10 More Villains That Should Come To Marvel Rivals

2 weeks ago 7

Marvel Rivals already boasts a powerful roster of beloved Marvel characters, but it could use more villains. Rivals has launched to a smashing success, already showing it may be the next big title in the hero shooter genre. Not only did it break Steam records over its first few days, but it easily achieved over 10 million unique players across all platforms. This, coupled with its friendly battle pass and currency systems, sets it up for long-term success.

Despite the fun and creative roster, it does have a surprising lack of villains. The only characters that can be seen as truly villainous are Loki, Hela, Magneto, and Venom. Though there are some anti-heroes, vigilantes, and ex-villains on the roster, having a few more evil entities would not be a bad decision. As of now, the only leaked Marvel Rivals character confirmed on this front is Ultron, who will be a Strategist.

10 Kingpin's Beyond Human Limits Fits Perfectly

Possible Role: Vanguard

With a resurgence in recent media, Kingpin makes for a great addition to Marvel Rivals. His size and skills also perfectly suit him for the role of Vanguard, which would be helpful given the limited number of them. Though he has no superpowers, he has been seen numerous times as a human who can do things beyond regular abilities. His body is almost entirely muscle, and his strength and durability are levels beyond a normal human's.

Marvel Rivals Venom, Peni Parker, and Squirrel Girl above Tokyo 2099 map

Given the succces of Marvel Rivals, would you like to see something similar with DC characters?

Marvel Rivals has thus far been a major video game success, surpassing over 10M players in its first three days. The game is a lot of fun, and players seem to be responding well to the variety of heroes, gameplay styles, and interesting new lore that's been created. With that in mind, I would love to one day see a similar game for the DC Universe as well. I could see Batman having a similar playstyle to Moon Knight, and the same goes for Superman and Thor.

As a Vanguard, Kingpin would be a simple but fun unit. A good passive for him would be natural extra protection against melee attacks, which fits well in a game where the roster is more diverse when it comes to dealing damage. To support his team, Kingpin could have some sort of ability that shares a portion of this resistance with allies in a specific range. Besides that, Kingpin would work best by being a brawler tank that focuses on abilities meant to isolate and eliminate a single target at a time.

9 Shocker Takes On A Support Role

Possible Role: Strategist

This Spider-Man villain is one of many potential additions to Marvel Rivals, but is one of the few that could help fill another gap in the game. Strategists, while currently few in numbers, are fun in Rivals as they combine healing with the ability to be stand-alone damage dealers. Shocker fits perfectly for this, utilizing his vibro smashers to both heal and damage, as it's not out of the realm of possibility they could be used to heal.

He would also have some mobility in his kit, using the vibro smashers to fly into the air as a large jump.

Outside this multipurpose basic attack, Shocker has plenty of other ability options. As a passive, he could do more damage to structures, making him good for cutting off angles. He would also have some mobility in his kit, using the vibro smashers to fly into the air as a large jump. His ultimate could perhaps be his most fun ability, generating a long-range and wide continuous air burst beam that heals allies and damages enemies in its path.

8 Baron Mordo Is The Perfect Anti-Doctor Strange

Possible Role: Strategist

A longtime enemy of Marvel Rivals Vanguard Doctor Strange, Baron Mordo makes for an interesting addition. Though he has all the same abilities as Strange, he wouldn't be as restricted with them. This makes him an ideal choice for a Strategist, using his magic to bend life and death to his will. An interesting way to make Mordo's basic attacks heal yet not feel too basic is to have them steal a portion of his health to do so.

This healing could chain to multiple targets, friendly or enemy, and if they hit an enemy, they could steal health from them and give it back to Mordo, even overhealing him to a certain cap. A support ability he could offer could give a teammate invisibility akin to Psylocke but with a smaller duration. The ultimate would be the hardest decision, but something like him creating copies of all his teammates in range, while letting them reflect damage taken, could be creative and useful.

7 Kraven The Hunter Has A New Prey

Possible Role: Duelist

Kraven opens the door to adding a new type of mobile assassin to Marvel Rivals. Though he is just as capable in melee combat, his skill as a hunter could make him a hybrid sniper/melee unit. To work with his theme, Kraven's passive could give him a scaling damage buff for each unique enemy he has killed in a single life, resetting upon death.

His main weapon would be a semi-automatic rifle that deals only slightly less damage than snipers but trades it off for a slower fire rate than standard automatic rifles.

One ability could be a roped spear that pulls him to a location it is thrown at, and if used on an opponent, will slightly pull them closer to Kraven. Finally, his ultimate could turn his rifle into a sniper capable of one-shot headshots on anything at 300 health or less, but it only has five shots total over a set period.

6 Gorr The God Butcher Wants His Revenge

Possible Role: Duelist

Gorr the God Butcher fits seamlessly into Marvel Rivals, and has the potential for a unique kit. By possessing All-Black the Necrosword, Gorr could have the most diverse kit of any duelist. This could include a basic melee attack with more range than most melee units and a parry/block mechanic on his alternate fire.

