MPQ vs. MCUPQ: Comics and films as source material - where should the focus be?

Rhadamanthus23

Obviously, the popularity of the MCU films has been great for Marvel, and a lot of fun fo all of us as fans.The interest in playing games based on the Marvel Comics universe has exploded, and here we are with MPQ. But, as we have seen since the start,MPQ draws on the comics quite a bit - the MCU is vast, but not enough to support a game with this many characters.

As a comics fan, I appreciated the heroes (and villains!) being done justice on the silver screen. But when I play a game in the Marvel Universe(s), I want it to be just as wide-ranging, with obscure favourites as well as what I see in movies. It seems that lately, MPQ has been focusing a lot on the MCU. Hammercap is the latest in the possible oversaturation in this way.

Of course, the MCU is the biggest avenue of revenue for Marvel, and thus for other companies parnering with them to make games like MPQ. But new comics like Black Cat #1 and her matching character in MPQ show that comics are still nice to mine from. Jim Hammond shows it doesn't have to be recent. There are a lot of characters many of us would like to see - no doubt those surveys where they ask for our favourites give them a lot of choices.

Personally, I feel that some of those fan favourites should be the focus, now, with occasional tie-ins for new films and comics. Especially since there won't be a lot of huge MCU films for a little while. What's your view?

NOTE: Of course, there are other issues with the game that people find more important than source material (balance, dilution, etc.). I was going to add an option for that, but let's assume we all care about those things, and want the devs to work on them, too. This is just about one aspect of the game. Thanks!

TPF Alexis

BOTH - But Classic! MCU is great, but let's mine the archives for the old heroes and villains!

I'm mostly an MCU fan, because I've never been able to afford the money or time to really keep up with comics. (Heck, I can't even keep up with the various Marvel shows on Netflix and wherever.) So I love seeing the MCU versions because they let me play with the characters I know so well from the screen. Then again, I have sporadically read the comics at various times, and have at least some familiarity with a lot of the late 80s-early 90s stuff in particular, so it's cool to see all the various incarnations of Storm and Wolverine and Spiderman and Kitty and Black Cat and have all them around as well. Finally, MCU versions of characters from the comics have introduced me to a number of characters I'd never known anything about, and who are now some of my faves, like America Chavez, Squirrel Girl, Hawkguy, and Kamala Khan. So, um, yeah. I'd lean a bit more toward the classic comics, but really, at least a bit of everything is good.

tiomono

MEH. - Everything's fine. Just let the game happen, as is.

Well over half the characters are not movie time ins currently. I feel they have struck a really good balance already without overdoing the MCU tie ins.

DAZ0273

BOTH - But Classic! MCU is great, but let's mine the archives for the old heroes and villains!

Considering they have been routinely ticking off the X-Men character list since 2017 and none of them are movie based and they had an FF based focus which gave us comic book versions of Namor and Doom just this year, I think the comic books are well represented. Now - that isn't to say it is perfect - I would personally welcome a break from the X-Characters as we approach nearly 2 years of having them thrust into the game. Would be nice to get somebody else a little left field - Ka-Zar would actually have been quite nifty, I loved Taskmaster for last anniversary too.

ThaRoadWarrior

BOTH - But Classic! MCU is great, but let's mine the archives for the old heroes and villains!

I would say they'd be doing themselves a disservice to abandon the MCU, it is far and away the primary way people are engaging with the marvel universe at this stage. But I (like all 12 year olds in 1992) LIVED for comics as a kid, specifically marvel and image books, so I have a lot of banked up nostalgia for that period. There are a lot of characters I liked in those days that haven't made it to the MCU, so I'd be more hype for say Omega Red, Rhino, or Mr Sinister that seem very unlikely to make it to the big screen (well, there was that one time for Rhino, but...). 

DAZ0273

BOTH - But Classic! MCU is great, but let's mine the archives for the old heroes and villains!

Sinister has been very close a number of times to making it in to films, I suspect it is just a matter of time? Rhino would make a great villain for the She Hulk TV series. Never been a fan of Omega Red but his powers would be pretty interesting for MPQ.

Rhadamanthus23

BOTH - But Classic! MCU is great, but let's mine the archives for the old heroes and villains!

I keep hearing these names here in the forum, on Discord, and in Line chat (not a lot of chatter in the broken in-game chat):

Mr. Sinister

Longshot

Forge

Omega Red

Rhino

Vulture (original)

Mojo

Spiral

Wonder Man

Yellowjacket (hero or villain)

Silver Samurai

Power Pack

and much, much more!

And the lists from the occasional surveys have more than that, so there are characters the devs are aware of and are looking to make. It's just that I've been hoping for some of those in this list, and we keep getting new versions of the same characters, just one film different from the last.

And, yeah... the original Vulture would probably best be a 2* or 3*. But I guess we don't get new characters lower than 4* anymore. <shrug>  Yes, a new 3* is a balance issue, but you don't have to make an entire S.H.I.E.L.D. Simulator event around it. Just add it to a boss event, y'know?

Therealsmkspy

BALANCED! - Don't overdo any single source; we've got too many Caps and Spideys!

Without overall design matching either. Comics being so dated back to a 10+ year event or not being MCU themed at all, the character focus really doesn't matter to me.

ThaRoadWarrior

BOTH - But Classic! MCU is great, but let's mine the archives for the old heroes and villains!

When Roy Orbison Dr Octopus hit, I was hoping it was a sign the 5* tier would be where all the hilarious classic look characters would land, and leave the MCU for the more accessible (casual?) lower tiers, but it didn’t really happen like that.