NYCC 2019: Marvel Games Showcases Avengers and More

Marvel Games took over the stage in Madison Square Garden for a New York Comic Con panel, showcasing upcoming video games.

Bill Roseman takes the stage to get things started, launching a “world exclusive premiere” for Marvel Future Fight. The animated preview is put together in the vein of a Game of Thrones intro, teasing different nations being represented by different symbols. Roseman simply says, “Stay tuned true believes.”

More panelists take the stage with a 10.4.2019 logo on the screen now. They reflect on Contest of Champions and preview what’s next. Footage of characters, mostly characters known from films and TV shows, play on the screen. “Since the beginning we wanted to tell this Marvel epic story,” he says. “We’re realy obsessive about Marvel like most people here. We love new characters like Guillotine…” A character map is on the screen to show how the 150 characters are connected. It is followed by a map of The Known Battlerealm. “We had big plans for it but we never went there,” he says of the center of the map. It became Battleworld from Secret Wars.

Marvel Realm of Champions and Contest of Champions exist in the same universe. “Contest in general is more of a solitary experience where this game if more of a multiplayer action RPG,” Megan Magregor said.

On the new map will be House of Iron, Spider-Guild (which is taken over by Venom monsters), Gamma Horde (featuring barbaric Hulks), Patriot Garrison, Asgardian Republic (a twisted version of the nine realms), Temple of Vishanti (a mystical world influenced by Doctor Strange), Kingdom of Wakanda, and Pyramid X (home of Apocalypse and X-Men characters). They have a list of 50 worlds they want to add to the world.

Each Battleworld has a baron like the comics do. House of Iron: Stark Prime (A.I. Tony Stark). Spider-GuilD: Madam Web (an older Spider-Gwen comparable to a Jedi Master). Gamma Horde: Skaar. Patriot Garrison: Peggy Carter. Asgardian Republic: War Thor (all nine realms’ powers in one). Vishanti: Ancient One (Stephen Strange who has messed with the Time Stone for thousands of years). Wakanda: Queen Shuri (T’Challa died heroically so she took the mantle off Black Panther and distributed the suit to all of the Dora Milaje). Pyramid X: Apocalypse.

In the story, gamers start as a recruit to one of the houses which becomes a customizable character. Iron Legionnaire, Web Warrior, Hulk, Super Soldier, Thor, Sorcerer Supreme, Black Panther, and Storm. There are six customization slots for each character with several variations available to different parts of the character. The designs are influenced by comics, MCU, and more.

The Realm of Champions presentation wraps up with tha teaser trailer showcasing the barons coming face to face. It leads to Tony Stark proposing a Secret War as a means to avoid a real one. “Battlleworld Will Rise. 2020.”

Iron Man VR

Iron Man VR is next. Christos Gage and XXX take the stage. “What we’re making is Marvel’s Iron Man VR,” he explains. “The game is really al about taking the best things about playing as Iron Man. Flying shooting…Tony Stark obviously — and mashing those together with PS VR…Lastly, that immersion that VR offers…It’s one of those things that you have to play to understand.” As they have been focused on the gameplay, they are now ready to unveil the full VR campaign. 

In the trailer, a Stark Industries missile is involved in an attack leaving a dozen dead. A voice tells Tony that they told him his weapons would cause something like this. Nick Fury is seen. Ghost is seen (looking similar to the Ant-Man and The Wasp villain. Tony flies around ships, near his Malibu mansion, and through locations. Ghost wants Tony to “die for” his sins. It will release on February 28, 2020.

“We’ve always felt that Ghost…is a perfect character to fight Iron Man,” Roseman said. “Ghost is not about conquering the world. Ghost is just about conquering Tony Stark…this anonymous hacker, anti-corporation, hates Tony Stark…feels hand-made to face Tony Stark and Iron Man.”

Ghost will “haunt” Tony Stark, representing his past despite him wanting redemption. The characters are voiced by Josh Keaton and Chantelle Barry. 

“It was almost like I was getting fit for an Iron Man mask,” Keaton recalls. “I’ve actually been able to walk around and make Iron Man do all kinds of silly things in the mansion. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Gage says casting these roles is “a really difficult thing to do.” They had worked together in the past. 

“There really was no preparation for the audition,” Keaton says. “It was a guy who was bearing his sole to, didn’t say, but I’m assuming a support group. As he’s talking to them, you can tell he has all of these issues from his past that haunt him…his whole speech was about redemption, second chances, and giving back. Amongst all of that vulnerability, there was still this quiet confidence.” When he finished the scene, he asked, “Is this Tony Stark? Is this Iron Man?” 

“So, I’m the main antagonist to one of the most iconic comic book characters of all time, it was incredible,” Barry said. “For Ghost, I think like most villains, she’s very multidimensional. Very heavily layered character…her motivation for wanting to take down Tony, it’s very, very deeply emotional for her. I can’t reveal too much, obviously, but there are a lot of layers. It’s very very fun to play Ghost. I don’t feel like I’m playing a villain when I play her. I feel like I’m the hero.”

Nick Fury, Pepper Potts, and FRIDAY are also in the game. The game will offer bonus Iron Man suits for pre-orders and the Digital Deluxe Edition.

