Bowling Alone, but Make it Marvel
Did Marvel just make a movie about loneliness, belonging, and joining?
For the last six months, there’s been wild speculation about the asterisk in the title of the latest Marvel blockbuster, Thunderbolts*. After watching the film recently—in a movie theater, of course—I’m convinced Thunderbolts* is secretly a movie about civic renewal. About how joining a team and finding your people can save more than just the day. Maybe even our democracy. Or maybe Marvel just optioned Bowling Alone and gave us the crossover we never knew we needed.
A fact many people don’t know about me is that, periodically, I stroll onto Comic Book Nerd Youtube to bathe myself in wild hypotheses about upcoming comic book movies. There’s a nontrivial amount of channels devoted to this like ScreenCrush and Emergency Awesome. Here’s an example of a clickbait fan theory video:
As far back as I can remember, I loved movie trailers. Of course, all I was looking for was if and whether there might be adaptations of comic books into movies.
Because we loved comic books in late elementary and middle school. What drew us in weren’t the now-ubiquitous Avengers stories—about gods and geniuses and billionaire playboys. But the OG underdogs—the X-Men. The freaks. The nerds. The minorities.
We were die hard X-Men fans. And the comic that did it for me? This sorta-reboot of the X-Men team in 1991. It had FOUR variant covers1. The combination of this comic book, the availability of bargain packs of comics at Costco, and X-Men: The Animated Series made a lifelong fan out of me.
I’ve digressed enough, so I won’t go too far into the weeds of Thunderbolts*2, but it takes place at a time when the Avengers aren’t a thing anymore, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character has been a shadowy operator amassing power in government, but also doing illegal things with several black ops types.
Because of a congressional investigation into her shady dealings, she sends several lonely, isolated black ops anti-heroes who have been working for her to do illegal things individually on “one last job” to eliminate the others who have been doing hits and robberies for her.
They’re all depressed, wrestling with some sort of rejection and unhappiness, and looking for “something” to give their lives meaning. And she dangled purpose in front of them.
Of course, It’s all a ploy so she can tie up loose ends by getting them all into the same room, and then incinerating it. And, of course, instead they band together, eventually become a team, and prevent her from taking over government via a secret off-books super soldier project who they awakened.
In the end, they are stronger together than they were alone, they’ve formed a club, they battle their loneliness and isolation, and then they save democracy.
Bowling Alone, see? I don’t remember when it clicked, but it really did seem to me that this film was about how belonging and community conquer all, even supernatural forces.
Maybe it’s because I’m weird, but I also see these themes when I watch cooking shows. On Chef’s Table, episode after episode is about how these geniuses couldn’t find belonging anywhere else, but eventually found it in the kitchen and they chased their dreams to mastery3. In every season of Top Chef, the emotional beats are consistent: someone falters, someone else says, “You have to cook YOUR food,” then the next dish is a hit.
To me, this sort of story only works when considering a “super team.” It doesn’t work with individuals, and it might explain why we’re so drawn to teams in comics. Maybe the same reason we like the Step-by-Step and Family Matters crossover. We’re putting individuals in conversation with each other, which is how we live our lives.
This wasn’t always the case. For anyone who’s read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay4, we know the original superheroes were solitary actors. Superman. Batman. And these early heroes by DC Comics were powerful and popular. But not as popular as the heroes Marvel would soon present who were more flawed and human, and dealing with real human issues. Spider-Man was a teenager. The Fantastic Four were a family. The X-Men were always allegory for belonging and civil rights, though the persecuted group they represented might shift.
And so, when I see a Marvel movie, with clear undertones of fighting loneliness, isolation, and fascism through creating belonging and civic duty, I have to think it’s not a coincidence.
Over the last few months, I’ve met and connected folks across the country who are working on civic rejuvenation through community. And I think there’s a civic renaissance underway: Prosocial.club and BuildIRL in San Francisco, Town Nights and Friend Cult in Oakland, Warm Cookies for the Revolution in Denver, The Chamber of Connection in Seattle, Community Share in Tucson, Citizen League in Minneapolis and many more. So why wouldn’t Marvel want to get on the bandwagon?
At the end of the day, we need all hands on deck. What are you waiting for? Listen to Captain America:
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I had the one with Rogue, Psylocke, Gambit, and Colossus.
Although I am curious about the Venn diagram of MCU fans and Joinery subscribers.
Of course, set over dramatic classical music and beautiful shots.
Fun fact: Michael Chabon also wrote Spider-Man 2, aka the best Spider-Man film.
Thwip. Snikt. Bampf. Good stuff here, man.
I had a big framed poster of the X-Men 91 cover with Wolverine and Cyclops. It's actually probably still somewhere in my parent's house.