Given the powers the sword can grant to its user, a simple but fitting passive for Gorr is a small amount of health leach whenever he does damage. The powers of the sword also make for the ideal abilities of Gorr, allowing the God slayer to fly, create damaging tendril pits, and even copies of himself. An ideal ultimate for Gorr without going too extreme would be having the Necrosword extend to a long length with Gorr performing a spin attack. This would create a long-range slashing hurricane, but balanced by its limited vertical range.

5 Juggernaut The Map Destroyer

Possible Role: Vanguard

Juggernaut works perfectly into how Marvel Rivals plays. His destructive abilities make him ideal for maneuvering around and destroying maps. This could blend into his passive, which would allow him to pick up pieces of the map and throw them, dealing a sizeable amount of damage and displacing enemies. This could get a bonus effect if skillfully used to hit flying units out of the air.

He can also have a speed boost ability that allows him to get around faster, both to help his team and finish enemies.

The bulk of Juggernaut's kit would fit well into making him sustainable. Due to his healing factor, he could have an ability similar to Venoms, but instead of scaling off missing health, it would scale based on the amount of damage he has taken in the last few seconds. He can also have a speed boost ability that allows him to get around faster, both to help his team and finish enemies.

4 Absorbing Man Would Be A Creative Multi-Skill Tank

Possible Role: Vanguard

Absorbing Man has the potential to be one of the most creative and skillful characters in the game. His kit would be simple, starting with a mid-range melee attack with his wrecking ball. His support ability would spin his wrecking ball around and destroy any incoming damage to him or his team. Lastly, his ultimate would enlarge his wrecking ball for a long-range slam attack that does more damage the more centralized the opponent is to the impact point.

The part where Absorbing Man's kit gets complicated would be his passive, which could allow him to switch to one of three material types that cover his body and augment his abilities. These types would be stone, metal, and magical. Stone would augment his abilities to slow enemies, metal would increase the damage enemies take, and magical would give Absorbing Man some ranged missiles for his attack. These type differences could be expanded upon, but serve as a baseline for how his kit could adapt.

3 Green Goblin Controls The Skies

Possible Role: Duelist

Norman Osborn's Green Goblin makes for a chaotic aerial duelist. He would also be different from the current variety by having more in-air agility. This would be tied to his glider's ability, which would allow him to dodge out of the way of abilities. His basic attack would be similar to Squirrel Girl, but using his iconic pumpkin bombs.

The rest of his kit would play around with his glider. One such example is the razor discs it can project, which would deal an initial burst of damage and then a lingering bleed effect. His ultimate could be a huge chunk of his burst damage, having Goblin fly around in straight streaks, similar to Cloak and Dagger, and rain bombs upon enemies. This would deal heavy burst damage, and anyone who manages to survive it would have to deal with his passive, which gives all pumpkin bombs a small poison linger.

2 Rhino, The Classic Vanguard

Possible Role: Vanguard

One of the more classic Spider-Man villains, Rhino, seems more of a when rather than if. His size, strength, and abilities make him too good of a fit to not make the game. Rhino's passive can be simple but powerful, limiting the impact crowd control abilities have on this devastating villain.

The support ability Rhino could bring to the team would be similar to Junker Queen from Overwatch 2: an inspiring shout that grants some armor to nearby allies, while reducing the damage Rhino takes. Second, Rhino could possess a charge ability with his horn, dealing damage to anyone it hits, and if hit dead on, would impale them on the horn for Rhino to isolate. This would culminate with his ultimate, which would make Rhino invincible for a small amount of time, but come with the downside of him taking extra damage for a few seconds when it ends.

1 Carnage Lives Up To His Name On The Battlefield

Possible Role: Duelist

Since Venom is already in the game, and Knull has been heavily teased, Carnage makes the most sense to be included. However, given his more destructive tendencies, he takes up the role of Duelist. This can be accomplished by transforming his arms into sharp blades that devastate any enemy in his range. Though similar to Spider-Man and Venom power-wise, Carnage should be different in Rivals.

In place of mobility abilities, he could be naturally faster than most heroes and has an ability that speeds up his attack speed. For some range, another ability would change Carnage's arms into long-range sharp tendrils, similar to Groot, but with the headshot ability of Venom's basic. Lastly, Carnage's ultimate can extend his symbiote to latch onto enemies, and if they can't escape in a set period, they will be pulled to Carnage and caught in his massive slash attack. This would give him a devastating burst attack, with some limited crowd control potential.

Overall, there are numerous options for post-launch characters to join Marvel Rivals' roster and how their kits could work. The important part is making them mostly unique to each other, and varying the roles so Duelist does not outnumber the other roles by too much. The villain prospect is also intriguing to give fans a chance to play iconic characters in Marvel Rivals that are usually closed off to them.