Do you think that the initial Thunderbolts concept would work better as a movie or a TV show?
I don’t know that it would work great as either, as it’s so tied into the history of the Marvel Universe. Having the Thunderbolts revealed to be villains that you never heard of before doesn’t have quite teh same impact.
It depends on how direct an adaptation we’re talking about.
Literally adapting Thunderbolts #1-12 (as a movie or TV series) would be a massive undertaking. You’d have to introduce six supervillains, establish them as the Masters of Evil, and then “kill” the Avengers just to get started.
However, I don’t think any of that is necessary to get at the core concept of the storyline. What matters is that the Thunderbolts are pretending to be superheroes to achieve world domination. I think that concept can resonate with people even without the “omg Citizen V is Baron Zemo!” moment. I don’t have to already know who Baron Zemo is to think he’s a dick, or that his plan is frighteningly brilliant.
I think Thunderbolts #1 had to play up all that Marvel history, to get people in 1997 to give it a second look. But that doesn’t seem to be an issue for moviegoers today. The backstory might enhance a T-bolts movie (in the same way that an Adam Warlock or Annihilation movie might have been used to set up Guardians of the Galaxy) but it’s not essential to the experience.
