Marvel Rivals’ secret weapon is its healthy mix of A-listers and overlooked characters, and this may help the brand as a whole

“Damn you, Jeff!” At least five times since then, I’ve screamed like that as I threw myself over the nearest cliff. Marvel RivalsLaunching on December 6th. Before that I hardly knew who the hell was Jeff the Land Shark was, and it comes from a pop culture patient.

Look, I’m a pretty big Marvel fan, but I’ll admit I don’t read everything the publisher says. Hell, I probably check a very small percentage of what they do today. This has been a problem for some timeand not just for Marvel: More people than ever are aware of comic book universes, but that doesn’t mean most of those people read comics. Even in the peak days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, comic books had trouble attracting audiences.

One theory I have is that as solid as Marvel’s adaptation efforts were up until a few years ago, they never really took full advantage of the quirks and less popular aspects of the massive Marvel universe. Now, the MCU is trying hard to tackle these kinds of characters and elements, but it can’t execute that vision well enough for people to stay away from reliable hits like Deadpool and Wolverine.

When you’re introduced to iconic characters like Iron Man, Captain America, or Spider-Man time and time again on the big and small screens, a common byproduct is not wanting to see their faces on the pages anymore. . At this point, I’m leaning towards less popular characters that I’m less familiar with. That seems like a better use of my time. And I’m willing to admit that recent TV shows and video games have played a big part in me reading about characters like myself. Agatha Harkness or Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider (shoutout). Midnight suns).

After spending some time Marvel Rivals Full Editioni am starting to feel the same itch. Sure, A-listers like Magneto and Venom are ready to rock, but I have more fun with characters I’m not that familiar with. Even if they swallow the existing meta, I’m interested in learning more about them, and I feel like Marvel Rivals has done a nice job of mixing in famous faces with traditionally overlooked heroes and villains.

“No character is without limits” executive producer Danny Koo teased Back to Gamescom 2024. It’s a refreshing approach to filling out an ever-expanding list of heroes and villains to do something limited. Avengers live action looter shooter again. let’s Overwatch put the comparisons aside for a small moment and admit that half (if not more) of the reason Marvel Rivals came out is simply because it looks and feels amazing. and it also promises the thrill of not knowing who’s around the corner due to the richness of the source material.

Moon Knight or Lin Lie (Iron Fist of Marvel Rivals and is the scariest character right now) a few years ago you were a relative nobody unless you were really into comics. Yes, Moon Knight has been around forever, but come on, the norms didn’t give a damn until the Oscar Isaac-led show came out. New MCU entries and video games aren’t just designed to make money on their own, but to keep the comics and the overall brand healthy and relevant. While Marvel’s Avengers feels like a huge stumble, Marvel Snap and Marvel Rivals completely turned the ship around when it comes to video games. things like Insomniac’s Spider-Man games great, but having live-service titles that are this big and constantly getting deeper into the Marvel library is a great value for the powers that be.

Yes, I still want Daredevil to enter the arena soon Daredevil: Reborn Hits in March. Yes, I want to see more X-Men. But at the end of the day, I’m thankful for a very solid hero shooter that really makes the most of colorful and rich gameplay. multiverse it feels very often underutilized outside of comic books. Rock-solid systems aside, this is the main reason I find Firaxis ‘Midnight Suns’ so appealing; It wasn’t afraid to be weird and explore a side of the brand that had previously been left out of comics. We all knew that the moment Marvel could successfully mix this with popular, high-grossing genres, they’d have something huge on their hands. Look at us now.

Here’s the thing: We know how the video game market works and how publishers and rights holders react to massive hits. So, in a hurry to create a DC alternative to Marvel Rivals, Warner Bros. Games have a chance to completely miss why it works so well, especially now Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is it done for good? It pains me to say that they are quite high.

In conclusion, I guess we can ask for transmedia works that really make good use of the milking era, in a time when huge IPs are drying up and some are ready to last forever in one way or another. them, especially if they get more people to buy books instead of spending five hours a day cheating when they’re not watching or playing anything.