Marvel's Thunderbolts*: Comics Featuring Black Widow and Winter Soldier Strike in 2025

Comics that inspired Marvel Studios' Thunderbolts* hit stands in 2025.

By Cameron Bonomolo

"There are good guys, and you're bad guys," Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina Allegra de Fontaine remarks in the new Thunderbolts* trailer. "But there are worse guys." Before Marvel Studios assembles the anti-Avengers — a motley crew of anti-heroes and reformed villains that includes Black Widow Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Bob Reynolds/Sentry (Lewis Pullman) — Marvel Comics is assembling the comics that inspired the movie*.

* New trade paperbacks set to release in 2025 include Thunderbolts: The Saga of Yelena Belova, which compiles the earliest appearances of the Red Room's top assassin-spy in the Marvel Universe, and Thunderbolts: Winter Soldiers, collecting the complete 12-issue run of the Bucky Barnes-fronted Thunderbolts Vol. 3 by Jim Zub and Jon Malin.

Out March 4th, 2025, Thunderbolts: Winter Soldiers sees the non-lethal Thunderbolts squad led by Winter Soldier —Atlas, Moonstone, Mach-X, Fixer, Kobik, and Songbird — battle S.H.I.E.L.D., the Squadron Supreme, and the original Thunderbolts: Baron Zemo and the Masters of Evil, a group of supervillains who posed as superheroes in the absence of the Avengers.

Thunderbolts: The Saga of Yelena Belova, on sale March 11th, includes Natasha Romanoff/Natalia Romanova's first self-titled solo series, 1999's Marvel Knights: Black Widow limited series by Devin Grayson and J.G. Jones, which pit Black Widow against Black Widow when Natasha met Yelena for the first time during a mission to Rhapastan. Also included in the 376-page trade paperback is 2001's Black Widow Vol. 2, co-starring both Black Widows, the 2020 one-shot comic Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova, the four-issue limited series Winter Guard (featuring White Widow, Red Guardian, and Russia's premiere super-team), and the four-issue "I Am the Black Widow" arc from Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande's 2020 Black Widow run.

Also slated for release in May is the Marvel Epic Collection Thunderbolts: Targeted for Death, which follows Hawkeye's Thunderbolts during writer Kurt Busiek and artist Mark Bagley's run on the '90s first volume.

Thunderbolts: Winter Soldiers

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The Winter Soldier leads a new team of Thunderbolts!

Out of the ashes of AVENGERS: STANDOFF, Bucky Barnes recruits a squad of renegades — but are they heroes or villains? Do even they know for sure?! They're on a rampage across the Marvel Universe, hunting down and destroying bizarre, mind-bending threats — all the while harboring one of their own! And among their number is the serial manipulator Moonstone! What could go wrong? How about a gut-wrenching battle for leadership, an alien threat and super-team showdowns with the All-New Inhumans and the Squadron Supreme?! As CIVIL WAR II rages, the Winter Soldier takes on Spider-Man! But Steve Rogers wants to know where Bucky's loyalties lie. Plus: The Thunderbolts used to be the Masters of Evil — and if Baron Zemo has his way, their villainous legacy will be reclaimed with the infinite power of a Cosmic Cube!

COLLECTING: Thunderbolts (2016) 1-12

Thunderbolts: The Saga of Yelena Belova


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Yelena Belova's journey from adversary to ally of the Black Widow!

Natasha Romanoff's time as the Black Widow may be running out — because Yelena Belova is gunning for the mantle! Yelena is the first student in Red Room history to exceed Natasha's skills — and now she's determined to eliminate her predecessor and claim the title for her own! It's a war of the Widows that will rage from the Middle East's deserts to New York's Upper West Side! But Yelena's path will soon place her square in the crosshairs of her home country, alongside Alexei Shostakov, the Red Guardian! Together, they face a race across Russia…pursued by the Winter Guard! And Yelena finds her destiny as the White Widow, helping Natasha protect San Francisco from a terrible threat!

COLLECTING: Black Widow (1999) 1-3, Black Widow (2001) 1-3, Widowmakers: Red Guardian and Yelena Belova (2020) 1, Winter Guard (2021) 1-4, Black Widow (2020) 7-10

Thunderbolts Epic Collection: Targeted for Death

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Marvel's villains turned heroes, the Thunderbolts, continue their quest for redemption!

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For the good of his team, MACH-1 gave up his liberty to atone for his sins. Now he's in prison, surrounded by the super villains who used to be his peers — and who now want him dead! Meanwhile, the Thunderbolts have a new leader in Hawkeye, a new headquarters, a new ship and a new mission: to prove themselves heroes by taking down the biggest villains at large! But with Graviton next on their list, will Archangel join the team? Citizen V returns, the T-Bolts have a rematch with the Hulk, Scourge targets Baron Zemo, and you won't believe the identity of the new Beetle! Clint Barton leads the T-Bolts into hell and back for a fallen Avenger — but when he locks lips with Moonstone, there's only one word for it: uh-oh! Plus: Enter, Sandman!

COLLECTING: Thunderbolts (1997) 26-41, Thunderbolts Annual 2000, Avengers Annual 2000

Marvel's Thunderbolts* hits theaters on May 2nd, 2025.

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