“Curse you, Jeff!” That is what I’ve yelled internally as I used to be thrown into the closest abyss not less than 5 occasions since Marvel Rivals’ launch on December 6. Earlier than that, I barely even knew who the hell Jeff the Land Shark was, and that is coming from a popular culture sicko.
Look, I am a fairly big Marvel fan, however I will admit that I do not learn each single factor the writer places out. Hell, I most likely take a look at a really small share of what they’re doing these days. This has been a problem for some time, and never only for Marvel: Extra individuals than ever earlier than are conscious of comedian e-book universes, however that does not imply that almost all of those self same individuals are studying comics. Even in the course of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s peak days, there was an issue in getting viewers to leap into comedian books.
A idea of mine is that, as strong as Marvel’s adaptation efforts have been till just a few years in the past, they by no means fairly capitalized on the weirdness and fewer in style facet of the large Marvel universe. Now, the MCU could be very a lot attempting to sort out such characters and parts, however is failing to constantly execute that imaginative and prescient properly sufficient to make people stick round past surefire hits like Deadpool & Wolverine.
While you’re introduced with well-known characters like Iron Man, Captain America, or Spider-Man over and over on the large and small screens, a typical by-product just isn’t desirous to see rather more of their faces on the pages. At this level, I have a tendency to actually gravitate in the direction of much less in style characters who I do know much less about. That looks like a much better use of my time. And I am keen to confess that latest TV reveals and video video games have a performed an enormous position in getting me to examine characters like Agatha Harkness or Robbie Reyes’ Ghost Rider (shoutout to Midnight Suns).
After spending a while with Marvel Rivals’ full launch, I am beginning to really feel the identical itch. Certain, having A-listers like Magneto and Venom able to play as rocks, however I am having much more enjoyable with characters I wasn’t as aware of. Even when they suck within the present meta, I am curious to study extra about them, and I really feel like Marvel Rivals has performed a fairly job of blending the favored faces with heroes and villains who’re historically neglected.
“No character is off limits,” government producer Danny Koo teased again at Gamescom 2024. It is a refreshing method to filling out an ever-expanding roster of heroes and villains over doing one thing as restricted as an Avengers live-service looter shooter once more. Let’s put the Overwatch comparisons apart for a small second and admit that half (if no more) of the rationale why Marvel Rivals has popped off is as a result of it merely appears and feels superb and additionally guarantees the thrill of not understanding who’s across the nook as a result of supply materials’s richness.
Moon Knight or Lin Lie (Marvel Rivals’ Iron Fist and at the moment scariest character) have been relative nobodies just a few years in the past except you actually have been into comics. Yeah, Moon Knight has been round endlessly, however come on, normies did not give a s**t till the Oscar Isaac-led present got here out. New MCU entries and video video games aren’t simply meant to generate cash on their very own, they’re additionally meant to maintain comedian books and the general model wholesome and related. Whereas Marvel’s Avengers felt like a significant stumble, Marvel Snap and Marvel Rivals have utterly turned the ship round with regards to video video games. Stuff like Insomniac’s Spider-Man video games is nice and all, however having live-service titles that change into this massive and consistently go deeper into Marvel’s library is superb worth for the powers that be.
Sure, I nonetheless need Daredevil to enter the world as quickly as Daredevil: Born Once more hits in March. Sure, I need extra X-Males to point out up. However on the finish of the day, I am simply grateful for a really strong hero shooter that is profiting from a genuinely colourful and wealthy multiverse that too usually feels underused outdoors of comedian books. Rock-solid methods apart, it is the primary purpose why I discovered Firaxis’ Midnight Suns so rattling interesting; it wasn’t afraid to get bizarre and discover a facet of the model that had barely made it outdoors of comedian books earlier than. All of us knew Marvel would have one thing enormous of their fingers the second they managed to efficiently combine that with in style, extremely worthwhile genres. Have a look at us now.
Now this is the factor: We all know how the online game market works and the way publishers and rights holders react to huge hits by now. So, what are the probabilities of Warner Bros. Video games speeding to make a DC various to Marvel Rivals that utterly misses the purpose of why it really works so properly, particularly now that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is completed for good? It pains me to say that they are fairly excessive.
In conclusion, I assume that, within the age of milking enormous IPs till they’re dry and with a few of them doubtlessly set to be round endlessly in a method or one other, we’d as properly ask for transmedia works that truly make good use of them, particularly in the event that they’re pushing extra individuals to select up books as an alternative of doom-scrolling for 5 hours a day once they’re not watching or taking part in something.
