We’re getting a new Thunderbolts Affiliation for Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Who’s going to be included in it? We have some ideas.
During the AdeptiCon preview for Marvel: Crisis Protocol Will Shick didn’t come out and say who’d be in the Thunderbolts Affiliation. However, he DID allude to who could be a part of that Affiliation.
Watch from around the 32 minute mark…
Basically, he said while MCP is kind of it’s own universe, you can check out the wiki pages for both Affiliations (Thunderbolts and Intellegencia) to get a rough idea of who could be in those rosters. So we did.
The Thunderbolts Affiliation Could Be A Game Changer
One of the things to know about the Thunderbolts that their roster is HUGE. Why is it so massive? Well, part of the reason is that it’s not necessarily a “good guy” or “bad guy” type of organization. In fact, their members stretch across the entire spectrum of Marvel Heroes and Villains. Another major factor is that there have been no less than 12 different iterations of the Thunderbolts, too. So it’s not so much which characters are included, but rather, which version of the Thunderbolts are we going with here?
The very obvious thing to point out is the Thunderbolts comparison to DC’s Suicide Squad. Now you could make the case that the Thunderbolts were just Bad Guys trying to become rehabilitated heroes…and I think quite a few of them were trying to go legit. However, Marvel has muddied those waters. Later iterations of the team were mixes of new and returning characters. There also was a bit of a shuffle behind the creative team in regards to the comic title as well. Plus there was the MCU movie that came out and has had an impact on the Thunderbolts* name, too.
So yeah…I think at the end of the day looking at who could be in this roster is a bit overwhelming. There’s also a ton of characters in different iterations that aren’t even in Marvel: Crisis Protocol yet. So once again, there’s plenty of room to grow here.
Having said all that, if you really want to check out who’s in the various Thunderbolts groups you can see a full list on their wiki page here. There’s even a breakdown on a per group basis. Which is why I think we can actually make an educated guess on which version of the Thunderbolts we’re getting.
The Red Hulk Is The Key
One thing we know is that Red Hulk is going to be leading the charge for the Thunderbolts here. Which is convenient! We can use him to figure out which team(s) he was on to help us narrow it down. Red Hulk was the leader of the Sixth Group of Thunderbolts. And we’ve got the list of characters of that which includes:
- Red Hulk
- Deadpool
- Elektra
- Punisher
- Agent Venom
- Red Leader
- Mercy
- Ghost Rider
Now, if you’re curious who Red Leader is, no, that’s not a Star Wars reference. That’s the version of The Leader (yes, it’s still Samuel Sterns) who got exposed to even more Gamma Radiation after being shot and killed by the Punisher. Why did he come back? “Because Comics!” is the short answer. And yes, he turned red. But he got better.
Mercy is another character you might not be familiar with unless you’re a big Hulk fan. She’s often pictured with pink or purple hair and it’s a little unclear about her origins. Anyhow, she’s technically on the Thunderbolts team that Red Hulk leads. So maybe she’ll be added to MCP at a later date.
Other than that, the rest of the crew of the sixth Thunderbolts team is all in the game already. Honestly, I think it’s a roster that could work although I’m a little unsure about how Elektra’s Hand Ninja Grunts showing up would make sense for the Thunderbolts…but I’m willing to look past that.
Elektra painted by our own GentleBen!
Other Thunderbolts Iterations
Okay, so now that we’ve done the leg work of narrowing down which team Red Hulk is on, what if we didn’t limit it to that team? Well, without going through ALL possible Thunderbolt characters, I’m just going to list which characters are currently in MCP and were on a Thunderbolts team at some point.
- Baron Zemo
- Hawkeye
- Tony Stark (as Cobalt Man)
- Bullseye
- Doctor Octopus
- Green Goblin
- Jack O’Lantern (coming later this year)
- Taskmaster
- Venom
- Wrecking Crew
- Ant-Man
- Black Widow
- Luke Cage
- Crossbones
- Juggernaught
- Man-Thing
- Winter Soldier
- Rhino
- Electro (although, not the same Electro that’s currently in MCP)
- Shocker
- Kraven the Hunter
- Abomination
- Spectrum
- America Chavez (coming soon)
- Red Guardian
- Shang-Chi
So that’s 26 MORE character that could be a part of a Thunderbolts Affiliation. See what I was saying about there being room to grow? That’s also not counting all the OTHER characters that aren’t even in MCP yet. So yeah, I’m a little excited to see the Thunderbolts added and I can’t wait to see what Atomic Mass Games does with this Affiliation!
That’s a LOT of options for building a Roster.
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Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.
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