Today Marvel has our first extended look at Lightning bolts*the new antihero team-up film that brings together a motley crew of renegades from a plethora of previous Marvel projects. It’s been a while since we’ve seen many of these characters, and one of them is brand new to the MCU. So if you need a refresher on who’s who and where they’ve been, we’re here to help.

Yelena Belova

She is a former Black Widow and adopted sister of Natasha Romanoff. After we met her in the Black Widow movie, we last saw Jelena act on information Valentina gave her (more on her later) after Natasha’s death in Avengers: EndgameWhen Fontaine told her that her sister had in fact been murdered by Clint Barton, Jelena went on the hunt for Clint in the Hawk’s Eye streaming series, crossed paths with his partner in arrow vigilance Kate Bishop before clashing with Clint. The duo successfully managed to convince Yelena of the true circumstances surrounding Natasha’s death – and how her sacrifice helped bring Yelena back from the dead, as she was a victim of Thanos’ snap – and the former assassin parted ways with the two archers and headed off to parts unknown, conveniently getting picked up by Lightning bolts.

Ava Starr, aka Ghost

Last seen in Ant-Man and the WaspAva was the victim of an accident in which her father, Elihas, attempted to dig a tunnel to the Quantum Realm. Ava was flooded with quantum energy in the explosion that killed her parents and suffered from “molecular imbalance”, an unbearable condition that left her body destabilized and intangible. Ava was adopted by one of her father’s colleagues, Bill Foster, and was eventually recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. and given a “ghost suit” that helped her control her powers and pain, training her as a covert agent until the organization’s dissolution. When we last saw her, she had turned to crime in an attempt to find a cure for her worsening condition, which brought her across the path of Hank Pym – whom her father had driven out of S.H.I.E.L.D. years earlier – and his own quantum tunneling technology. After a run-in with Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ava’s condition was temporarily stabilized by the return of the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne, from the Quantum Realm, and she went into hiding with Foster to continue searching for a way to fully cure her. She appears not to have found one by Lightning boltsBut do have a fancy new ghost suit.

John Walker, aka American Agent

Introduced in The Falcon and the Winter SoldierJohn was the official replacement for Steve Rogers by the United States government as Captain America after the events of Avengers: EndgameWalker, a former U.S. Army Ranger, his first official duties as Captain America involved working with Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes to investigate the anti-nationalist group known as the Flag Smashers, but the stress of the operation—including clashes with Barnes and Wilson over his inheritance of Rogers’ mantle and struggles to apprehend the Flag Smashers’ leader, Karli Morgenthau—led to Walker ingesting a stolen vial of the counterfeit Super Soldier Serum, which gave him enhanced physical abilities. When Walker’s field partner, Lemar Hoskins, was killed in a fight with Morgenthau, the serum drove Walker to publicly execute a Flag Smasher in a rage, and he was stripped of his commission and the Captain America mantle. However, that didn’t stop de Fontaine from personally recruiting him to continue working for the U.S. as the U.S. Agent, a specialist in covert operations.

Antonia Dreykov, also known as Taskmaster

The antagonist of Black WidowAntonia Dreykov was the daughter of General Dreykov, the overseer of the Soviet government’s Red Room Academy, the training facility that recruited young women to become the elite stealth operatives and assassins of the Black Widow Program. When General Dreykov targeted the former Widow Natasha Romanoff in a bombing in Budapest, Antonia was struck by the blast and critically injured. Dreykov saved his daughter’s life by planting a regulating chip in the back of her neck, numbing her pain and emotional responses and giving Dreykov control over his own daughter – control he used to put her through the Red Room training himself, using her photographic reflexes to train her as his ultimate agent. Now operating as the Taskmaster, Antonia crossed paths with Romanoff again when she was assigned by her father to capture the rogue Yelena, who had stolen a compound that could disrupt his control over the indoctrinated Widows. During their hunt, Romanoff exposed Antonia to the complex, freeing her from her father’s brainwashing and leaving her with the surviving Widows to recover.

Alexei Shostakovich, also known as the Red Protector

If Lightning bolts starting to feel a bit like a Black Widow sequel, well, the rather is. Alexei is another product of Soviet war research, the first official Russian super soldier, and a father figure to Natasha and Elena after an undercover operation where he acted as their adoptive father alongside Red Room agent and scientist Melina Vostokoff. After being captured by Dreykov following the success of the operation, Shostakov was freed years later by Natasha and Elena to help them take down the Red Room once and for all, along with their adoptive mother and father. After helping them rescue the freed widows, we see that by the time Lightning bolts Alexei lives alone again, spending his time drinking drinks and delivering DoorDash, waiting for a chance to dress up as the Red Guardian again.

Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier

Arguably the most notable member of the team, Bucky also has the longest history in the MCU. Steve Rogers’ best friend and former partner during World War II until he was seemingly killed during a mission and captured by Hydra to be brainwashed as their own black ops agent, the Winter Soldier, Bucky’s had many mantles since being freed from his programming and eventually fully cured with the help of the Wakandans. After being killed by Thanos’ snap and being brought back to life years later, Bucky was last seen properly in The Falcon and tthe winter soldierhelping Sam stop the threat of the Flag Smashers (and ultimately John Walker). How he ended up in the Fontaine’s orbit remains to be seen. Lightning boltsbut maybe he’ll tell you that Nebula stole his arm that one time.

Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

The architect of this new Lightning bolts team, Fontaine is the head of the CIA, and has appeared occasionally since her debut in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to recruit personnel to operate in the shadows, like Walker and Yelena. We’ll no doubt see how well that works out for her in the new film. While the MCU version of the character hasn’t spoken much about it, in the comics, de Fontaine has a long, complicated history as a triple agent who worked within SHIELD and eventually Hydra as a Russian agent for the country’s own spy agency, Leviathan, and even operated for a time as the second Madame Hydra. Given the MCU’s history with Hydra, only time will tell if Valentina still has a few tricks up her sleeve.

“Bob”, also known as the Sentinel?

The last important figure we meet in the Lightning bolts trailer is the one we know the least about—since he’s making his debut in this film. But the mysterious “Bob,” as he calls himself in the trailer, played by Lewis Pullman (replacing Steven Yeun, who was originally cast in the film), is rumored to be playing a major character from the comics, judging by his shortened name and the bullet-stopping abilities we see briefly in the trailer: Robert Reynolds, aka the Sentry.

Introduced as a quasi-riff on DC’s Superman (one of many over the years), the Sentry was created after Reynolds, a poor meth addict, broke into a research lab and inadvertently injected himself with the Golden Sentry Serum, mutating him with immense superhuman strength, speed, and durability. Retroactively introduced in 2000 as one of the oldest active superheroes in the Marvel Universe before the public rise of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and more, Robert’s had a lengthy comic book history, including battling the threat of his darker half, the Void, as well as the traditional act of getting killed at least a few times. His most recent death occurred during the events of the King in black event in 2020, when Sentry was brutally torn to pieces by the god of the symbiotes, Knull (who is set to make his own film debut in Venom: The Last Dance). Robert’s soul was taken to Valhalla in honor of his heroic duties in life, while… his corpse was used by an evil magical terrorist group who wanted to kill Doctor Strange with a body bomb? Comics!

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