What Every Original Avenger’s Shame Room Would Be If They Met The Void

The Void demonstrated the power to thrust any Marvel Cinematic Universe hero – including members of the original Avengers team – into their worst nightmares in Thunderbolts*. Lewis Pullman debuted as Robert Reynolds in Thunderbolts*, a troubled former drug addict who became the Sentry after undergoing experimentation by the OXE Group. While these experiments gave him the power of a thousand exploding suns, they also unlocked Reynolds’ darker alter ego, the Void, whose shadows placed the citizens of New York in personalized “shame rooms” formed from their worst nightmares.

We saw Robert Reynolds relive his father’s abuse in his shame room, while Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) went back to her childhood in the Red Room and re-experienced her isolation and loneliness. The other members of the New Avengers team also relived some of their most traumatic moments, which makes us wonder what the other heroes of the MCU would experience in the Void’s shame rooms. The six original members of the Avengers team have some of the deepest shame out of any MCU character, so their shame rooms would surely be incredible and haunting to watch.

6) Hawkeye Witnessed Natasha Romanoff’s Death

Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) may have too many shameful situations to count, which would give the Void plenty of opportunities to terrorize Hawkeye in a shame room. However, few moments have been as traumatic as Barton being unable to stop his best friend, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) sacrifice herself on Vormir for the Soul Stone. Barton continued to deal with the aftermath of Romanoff’s death in Hawkeye on Disney+, so while his activities as Ronin or losing his family to Thanos could be relived in his shame room, Black Widow’s death would surely be top of the list.

5) Captain America Lost His Friend Who Became the Winter Soldier

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) has always upheld hope, optimism, and patriotism as Captain America, which means he may get off easier than Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, or Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). One of Rogers’ most heartbreaking moments, however, saw him fail to save his childhood friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) from seemingly falling to his death in Captain America: The First Avenger. Bucky, of course, didn’t die, but was found by HYDRA and transformed into the elite Winter Soldier, who was then brainwashed into committing some heinous acts in the following decades – something that Rogers might blame himself for.

4) Natasha Romanoff Has Red in Her Ledger From Her Career as a Black Widow

Natasha Romanoff has never shied away from mentioning her traumatic and dark history as a Black Widow assassin raised in and manipulated by the Red Room. She revealed to Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in The Avengers that she has “red in [her] ledger,” and we’ve seen some of this in her subsequent appearances. Her most shameful moment is perhaps when she used Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko) as bait to ensure her father (Ray Winstone) was home, hoping to kill him to complete her defection to the United States. This was ultimately futile, but General Dreykov thankfully met his demise in 2016.

3) Bruce Banner Put Everyone He Loved at Risk to Become the Hulk

Before ever getting involved in the world of monsters and heroes, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) was already a renowned physicist and scientist, and he had a successful and loving relationship with Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). The experiment that turned him into the Hulk both made and ruined his life – and became his greatest shame for many subsequent years. He would most likely revisit this event after coming face-to-face with the Void, especially since he also put Betty and her father in jeopardy. The Hulk has been through huge trauma ever since, but this pivotal event must be his most damaging.

2) Thor Should Have Gone for the Head

The Asgardian God of Thunder has been through the wringer since Thor, so the Void would have a field day if Thor (Chris Hemsworth) would get thrust into his shadow. Thor’s most traumatic moments include losing his mother, being betrayed repeatedly by his brother, and failing to stop his sister from wreaking havoc. However, Thor’s deepest shame is his failure to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin) from snapping his fingers in Avengers: Infinity War. Thor not going for the head and finishing the job directly led to the killing of half the universe’s population, and pushed Thor into years of depression.

1) Iron Man Would Have Too Many Shame Rooms to Count

Ever since introducing us to the MCU back in 2008 until his departure from the franchise in 2019, Tony Stark’s Iron Man amassed a huge number of traumatic situations that could become shame rooms. Yinsen’s sacrifice in Iron Man, Rhodey stealing his suit in Iron Man 2, traveling to space with a nuclear missile in The Avengers and his continued PTSD, witnessing his parents’ death in Captain America: Civil War, and creating supervillains such as the Iron Monger, Whiplash, Ultron, Aldrich Killian, and more. All of this could have contributed to an incredibly painful experience for Tony Stark.

Robert Downey Jr. and Lewis Pullman will be appearing together in Avengers: Doomsday in 2026, but not with the former playing Tony Stark. Instead, Downey will be playing Victor Von Doom’s Doctor Doom, and it remains to be seen what shame rooms the Latverian ruler and legendary supervillain may be thrust into in the Russo brothers’ Phase 6 movie. Even so, it will be great to see both Downey Jr. and Pullman back in action.

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