Marvel Cosmic Invasion First DLC Brings Cyclops & The Thing To The Beat ’em Up Brawler

Published by Dotemu and developed by Tribute Games, Marvel Cosmic Invasion has been a solid success that has managed to bring in 1.5 million players since it launched in late 2025. Pitting a large roster of Marvel heroes against the forces of Annihulus and the Negative Zone, Cosmic Invasion is a blast for fans of the old side-scrolling action game genre. Even if you’ve already beaten back Annihulus, though, the fight isn’t done yet. Tribute Games will be expanding the action with some exciting new DLC drops, including new heroes to add to the roster.

While we don’t know much about the second DLC drop coming this fall beyond its addition of new playable characters and a unique game mode, the first DLC is shadow dropping today — and it’s a big one for fans of the Marvel Universe. Cyclops and the Thing are joining the fight, bringing unique combat mechanics that add a lot of fun new elements to the experience. With the DLC now available courtesy of a shadow drop from Tribute Games, it’s worth diving into what Cyclops and the Thing bring to the table — and why anyone who’s played Marvel Cosmic Invasion (or still needs to make the plunge) needs to team up these two with the established character roster.

Cyclops Is Ready To Blast Off

A new ranged fighter in the roster, the X-Men’s Cyclops, is the more immediately interesting addition to Marvel Cosmic Invasion. The mutant hero has his trademark optic blasts as his primary combat mechanic, with quick shots serving as his basic attack. Focus can be spent on bigger blasts, including a continuous shot that can overwhelm unprepared enemies or even waves of foes who get caught in the attack. While plenty of characters in the game have a ranged option for combat, Cyclops fully utilizes this approach thanks to his ability to shoot at horizontal and diagonal angles. This can allow him to pick off flying enemies as they go by, allowing him to better counter incoming attacks.

Cyclops can also still get in close and deliver a couple of well-placed kicks or haymakers as the situation calls for, allowing him to fully dominate the battlefield. However, the game also knows how to keep from overpowering him, with enemies capable of enduring his blasts proving especially tricky to outmaneuver at times. His ultimate attack takes the blast to the max, with a cool-looking animation that sees him let loose and clear the entire screen of enemies. Cyclops may not be the most defensively sound character, with enemies who can dodge or block their way through his barrage of optic blasts capable of quickly reducing his health. It’s a good way to make sure that players feel inclined to keep on the move and do their best to keep enemies at a distance, highlighting Cyclops’ unique position in the beat ’em up as an almost entirely ranged combatant.

It’s Clobbering Time With The Thing

The other addition in the first Marvel Cosmic Invasion DLC is Ben Grimm, aka the Fantastic Four’s Thing. It’s not all that surprising to see Marvel’s first massive brawler be a bulky combatant in the vein of She-Hulk. However, the Thing’s unique attribute is his surprising maneuverability. The Thing is able to weather a lot of hits and deal out heavy blows, with his ability to grab enemies making it even easier for him to deliver a beatdown or start off a chain of hits to juggle most enemies in the air. His most entertaining skill, however, is his ability to tuck himself into a ball and bounce from enemy to enemy. This allows him to move a lot quicker airborne than someone his size would normally be expected to move, keeping him in the air and dishing out damage as he moves from enemy to enemy.

It’s a useful skill, especially when hopping between flying enemies that can otherwise swarm the player by surprise. It also gives Thing a unique power set among the many bruisers in Marvel Cosmic Invasion, a flexibility despite his size that makes him an ideal partner for any player. That’s been one of the best elements of Marvel Cosmic Invasion, with the team at Tribute Games putting a lot of emphasis on different applications of powers to make sure each character feels distinct. With the game’s various superheroes potentially feeling too alike to one another thanks to their underlying power similarities, it’s exciting to see that the Thing (and Cyclops, for that matter) are able to stand out among a crowded field of fun, playable characters with a unique approach to combat. With more characters on the way, it’ll be exciting to experiment with these new heroes alongside the established roster to create some wild new power combinations.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion’s first DLC drop is now available. The DLC was made available to ComicBook for the purposes of this piece.