Avengers

Last is Marvell’s Avengers. The creator takes the stage: Sean Escayg.

They start with the story. “Our story begins on A-Day. The Avengers are expanding their protection initiatives. They’ve just opened their west coast headquarters,” Escayg explains. Their new heiicarrier is unveiled and things go wrong on the Golden Gate Bridge. Thor’s hair has been updated. “We felt we needed something more combat ready for Thor,” he says. 

A-Day did not go as planned. Cap goes down with the ship. The Avengers are blamed for the tragedy and the story picks up five years later. Advanced Idea Mechanics steps in to fill their void. “AIM takes the role of super heroes,” Escayg says. “Offering an alternative to super powers or super beings by using science to protect the world. It becomes problematic.” AIM has even stamped their logo on Avengers Tower and they’re harnessing the powers of super heroes for what they believe is a more reliable source of protection.

The world is “divided” in their opinions of AIM. The performance actors take the stage: Jeff Shine (Steve Rogers), Travis William (Thor), Laura Bailey (Natasha Romanov), Nolan North (Tony Stark), and Troy Baker (Bruce Banner).

“Dilemma is a comic book word,” Baker said. “I would say that Bruce, he’s really the core…We’ve got a very emotional story that we’re telling and Bruce is smack dab in the middle of it. Me being a comic book nerd, I really love the stories that you don’t get to delve into a lot, especially with Bruce. The Hulk is a tool, it’s like bring in the big guns. But there’s a person on the other side of that and that’s Bruce…Here’s somebody who is really in conflict with who he is as a person…Not a lot of people really get the chance to play in that story. The fact that we did that is something that drew me to be a part of this.” Bruce is actually starting to believe that they might not be super heroes. 

Nolan North opens up about Tony and Bruce’s relationship. “If Bruce is the guy who wallows in his guilt, I think Tony’s the guy who wallows in his denial. They’re at odds with each other. Tony is the guy who loses everything in this. He’s the guy who thinks that the ends justify the means. He knew that the tech was unstable. He knew that things could go wrong. But, hey, it’s Tony Stark nothing could go wrong! But it did…Bruce is the first to say ‘You were wrong’ and Tony really doesn’t wanna hear that…It’s a very interesting dynamic.”

Next attention turns to Black Widow after A-Day. “I think Widow, after that, feels particularly responsible for what happened. Cap left her in charge of the bridge. Her instinct was to return to the Chimera but she ignored that. She saved hundreds of civilians but her friend, her leader is gone. On top of that, she underestimated Taskmaster. She didn’t see his true intentions. By all accounts, Widow feels like she failed hard. That feeling causes her to do what she does best. She goes rogue and seemingly abandons the Avengers in her desperate hunt for the truth.”

What does A-Day do for Thor? “He doesn’t take the events of A-Day in stride,” William said. “He suffers from a touch of arrogance…and probably a competitive side, in particular with Tony… They’re enemy is an intelligent one who laid some pretty clever traps that they fell into pretty easily.” Without Captain America, Thor realizes no one is worthy to lead the group so “he makes the choice to put the hammer down.”

Where is Cap now that he went down? “You find Steve in this really tough spot in the beginning,” Shine says. “That leaves a huge void. Cap is the North Star for the team…without that there’s all this fragmentation…How do you fill that void? How do you get this group back together?”

A new trailer exclusive to NYCC plays. In it, Kamala Khan is on the bridge in San Francisco. She “stole something off of AIM’s server” and she shows it to Bruce Banner. Gameplay shows her leaping from buildings and holding doors as her ands, arms, and body grows and stretches. Bruce tells Tony, “the kid is inhuman,” and insists they help her. Tony doesn’t think he can help her. Kamala tries to reason with them and claims Cap was murdered. Tony knows this but isn’t on board unless she has proof — she does. The Avengers logo takes the screen. Later, Bruce and Kamala drive through a desert as she sucks down the last bit of soda in a cup, making an annoying noise as a Hulk bobble head sits front and center. 

Sandra Song is asked about prepping for Kamala Khan. “A lot of research. I had so much fun reading all the comics,” Song said. “All my talks with Sean and Bill and Eric. There’s just so much support on this, I could just turn in any direction and talk about Kamala to anybody. Everyone is always quick to remind me how similar I am to Kamala and that I didn’t have to reach very far.” She is asked about her similarities to Kamala. “I’m a first generation American like Kamala Khan,” she said. “With that comes a lot of stuff. You grow up not really being able to fully relate to anybody. You grow up with a lot of that teenage angst because you’re not fully accepted anywhere. There is a struggle that comes with that but I’m fully accepted here so whatever.” 

The team worked with Sana Amanat, Ms. Marvel’s co-creator, to get the character right. “I really appreciate how Crystal Dynamix, you guys really captured who she was fromo a power set but also a personality,” she said. 

AIM suspects, they don’t know, that Terrigen Mist could have affected Kamala. They see it as an infection and disease which is something “to be cured.” 

Before wrapping up, they want to talk about other cool suits in the game. He introduces art in which the Avengers are going to take on AIM and Tony Stark provides Stark Tech suits.