I Guess Marvel is in their Brené Brown Era

Spoiler Alert for Thunderbolts*

So apparently, we save the world by healing the lonely white man.

Gross. A simplified, but not entirely inaccurate, summary of Thunderbolts*.

The Part Where Abby Gives You the Context

A large part of Thunderbolts* centers on Bob—a lonely, traumatized man who they discover survived receiving the super soldier serum. He goes on to become Sentry. He clearly has some mental health concerns, noted by the oft dismissed assistant, but Elaine from Seinfeld is power hungry and decides to make him into a superhero.

Of course, it goes wrong. It always goes wrong, that’s how plots work. So they activate the kill-switch to take him out.

Except, he’s kind of a god now? (Self-proclaimed.)

So he comes back completely overcome by his darkness (a.k.a The Void) and starts making his god-complex everybody else’s problem. (Does that sound like anybody else right now?)

The Part Where Abby Reads too Much Into It

Don’t worry, though. Yelena Belova, the main female character, goes into his darkness and saves him. Basically: A woman saves a man from his emotional troubles by convincing him he’s not alone and is worthy of love.

Women are apparently the only ones capable of doing the emotional labor required to save the world. A better outcome than Wolf Man, at the very least.

Are they trying to do mass therapy through Marvel Movies now? Since men won’t go to therapy themselves.

In many ways Sentry reads as an embodiment of the Male Loneliness Epidemic and Yelena’s speech to save him sounds like a self help book. Someone on the MCU writing team clearly read Dr. Brené Brown and is going through their “let go of your shame” era.

The Part Where Abby Rates the Movie

Given the current state of affairs in America, I didn’t find Sentry a particularly compelling character. Overall, the movie was pretty fun though, a lot of funny lines and goofs.

8/10: Would be 7, but I’m awarding a whole point for the scene where Bucky arrives on his motorcycle and saves them only to immediately turn on them. It was my favorite part of the whole movie.

What am I up to lately?

I’m gearing up for Atlanta Fringe next week with Godzilla’s Not a Dinosaur, which is partially why this Silly Thing is late….

I’ve got a few poems that have or will be published in the next few weeks.

“Hard to Read” was published in the limited edition SEX/X/Y Zine with Gnashing Teeth Publishing.

“Clover Crowns” received honorable mention in the PCCC Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. (I wrote about the journey for this piece in a recent Silly Thing.)

“Uncomfortable Dichotomies” was included in the Capitalism is a Death Cult anthology with Sunday Mornings at the River.

“If Regina George Did Not Survive Getting Hit By That Bus” (after Mean Girls) will be published in Y2K Quarterly in June.

That means I’m just 1 poem away from my goal of publishing 5 new poems this year! But my secondary (real) goal is to get a Godzilla poem published, so still working on that.

I also recently updated my publication page on my website and I think it looks pretty snazzy.

Beyond that, I’ve got a couple cool things coming up that I can’t announce quite yet! So stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!