Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Thunderbolts*, Assemble!
Can we put together a Thunderbolts* team from the Marvel Cinematic Universe together in Marvel: Crisis Protocol? Let’s give it a go!
The Thunderbolts* movie has been out for a couple of weeks now so I feel like it’s time we can talk a bit more about it without spoiling things. That said, we are going to be talking about the team in the movie. If you’re looking for something a bit more from the comics-side of Marvel for MCP, I did that already.
Today, I’m going to try and tackle rebuilding the team from the MCU on the tabletop. We are going to have to use a few proxy characters. But first, if you haven’t figured it out by now….
Still here? Good. Let’s dive in.
Assembling The Thunderbolts*
So the team in the MCU consists of the following characters:
- Black Widow – Yelena Belova
- Winter Soldier – Bucky Barnes
- Red Guardian – Alexei Shostakov
- U.S. Agent – John Walker
- Ghost – Ava Starr
- Taskmaster – Antonia Dreykov
- Sentry/Void – Robert “Bob” Reynolds
And yes, I’m including Taskmaster. If you know, you know. Anyhow, that’s the team from the movie. So can you rebuilt this team in Marvel: Crisis Protocol? Sort of.
Aside from Atomic Mass Games just adding in the missing characters (which I’m all for) I think we can do some clever work arounds to get some approximations of these characters. Let’s start at the top and work our way through the list.
Black Widow – Yelena Belova
Obviously there’s an existing Black Widow in MCP. Heck, she’s got three different versions! So that’s a pretty easy swap — just pick your favorite. I’m not sure which one I’d personally opt for using. But, as a hobby project, just painting the hair blonde puts you 99% of the way there.
Bucky Barnes
Winter Soldier already exists in MCP and there’s two different versions of him as well. You’ve got the OG version and the Earth’s Mightiest Core Set version. Again, I feel like this one is kind of interchangeable. But my personal preference is the Earth’s Mightiest Core Set version — only because I like the sculpt more.
Red Guardian – Alexei Shostakov
Do we have a Red Guardian in MCP? Yes. But this is technically a different person than the one in the MCU. The MCP version is Nikolai Krylenko. And, obviously, the costume is different. Does that matter for this little thought experiment? Not really. I’m willing to roll with this option and move on.
U.S. Agent – John Walker
What do we do about US Agent? The easy fix is just use one of the three versions of Captain America that exist in MCP already. But now we’re not just swapping out “Alter Egos” here — we’re fully swapping the super hero out. Then again, John Walker did go by Captain America for a wee bit in the MCU…so we can let this slide, right?
I could see a case for any of the three versions of Captain America. Personally, I’d want to use the old version from the Core set. It’s kind of a basic one but it covers all the highlights. Ironically, the “Steve Rogers, Captain America” version might be the best fit only because he’s the least “team-player” version of Cap in the game. Which seems fitting for US Agent.
Ghost – Ava Starr
Okay, this is the first character that we’re going to have to use some hand-wavium with. Ghost does not exist in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Which is a shame but another topic. So who could fill in for her spot? I really wasn’t sure who to choose here. Her powers are the fact she can go intangible and phase through things. While Vision DOES have the phasing ability, I feel like that might be too far off. I really hate to do this, too, but I would honestly suggest using Wasp in her place.
The Tiny version is kind of like her phasing in that she’s really hard to hit. I also think that her being a threat level 3 makes a tad more sense. Again, I don’t have a great answer for this one but at least Ghost and Wasp have history in the MCU…so there’s that?
If you’ve got a better suggestion for who should take Ghost’s spot I’m all ears on this one.
Taskmaster – Antonia Dreykov
Taskmaster is another easy swap as there’s an existing version in MCP. Obviously this is a different person that the one in the MCU plus, well, if you saw Thunderbolts* then you know. I almost wanted to choose Deadpool only because of the memory issues the character has in MCU. But Deadpool has that healing factor and that’s a problem. Maybe Gwenpool? Nah…I don’t think Taskmaster is that kind of crazy.
Sentry/Void – Robert “Bob” Reynolds
This is another character that doesn’t exist in MCP and doesn’t have a clear 1:1 replacement option. Since there’s not a clear swap we need to think a little outside the box. So what can we look for in a replacement? Well, Sentry (in a lot of ways) is kind of like a Marvel version of Superman but with a lot more mental trauma and a much darker side.
His powers in the MCU were also more telekinetic/mental on top of being nigh invulnerable. Again, we don’t have a good 1:1 comparison here. But we do have another Superman analog in MCP: Gladiator.
Now I’ve written about Gladiator’s rules before. I think him clocking in as a threat level 6 is appropriate for a Sentry replacement. He’s able to go toe-to-toe with most every other character in the game. Plus, he’s got the super-strength part down. The eye beam attack isn’t a perfect representation of the Sentry’s abilities in the movie but he did look at folks and “dust” them (at least when he was the Void). So I feel like that’s close enough. Oh, and he’s also got the whole “Bravado” thing going on which is a good-enough representation of The Sentry’s mental state. Most importantly he’s got a cape.
Again, I’m not sure if the Gladiator is the best fit for a Sentry replacement but it’s what I’m going with. If you’ve got another character in mind drop them in the comments. I’m curious who you’d want as a replacement.
Thunderbolts Team Time?
While this is mostly wish-listing, there’s enough cross over here that you could really run a Winter Guard (with a few other additions) or an Avengers Affiliation and get most of the benefits. The Avengers Affiliation seems most appropriate given the marketing campaign. Maybe one day we’ll get an actual Thunderbolts Affiliation based on the comics. But until then, I say mix-and-match and just have some fun with the Thunderbolts* team of your dreams.
Justice Like Lightning!
