Marvel Rivals avoided a common launch pitfall by having a stacked roster of over 30 playable characters, with 4 more joining the mix throughout season 1. That will continue to grow by around 2 a season according to recent reports, and while there are obviously some big mainstream names being added to the game, Rivals has shown it’s open to adding lesser known characters to its roster as well. That got us to thinking about which deep cut characters we’d love to see added to Marvel Rivals, so while we may never see some of these in the game, we still have a small modicum of hope that we will.
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Darkhawk
We’re starting with one of my favorite Marvel heroes, and that’s Darkhawk. While I am clearly bias a bit, I can honestly say that Darkhawk would make a brilliant fit for Rivals, especially if the game embraced his later storylines that introduced the Fraternity of Raptors.
Darkhawk would likely be a Duelist, but he could also have abilities that lean Vanguard like Mr. Fantastic. Darkhawk would be a huge asset in the air and on the ground, and while he can shoot a long distance beam of energy courtesy of his amulet, the key here would be to give him abilities that would maximize him at melee range as well, allowing him to swoop in from the air, mix it up with combos, and then soar back out again.
He would be able to generate quick shields for others near him as well, and for his ultimate, he could transform into one of his enhanced Raptor armor configurations for a short period of time. As for team-ups, Darkhawk and Spider-Man could easily have one, as they teamed up quite a bit in the past, but my money would be on a cosmic team-up with a character that should be a no-brainer addition to the roster in Nova.
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Exodus
Shifting to the X-Men side of the universe, we’re heading into villain territory with Exodus. Exodus first entered the Marvel Universe as one of Magneto’s staunchest supporters, and though that soured over time, they would work together again during the Krakoa era. Obviously, this paves the way for a major team-up attack between the former allies, though Exodus could be a beast all on his own as well, making him a perfect candidate to be a strategist.
Exodus’ psionic abilities are omega level, and he bring a variety of things to the battlefield. Exodus’ telekinetic abilities are incredibly powerful, and he has a history of using his abilities for healing as well as destruction. Exodus would be able to disperse a wide blasts of healing and then a smaller more precise blast of healing, and these would also damage opponents. He would also be able to create space by forging telekinetic constructs, hitting someone from far way with a piercing spear or pushing someone away up-close with a huge fist.
Two of his most interesting aspects though could be utilized as a passive buff or even an ultimate ability. The first is that Exodus can feed on other characters’ psionic energies, and then he can channel that absorbed power into either an offensive or defensive ability. The other element is that Exodus actually gets more powerful when those around him have faith in him, and this could be utilized in the form of a passive buff that gave his shields or attacks higher potency.
Elsa Bloodstone
Moving over to the Marvel monsterverse, it’s time for Elsa Bloodstone to make her Marvel Rivals debut. Bloodstone is a monster hunter and utilizes a number of weapons and magical artifacts to help get the job done. Combined with the power of the bloodstone itself, that opens the door for any number of abilities in the game, creating a Duelist that could be a unique mix of Punisher and Scarlet Witch.
The bloodstone is what grants her superhuman strength and agility, as well as a top tier healing factor, but she can also use it to deliver lethal energy blasts. She would have a base energy blast that would take a little longer to recharge but would hit hard. You could use her genie’s lamp to teleport a short distance quickly, and then she could have a double barrel shotgun that could hit enemies with two quick high damage shots.
For her ultimate, you could have her unleash the power of the bloodstone with a wild blast that can hit random opponents nearby and slow everyone so that she can go in and clean up with the shotgun, amassing even more kills. As a team-up, he’s not in the game yet, but whenever Deadpool does enter the fray, they absolutely need to have a special one-two punch.
Speedball
Get ready to throw your controllers, as we are welcoming in Robbie Baldwin to the mix, aka Speedball. I say throw your controllers not because he won’t be extremely fun to play (because he absolutely will be) but because good luck trying to get a shot in on a Speedball that’s just bouncing all over the screen.
Speedball is a longtime member of the New Warriors, and has the unique ability to create a kinetic field around himself. That’s pretty normal as far as superheroes go, but his is very unique, as it absorbs all kinetic energy thrown his way and can literally bounce off of objects. Speedball learned to harness this by bouncing from object to object and keeping his momentum as he moves across locations.
You could have Speedball bouncing across the ground and in the air from object to object, and then tie an area attack to it when he lands that gains power the more energy he builds up on the way there. He is also able to form energy around his hands to increase his melee damage, and if you wanted to you could even make him a strategist, allowing him to heal allies that he comes into contact with as he bounces across the screen. He could also unleash a powerful blast of energy that damages himself in the process for his ultimate, tapping into his Penance powers, but you could just as easily have him bounce around the screen at hyper speed, dealing out damage but also additional shielding to allies.
Blink
Moving back to the X-Men for a bit, let’s talk about the powerful teleporter Blink. While Nightcrawler seems like a shoe-in for Marvel Rivals at some point, he’s not the only teleporter that should be considered, as Blink offers a powerful skillset that also makes her a prime candidate for the game.
Blink can create portals that allow multiple people to move through to another place, which is an incredibly handy core ability if you’ve ever faced a Doctor Strange on the Rivals battlefield. Unlike Strange though, the portals are also tied to Blink’s other offensive and defensive capabilities, as she can create energy knives from that portal energy.
