The final act of looked like it had broken one of the MCU's most sacred rules, and it genuinely stunned me. After all, until that point, Thunderbolts* had proved that it was unlike other MCU movies in many ways. For example, the fact that Bob was open about his use of meth was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment that I had to double-check, proving that drug use isn't a subject purely confined to the frenetic scripts of R-rated projects like Deadpool & Wolverine and that Marvel is happier than ever to deal with heavier subjects.

In fact, the whole motif of Thunderbolts* and its unabashed look at mental health and the truly dark places it can take otherwise relatively lighthearted characters like Yelena threw me off guard. This is largely why the response to Thunderbolts* has been so positive across the board, with audiences citing its emotional heft as particularly praiseworthy. Still, there was one shocking moment in Thunderbolts* that might have been a bridge too far, had it not been redressed a few sequences later.

Marketing for Thunderbolts*, including its more recent trailers, revealed that the main villain would be the ruinous alter-ego of Sentry, the Void. were shrouded in mystery, but it was certainly reasonable to assume the worst regarding the fates of his victims. The Void is, after all, one of the most murderous entities in Marvel Comics, and it was quickly established even in the lead-up to the release of Thunderbolts* that the titular team would be out of their depth.

This mystery persisted into the main bulk of the movie, setting up one of the most shocking scenes in the MCU. Just as the Void emerges and begins turning people into shadows, his actions lead to pandemonium on the streets, causing the New Avengers-to-be to get to work rescuing citizens from falling debris and unmanned vehicles. Just as before his eyes. The moment is rendered even more dreadful by the ominous silence that follows.

While this heart-stopping moment lingered, the heroes began evacuating the streets before Yelena decided to venture into the shadows herself. She had evidently intuited that the Void wasn't necessarily killing these people and recognized that she would have to join them and fight the Void from within whatever realm he was banishing them to. Thankfully, , where the young girl could then be seen looking (relatively) unharmed by the ordeal.

While it can be assumed that children aren't impervious in the MCU (many fell victim to the Snap, for instance), . Even when children do die, Thor: Love and Thunder followed a similar route to Thunderbolts* by depicting the death of Gorr's child, Love, at the beginning of the movie, only to have her resurrected by the end. Evidently, Marvel is aware of the gravitas of such an event and is unlikely to depict such a thing lightly. In fact, Thunderbolts* still got closer than usual for the MCU.

Although Yelena's stepping into the Void's shadow paid off and helped to ultimately "resurrect" the child who had been banished, she stepped into another deeply tragic scene. Yelena spends much of Thunderbolts* struggling to cope with her past actions as a Black Widow, so it's no surprise that her shame room contained one such action. In it, . Although it occurs off-screen, Anya is murdered in cold blood by an adult assassin.

for her to feel as depressed as she does in the current day. It also reiterates just how dark and twisted the Red Room and its mistreatment of young girls was before Yelena helped to bring it down in Black Widow. Ultimately, I think expertly handled these heavy scenes, making the MCU feel darker than ever.