“Curse you, Jeff!” That is what I’ve yelled internally as I used to be thrown into the closest abyss a minimum of 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 large Marvel fan, however I will admit that I do not learn each single factor the writer places out. Hell, I in all probability 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 folks than ever earlier than are conscious of comedian e book universes, however that does not imply that the majority of those self same individuals are studying comics. Even throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s peak days, there was an issue in getting viewers to leap into comedian books.
A concept of mine is that, as stable as Marvel’s adaptation efforts had been till a couple of years in the past, they by no means fairly capitalized on the weirdness and fewer fashionable facet of the large Marvel universe. Now, the MCU may be very a lot making an attempt to deal with such characters and parts, however is failing to persistently execute that imaginative and prescient effectively sufficient to make people stick round past surefire hits like Deadpool & Wolverine.
While you’re offered with well-known characters like Iron Man, Captain America, or Spider-Man time and again on the large and small screens, a typical by-product is just not desirous to see far more of their faces on the pages. At this level, I have a tendency to essentially gravitate in the direction of much less fashionable characters who I do know much less about. That looks as if a much better use of my time. And I am prepared to confess that current 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 conversant in. Even when they suck within the present meta, I am curious to be taught extra about them, and I really feel like Marvel Rivals has completed a fairly job of blending the favored faces with heroes and villains who’re historically missed.
“No character is off limits,” govt producer Danny Koo teased again at Gamescom 2024. It is a refreshing strategy 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 realizing who’s across the nook as a result of supply materials’s richness.
Moon Knight or Lin Lie (Marvel Rivals’ Iron Fist and presently scariest character) had been relative nobodies a couple of years in the past except you actually had 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 in the case of video video games. Stuff like Insomniac’s Spider-Man video games is nice and all, however having live-service titles that turn into this huge and continually 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 would like extra X-Males to point out up. However on the finish of the day, I am simply grateful for a really stable hero shooter that is taking advantage of a genuinely colourful and wealthy multiverse that too usually feels underused exterior of comedian books. Rock-solid methods apart, it is the primary motive 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 exterior 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 fashionable, extremely worthwhile genres. Take 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 possibilities 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 effectively, particularly now that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is finished 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 technique or one other, we’d as effectively ask for transmedia works that really make good use of them, particularly in the event that they’re pushing extra folks to select up books as a substitute of doom-scrolling for 5 hours a day after they’re not watching or enjoying something.