That would be cool in itself, but Blink is able to use these knives to teleport those they come in contact with, and she can use this in a number of ways. She can hit an incoming projectile with them and teleport them back towards the attacker for instance, or she cold connect with an attack on someone and teleport them a short distance away and get them out of the fight. This could be insanely powerful, and she would be a killer duelist to have on the roster, especially if you give her an effective ultimate that can send the opposing team scrambling to get back into position, perhaps by teleporting everyone in an area to different scattered spots.
Goldballs
You can thank the Krakoa era for turning the mutant at one time known as Egg into Goldballs, and we’re carving out a little time to make his case for being included in Marvel Rivals. Goldballs, aka Fabio Medina, is a mutant with the ability to create literal gold balls from his body at a variety of sizes and speeds. Now, on its own, that doesn’t seem all that useful, but he’s shown over the years that he can be effective n he battlefield with this, damaging enemies with them and gaining more control over the preciseness of those attacks.
The real kicker though was when it was revealed that those balls were shockingly infertile eggs, which was utilized by The Five to create the revival process that resurrected dead mutants. With all this in mind, it would make most sense for Goldballs to be a Strategist, as he can hit a widespread area with gold balls that heal and then turn around hit a blast-like attack that damages enemies (continuous would be better to differentiate from Jeff’s attack). Then as his ultimate you could have him revive a dead teammate, but the best part would be that he would revive them with a fully charged up ultimate, instantly making them a huge threat.
Maggott
Speaking of cult favorite X-Men characters, the 90s run of X-Men produced one of my personal faves in Maggott. His character design quickly set him apart, and that was also due to his two sidekick slugs known as Eany and Meany, who devour just about anything and then return to Maggott, giving him a power boost in the process.
Maggott would be a perfect Vanguard, with a kit based around Eany and Meany consuming energy and doing damage to bulk Maggott up, which would in turn increase his damage deliver and his damage resistance. He would be able to command Eany and Meany back at anytime, so it would be about targeting the right person and calling them back at the right time to maximize their effect.
An Ultimate would likely play around with the idea of being consumed by two giant versions of Eany and Meany, or perhaps having the form around someone and squeezing the lifeforce out of them bit by bit like an anaconda, which would assuredly frustrate a few duelist damage dealers for sure. He would be a complex her to master, but if they got the levels right, Maggott could become a fan favorite for those looking to take on a challenge.
Glob
A more recent addition to the X-Men is the lovable mutant known as Glob, and you seriously can’t miss him. That’s because Glob’s mutant ability is tied to the pink living wax (known as bio-paraffin) that surrounds his body.
The living wax is transparent, so there’s no hiding his skeleton and intestines, but it’s also quite useful, as it gives Glob superhuman strength and makes him incredibly difficult to kill. The wax is resistant to pretty much everything, including fire and being separated into pieces, which makes for a pretty impressive combo.
That resistance also helps when Glob wants to get in some offense, as he an set himself on fire and pretty much not feel it, and that allows him to throw globs of essentially flaming hot wax at enemies. In Rivals, Glob would be a tank-like Vanguard, and his core attack would be to fling wax particles out opponents.
There would be some sort of ability that would allow him to set those projectiles on fire for higher damage or even perhaps lingering damage from being burned, but he would also be able to light himself on fire completely and launch into a group of enemies. His superhuman strength could also be bulked up in some way (ala Hulk), and I would personally love to see his culinary skills reflected with some sort of buff, but that’s reaching even further.
Cardiac
Maggott’s not the only personal favorite to make the list, and for this spot we move over to the world of Spider-Man. That’s where we find the man named Eli Wirtham, though he’s better known as Cardiac. Cardiac has a completely unique look, even amongst ’90s creations, and Rivals could work wonders with his design, but he also offers up something not yet featured in the game.
Cardiac generates beta particles from his artificial heart, and he uses his power staff to focus those particles into powerful blasts. To put that into perspective, he can moderate the force of his blasts, so you could have light quicker blasts and heavier blasts that produced bigger damage, but he can also wield his staff as a melee weapon, something that’s not been tapped in Rivals yet.
Cardiac can be a monster at medium range, and he can also use his staff to catapult him a small distance as a speed boost. He’s also got a glider called bird that he can hook onto and catch some air with, and he can even funnel his power blasts through the glider to hit from enemies from the sky. Cardiac would likely be a duelist, though you could absolutely make him a Strategist if you were to allow his blasts to combo as healing like Rivals did with Invisible Woman. Being able to use healing blasts from the glider would also bring something fresh to the mix, so there are several options to make Cardiac an immediately impactful character.
TypeFace
For this last one we’re going to the alphabet, and that’s because this entry is about Gordon Thomas, aka Typeface. For those who aren’t familiar (and we don’t blame you), Typeface is a former villain turned hero who wears letters on his face and body that all stand for something, including the A that stands for Annihilation.
After regaining his sanity, he became a vigilante, and in the absence of powers he developed his own arsenal of letter-themed weapons. As an ex solider he already has extensive military training in combat, but he also added blades shaped like letters and letter bombs that exploded on contact.
To be clear, I’m not actually saying you should have him as a Duelist in Marvel Rivals, but wouldn’t it be hilarious to see letters flying through the air at Iron Man or explosive letters hitting the ground in front of Hulk? It absolutely would, and that’s why he should at least get a nomination for the roster.
Alright, that’s our list, but let us know which Marvel Rival characters you would absolutely hope to see in the game. You can talk all things Marvel Rivals with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
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