Marvel Rivals devs have been given the go-ahead to make their own characters for the game, and I have literally no idea why they'd do that

(Image credit: NetEase)

Marvel Rivals devs have been given a big thumbs up to go ahead and make their own heroes or villains—that's according to a brief interview snippet from MP1st, who spoke with Guangyun Chen at a Marvel Rivals tournament held in China.

"Yes, we are allowed to introduce original characters in Marvel Rivals," he responded. As to whether or not the team's actually gonna do that, he said folks would have to "stay tuned."

It's not as though new comic characters from secondary media are inherently bad, or anything—for instance, Luna Snow came from Marvel Future Fight in 2018. Sometimes these characters can even become beloved mainstays, like Harley Quinn, who was devised for Batman: The Animated Series and is now a mainstay of the DC roster. Sometimes your original character becomes an official character. Dreams can come true.

But, also, like. Why? Marvel Rivals has only really scratched the surface of the wider comic canon. They haven't even put my girl Softserve in there yet!

It seems to countermand the idea that NetEase has been given the full go-ahead to "explore the whole Marvel Universe", but hey, maybe the studio'd just like to put its own Luna Snow-shaped stamp on the canon. Or it just doesn't want to pay further licence fees, but I'm feeling like it's more the former, given the free ticket it's seemingly been given.

Whether NetEase should start dipping into its own binder full of OCs (please do not steal) is another thing entirely. The current roster's still missing plenty of faves—Deadpool, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Gambit (lotta X-Men here, huh), Rogue, She-Hulk, Ghost Rider, Vision, Quicksilver, Daredevil… I could keep on for a while.

Point is, the well is by no means dry enough where I think NetEase's homegrown superhero would go down particularly well. Maybe it's just the case that the Marvel canon's weirdly devoid of tanks or support characters.

All the more reason to get Softserve in there, who'd fit into the support archetype perfectly (please do not ask me how she would do this) or ForgetMeNot, who could run around the backline with some bandaids and be completely unseen. You'd never get credit, but it's not like being a healer in a hero shooter isn't a thankless job, anyway.

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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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