“Curse you, Jeff!” That's what I screamed inside as I was thrown into the nearest abyss at least five times since then Marvel Rivals' launch on December 6. Before that, I barely knew who the hell it was Jeff the Land Shark yes, and this comes from sicko pop culture.
Look, I'm a reasonably big Marvel fan, but I'll admit I don't read everything the publisher puts out. Hell, I might study a very small percentage of what they do today. This has been an issue for a whileand not just for Marvel: More people than ever are aware of comic book universes, but that doesn't mean most of those same people read comics. Even in the heyday of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was difficult to get viewers to jump into comic books.
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My theory is that as strong as Marvel's adaptation efforts have been in recent years, they've never taken advantage of the weirdness and unpopularity of the larger Marvel universe. Now, the MCU really tries to deal with characters and elements like that, but it fails to execute that vision consistently well enough to make people stick around beyond surefire hits like Deadpool & Wolverine.
When you get famous characters like Iron Man, Captain America, or Spider-Man again and again on the big and small screens, a common byproduct is not wanting to see many more of their faces on the pages. . At this point, I tend to gravitate towards less popular characters that I don't know much about. That seems like a much better use of my time. And I'm willing to admit that recent TV shows and video games have played a big role in getting me to read about characters like Agatha Harkness or Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes (shout out to The night sun).
After spending some time with Marvel Rivals full revealI'm starting to feel the same itch. Sure, having A-listers like Magneto and Venom ready to play rocks, but I have more fun with characters I'm less familiar with. Even if they are dating in the current meta, I'm curious to learn more about them, and I feel that Marvel Rivals has done a good job of mixing popular faces with heroes and lies that are traditionally overlooked.
“Character is not out of bounds,” said executive producer Danny Koo back at Gamescom 2024. It's a refreshing way to fill out a growing list of heroes and villains about doing something as limited as Avengers live service looter shooter again. Let's put the Overwatch comparisons aside for a little moment and admit that half (if not more) of the reason Marvel Rivals has taken off is because it just looks and feels amazing and also promises the pleasure of not knowing who is around the corner due to the richness of the source material.
Moon Knight or Lin Lie (Iron Fist Marvel Rivals and currently the weakest character) were friendly people a few years ago if you weren't really into comics. Yeah, Moon Knight has been around forever, but come on, the standards didn't give up until the Oscar Isaac-directed show was released. New MCU entries and video games aren't just meant to generate money on their own, they're also meant to keep comic books and the entire brand healthy and relevant. While Marvel's Avengers felt like a major disaster, Snap Marvel and Marvel Rivals has completely turned the ship around when it comes to video games. Things like Games for insomnia spider-man it's all well and good, but live-action titles that are so big and always go deeper into Marvel's library are great value for the powers that be.
Yes, I still want Daredevil to enter the arena so soon Daredevil: Born Again hits in March. Yes, I want more X-Men to appear. But at the end of the day, I'm just thankful for a really solid hero shooter that makes the most of a colorful and rich reality. multifaceted that too often feel underutilized outside of comic books. Rock systems aside, the main reason I found Firaxis' Midnight Suns so appealing; he wasn't afraid to be weird and explore a side of the brand that had barely made it outside of comic books before. We all knew Marvel would have something big on their hands when they managed to successfully mix that with popular, profitable genres. Look at us now.
Now here's the thing: We know how the video game market works and how publishers and rights holders deal with big hits by now. So, what are the odds for Warner Bros. Games? Suicide Squad: Eliminate the Justice League done for good? It pains me to say that they are very high.
In conclusion, I guess, in an age of milking big IPs dry and with some of them potentially being around forever in some way, we might as well ask transmedia works that make good use of. on them, especially if they're pushing more people to pick up books instead of scrolling doom for five hours a day when they're not watching or playing anything.
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