Thunderbolts*’ Is a Love Story—No Matter How You Look At It
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Thunderbolts*.]
Don’t underestimate the power of a good hug.
That’s the moral of Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, a new breed of superhero team-up movie that bucks the standard galactic threat against mankind to focus more on the inner battles with depression, loneliness, and the cycle of abuse that people spend their lives trying to escape.
It’s heavy stuff for a Marvel movie, but it’s also a refreshingly prickly playing field in which to set a movie at a time when the MCU needs a win. In our opinion, it gets a big one with Thunderbolts*. But for those hoping for something more than just a big-budget therapy session (albeit an effective one), the film also introduces audiences to what, for some, is bound to be their next big ‘ship in the universe—Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and Bob (Lewis Pullman).
We say “for some” because the relationship established between Yelena and Bob has already inspired debate online, with some saying it is left up to interpretation (or even a brother-sister dynamic) because they don’t kiss or declare their feelings for one another. We might agree with that if it were only the lingering glances they share throughout the film.
But as it goes on, their relationship becomes the anchor with which to save not only each other but potentially the whole world. It’s all in the context of a mission to wrangle the dark side of Bob’s new alter ego, The Sentry, a super soldier medically created by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a la Captain America. When The Sentry’s power is turned off, the pit of despair Bob has been pushing down deep his whole life comes bubbling to the surface in literal form as The Void, a darkness that spreads across New York City, trapping people in the shame rooms of their worst memories. Again, FUN STUFF!
It is Yelena who saves Bob from himself, though, after she admits to her “father,” Alexei (David Harbour), that the loneliness of her own life as a contract mercenary is eating her alive. She literally walks into Bob’s void to face her own darkness, and then helps pull him out of his. If that’s not a romantic gesture, we don’t know what is.
Don’t believe us? Let’s game this out. The MCU doesn’t often give us meet cutes, so it is noteworthy when mid-fight Yelena accidentally awakens Bob from his superserum-induced slumber, only for him to pop his head up while the future teammates try to kill each other? Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) had a pretty good story to tell their grandkids, but Yelena and Bob first locking eyes across the room of their intended doom may be an all-timer.
Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Everett Collection
Taking it a step further, when they finally escape the literal thrusters of firepower meant to incinerate them, they are violently hurled together and end up ever so gently holding hands, albeit unconsciously. Now, we admit, this connection drops Yelena into the traumatic memory of her first test in the Red Room, when she lured a girl to her death. But Bob witnesses this too, and when they awaken, he doesn’t run screaming from the Russian child assassin. Instead, they let those grazed hands linger long enough for us to take notice.
Then, to survive the onslaught of military operatives sent to finish the job, Yelena takes it upon herself to personally protect Bob, going as far as to tie him to her body so he can’t get himself killed as she annihilates a room full of men. Just as a side note: This is a pretty fun reversal of the damsel-in-distress gender roles, as Bob is just along for the ride as a delightful passenger princess.
From there, Bob unintentionally activates his powers to help the others get away, leaving Yelena to worry for his safety and, we would venture to say, miss him a little bit. Similarly, as Valentina makes Bob over for the press like her own life-size superhero Ken doll, his mind wanders more than once to Yelena’s own whereabouts. He even singles her out when he begins to question Valentina’s directive to kill the Thunderbolts.
All of this could be dismissed by skeptics as two loners leaning into a newfound friendship. But when The Sentry gets kill switched and The Void takes over, Yelena walks straight into the unknown of his power, even after seeing it turn people into shadows. Trapped in her own worst memories, the mere glimpse of soft-spoken, non-violent Bob hiding away from himself is what breaks her free of her trauma in pursuit of him. Finding him in the attic of his own shame room, she tells him they don’t have to be prisoners to their pasts, and convinces him to step back from the ledge of complacency that she knows all too well.
When the rest of the Thunderbolts also run headlong into the Void and end up in Bob’s shame room, the group tears through his memories until they find his dark alter ego, and he unleashes his wrath upon the part of himself he can’t bear to let win anymore. But Yelena sees that succumbing to his anger is actually what’s further consuming him, she initiates a hail mary.
As the structure of Bob’s shame room collapses around them, Yelena literally parkours through falling cement to embrace him and hold on for dear life, whispering in his ear that he’s not alone. It is some of the most beautiful pieces of character work Marvel has ever done. By the time the rest of the team piles on for this bear hug, we were fighting back tears.
However, this is a tricky bit of shipping because there’s at least some evidence that Yelena’s comic-book counterpart is asexual. In an interview posted to Marvel’s official website in 2020 after Pugh’s first appearance in Black Widow, one of Yelena’s co-creators Devin Grayson speculates that, in comparison to her older sister and OG Avenger Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Yelena is “probably more likely to identify as asexual than to follow Nat’s romantic path.”
This has never been played out in the comics or on the big screen, but one can only imagine that Yelena’s horrific upbringing in the Red Room as a trained assassin taught to suppress emotion in the name of duty has affected her in many ways—some of which are on full display in Thunderbolts*. Does that extend to her romantic interests? It could, and those who identify as part of the asexual community have definitely embraced this representation as a win. But so far, Yelena’s film appearances have yet to address it. So with only Thunderbolts* to go on, we can’t ignore the immediate heat between Yelena and Bob—and no, it’s not the incinerators.
But hey, maybe it’s not romantic at all, and Yelena and Bob are just instant besties who love trauma bonding. If they are destined to remain platonic coworkers in the world’s second-favorite Avengers, Pugh and Pullman have the chemistry to make it a delightful pairing for years to come. But if Marvel wants to go the romantic route, they could use these two people—who are learning to unpack their emotional baggage in real time—to explore something deeper and more profound as they did with WandaVision.
If Yelena is, as stated by her co-creator, asexual, then what does it mean when someone comes bounding into your life that makes you ponder the spectrum that is sexuality? She is just now accepting parts of her past that undoubtedly stunted her growth as a person, and restricting her to one thing or another just doesn’t sit right. The same goes for a romantic relationship if it’s not something she is ready for right now or ever. But the film seems keen on calling attention to their dynamic, if nothing else.
Plus, something tells us that Yelena wouldn’t take kindly to someone boxing her into a label without her permission. In fact, we’ve seen what Yelena does when she’s backed into a corner, and we pity the person who tries to put her there next.
It’s unclear what Yelena and Bob’s future looks like beyond Avengers: Doomsday, but we doubt that’s the last time we’ll see the New Avengers. If the MCU wants to explore a romantic dynamic, it has the chance for a new kind of love story, one that takes into consideration that trauma, triumphs, and tactical warfare can all play a part in forming not just someone’s rap sheet as a superhero but also something as important as their identity. Thunderbolts* doesn’t give us a climactic kiss, and it would have felt out of character for the Yelena we know so far if the film did take that step. What we do get is someone showing the purest form of love that certainly feels like it could be the foundation for something beyond friendship.
Because isn’t true love–platonic or romantic—just about being there to help each other crawl out of the literal and figurative void of life’s darker moments?
Do you think Yelena and Bob are platonic besties? Or do you think the MCU is building a romantic relationship between them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments and vote below.
Thunderbolts*, Now Playing in Theaters.
