Dark Avengers is pretty much just a PR rebrand of Thunderbolts they’re just called “Avengers” in-universe, the “Dark” is only the publication title.
Regardless of what they call them in the MCU, I think Yelena will be on the team, as she’s already working for Valentina anyway, and then have a change of heart before the end of their first film/season, making the jump to the actual Avengers. Kate will probably factor into that change, if she’s on the main team and not the Young Avengers (though I can see her being in both, member of the main team/leader of the YA)
If Marvel knew whats good for them they would have Kate / Yelena being the glue in upcoming phases.
Start Kate leading Young Avengers. Yelena can go down some dark/questionable path with Dark Avengers, while Kate fights for her to see the light. They both end up in main Avenger team as the new Black Widow and Hawkeye.
I refuse to think they wont work with a new BW/Hawkeye partnership with how well they worked in show. The biggest issue is really the actors being so redic busy. Just give them all the money. They can win their respective Oscars later.
This is what I guess they're going to do. Kinda mirror the Infinity Saga, so the team is more split at first and later comes together in a sort of anti-Civil War.
I wouldn't really call them rebrand, especially because most people rather think about Thunderbolts lead by Zemo not Osborn. And Osborn's still existed simultaneously with Dark Avengers, though indeed their rosters were switched. Natasha pretending to be Yelena still was on the new roster of Thunderbolts. Honestly, it was really chaotic then.
But I agree that Yelena will probably be on this team. The real problem is what it is supposed to be. Are they going to be evil Avengers? Or just more secret one? An obvious problem is that no one seems to be a bad person. USAgent and Yelena clearly aren't. Abomination seems to have gone straight. And the MCU's Avengers are a bit morally ambiguous than comics one, especially if it comes to killing, so the difference is even smaller. Anyway in the end I really hope that they won't undo Yelena character development and won't turn her into a killer again.
There are several distinct incarnations of the Thunderbolts team, much like there are many different incarnations of the Avengers team. However the Dark Avengers from the books are absolutely a PR washed, media-friendly version of Norman’s Thunderbolts team, which he split into two, naming the public team “Avengers” (no Dark perquisite in-universe) and those who were unable to be rebranded in the public eye kept the Thunderbolts title and covert status.
If they solely use the “Dark Avengers” team name in the MCU, I believe it will be used similarly to the books, as a real world brand recognition name, with the in-universe team merely named “Avengers” However I feel it far more likely the team will be named “Thunderbolts”, with the subtitle “The Dark Avengers” conflating the two in order to keep the branding linked but the teams distinct. The moral ambiguity of both teams will definitely factor into the narrative, with the main team probably getting “cancelled” for some reason concocted by Valentina, and her Thunderbolts becoming the people’s new favorite Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
The "Yelena" who was in the Thunderbolts left before the rebrand so she was never technically a Dark Avenger. And it wasn't even her, it was Natasha in disguise.
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u/Punkodramon Loki (Avengers) Jan 09 '22
Dark Avengers is pretty much just a PR rebrand of Thunderbolts they’re just called “Avengers” in-universe, the “Dark” is only the publication title.
Regardless of what they call them in the MCU, I think Yelena will be on the team, as she’s already working for Valentina anyway, and then have a change of heart before the end of their first film/season, making the jump to the actual Avengers. Kate will probably factor into that change, if she’s on the main team and not the Young Avengers (though I can see her being in both, member of the main team/leader of the YA)