“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 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 proportion of what they’re doing these days. This has been an issue for a while, and never only for Marvel: Extra folks than ever earlier than are conscious of comedian guide universes, however that does not imply that the majority of those self same persons 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 strong 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 huge Marvel universe. Now, the MCU may be very a lot making an attempt to sort out 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.
Once 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 standard by-product is just not eager to see way more of their faces on the pages. At this level, I have a tendency to essentially gravitate in direction of much less fashionable 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 current TV reveals and video video games have a performed a giant 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 release, I am beginning to really feel the identical itch. Positive, 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 acquainted with. Even when they suck within the present meta, I am curious to study extra about them, and I really feel like Marvel Rivals has finished a fairly job of blending the favored faces with heroes and villains who’re historically neglected.
“No character is off limits,” executive 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 explanation why Marvel Rivals has popped off is as a result of it merely seems to be and feels wonderful and additionally guarantees the thrill of not figuring out who’s across the nook as a result of supply materials’s richness.
Moon Knight or Lin Lie (Marvel Rivals’ Iron Fist and currently scariest character) had been relative nobodies a couple of years in the past until you actually had been into comics. Yeah, Moon Knight has been round eternally, 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 serious stumble, Marvel Snap and Marvel Rivals have utterly turned the ship round on the subject of video video games. Stuff like Insomniac’s Spider-Man games is nice and all, however having live-service titles that grow to be this large and continuously 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 Again hits in March. Sure, I would like extra X-Males to indicate 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 programs 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 big of their arms 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 large hits by now. So, what are the probabilities of Warner Bros. Video games speeding to make a DC different 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 big IPs till they’re dry and with a few of them probably set to be round eternally in a method or one other, we would 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.