Marvel’s Avengers Team Reveals Why They Gave Kate Bishop New Powers

Marvel’s Avengers players finally get to play as Kate Bishop in today’s new update to the game Taking Aim, the long-awaited new operation bringing the character to the roster. Fans have seen the damage she can do in previous trailers and gameplay footage, and one of the more surprising aspects of her arsenal is a new ability to teleport or blink. The gameplay options the ability opens up are considerable, though it is a change from the comics that caught some fans off guard. ComicBook.com had the chance to speak to Crystal Dynamics lead combat designer Vince Napoli all about Bishop, and during our conversation, we asked where the idea of adding that to her powers came from and why they decided to make that change from the comics.

“Well, actually, it was working with Marvel… or it was something we did originally because we worked with Marvel and we talked about how do we put our spin on Kate? She doesn’t have the same kind of legacy and history the other characters do, so we talked about like… actually, we had someone at Marvel, someone we worked with, his favorite character actually was Kate from the comics, so it was really close to him,” Napoli said. “And he, surprisingly, pushed us to come up with our spin on it, our take, and make our interpretation. So when we talked about her, it would totally be within her character to repurpose and leverage the enemy tech and make it her own. Once we had that kind of spin early on, we went full hog. So, that was actually originally part of the character from the get-go.”

While the ability to teleport is new, there’s quite a bit of her moveset pulled directly from the comics, including her skills with a sword and a bow. As fans have seen in previous footage, she’s a beast with both, and that blend of attack styles makes her one of the most dynamic and balanced characters on the roster.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s really cool that you mention that because that was actually a big focus of Kate,” Napoli said. We knew obviously the bow was going to be the element we had to hit with her, especially coming from Clint. We had to make sure that she had just a dozen or so arrow types and a lot of variety and a lot of versatility there, and the sword was actually something that we talked about. It was this back and forth of like, ‘Look, we know the bow’s going to be a big deal, but if we don’t do something else there, are we going to throw the thing off balance?’”

“And I think the team really just responded to the teleporting ability, which was the X factor of the character, and once we brought that in, it was like, ‘Okay, once we give her this ability to move in and out of combat and go back and forth, if we make the melee weapon something that is really capable and diverse when you’re in there, then there’s going to be a reason to want to teleport into battle, teleport out of battle.’ And so it was the teleporting that let us blend the two of those together really well, or pushed us to do that actually.”

You can download the Taking Aim update for Marvel’s Avengers now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

What do you think of Kate’s new powers? Let us know what you think in the comments and you can always find me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all things gaming!