Marvel Rivalsplaces control of some of your favorite heroes and villains in your hands, but it also includes a few deep cuts that casual fans may be less familiar with.Jeff the Land Sharkis practically a household name now, but that wasn’t the case before Marvel Rivals.
Developer NetEase will have to walk a fine line between adding big-name characters to the game and surprising people with the unexpected, but there are some characters that will just never make the cut. Read below to see some characters that you’ll just never, ever see in Marvel Rivals.
The characters listed below have been selected either due to being too obscure or because their potential for gameplay is low. NetEase have done a fantastic job translating the powers of the heroes and villains into the game, but some of Marvel’s characters just aren’t going to be worth the work.
1Hindsight Lad
Leave Him In The Rear View
Hindsight Lad is possibly one of the more obnoxious characters to grace the pages of a Marvel comic. Real name Carlton LaFroyge, he blackmails his way onto the New Warrior superhero team once he finds out his neighbor Robbie Baldwin is secretly the hero Speedball.
He has no powers and really nothing going for him other than one of the goofiest costumes around. He betrays his own team and goes on to become a paranoid conspiracy theorist. There would be nothing to gain from adding him to Marvel Rivals.
2Armless Tiger Man
Overwhelmingly Awful
Armless Tiger Man is one of the strangest, and worst, things to come from Marvel. He lost his arms in a factory accident, so he decided to declare war against all machines and become a cannibal. These two things with absolutely no connection to each other.
He not only doesn’t make any sense, he’s a minefield of a character when it comes to disability representation. No developer would — or should — want to add such an insensitive and baffling character to their game.
3The Almighty Dollar
Limited Value
The Almighty Dollar is quite a superhero name, but it’s nothing compared to his real name; J. Pennington Pennypacker. As silly as that seems, it still isn’t as strange as his superpower, generating and firing coins from his wrists.
As funny as it would be to see this commerce costumed clown running alongside Wolverine and Captain America, there are far better projectile-based characters yet to be added to the game. Why would NetEase settle for The Almighty Dollar when Gambit and Bullseye are out there?
4Payback
More Like Knock Off
Payback was a police officer cooperating with The Punisher to take down the mob and corruption within the police force, but retaliation saw his family killed as a result of his actions. Blaming The Punisher, he became Payback and vowed to stop him.
There’s nothing wrong with Payback as a character, but he’s a prime example of a character with nothing new to add to Marvel Rivals. He wouldn’t do anything Frank Castle doesn’t, so why bother?The Punisher is plentywhen it comes to gun-toting action.
5Lady Stilt-Man
Stilt-Man Too
Lady Stilt-Man, and the marginally less absurdly named Stilt-Man, are actually pretty fun characters. They’re the sort of thing you only see in comic books, and they’re also more effective than you might expect at times.
The reason you’ll never see them in Marvel Rivals is a simple one. Level design. Flight is one thing, but characters who alter the length of their legs to step over obstacles would create endless level design issues.
6Scarecrow
Not That One
You’re probably thinking of the Batman villain who is also called Scarecrow, who is far better known than the Marvel character of the same name. That’s exactly why he’ll never come to Marvel Rivals, which is honestly a shame.
The Marvel Scarecrow character might also be obsessed with fear, but he has a lot more than that going on. He’s a contortionist, escape artist, expert crow trainer, has enhanced physiology and even became a ghost at one point. His kit would be amazing, but the character confusion wouldn’t be worth it for NetEase.
7Gamecock
Yes That Says Gamecock
Carlos Cabera, better known for his laughable criminal name Gamecock, is a man with no superpowers who dresses like a chicken. Then he tries to fight superheroes in his chicken costume. That’s really all there is to him.
It’s hard to imagine why he was ever created in the first place, but he’s an example of exactly the kind of Z-list character not even NetEase could make something decent out of. Not to mention, in case you missed it, he’s called Gamecock.
8Lasher
Symbiote Sadness
The symbiote species is one of Marvel’s most popular concepts.You could slap a Venom skin on any characterin Marvel Rivals, and it would be an instant hit. Not every symbiote has that kind of appeal, though.
There have been dozens through the years, and Lasher is just one example of a symbiote not worth adding to the game. Someone like Carnage seems inevitable, but most symbiotes won’t ever be included.
9Phone Ranger
Just Hang Up
Sometimes a thing can be so bad, it’s good. Then there’s the Phone Ranger, an idea so bad it leaves you questioning what a good idea even is. A man who found that a telephone was secretly an alien prison and used its technology to become a superhero.
It actually gets sillier than that. His real name is A.G. Bell. Yes, like Alexander Graham Bell, the man credited with patenting the first practical telephone. Talk about on the nose. There’s no way to make this character anything but a laughingstock.
10Bliss
Tongue Twister
There almost isn’t a good way to describe Bliss. Simply put, she’s a mutant with a prehensile tongue that has its own head at the end, complete with an entire face. That face has its own mouth and tongue, making you wonder where this ends.
Bliss is by no means a bad character, she is just so distinctly strange that it’s hard to imagine her joining Marvel Rivals. Would the tongue have its own voice lines? Actually, that sounds kind of great. Maybe we could start a petition to bring Bliss to the game.
