Marvel Rivalsdabbles in simple color palette swaps for some of its characters’ skins, but a lot of costumes are wholly unique—that’s not even considering all of the MVP cinematics, emotes, and sprays that usually come bundled with them. Some skins drastically change the way a character looks, too, with considerations needing to be made in order for them to still function as they normally would.Marvel Rivals’ Mr. Knight skin for Moon Knight, for instance, doesn’t usually have a cape but needed to have one so that players could glide as that’s one of the character’s chief abilities.
Likewise, while MVPs forCaptain America’s Captain Gladiator skinor Iron Fist’s Sword Master skin have them wielding an axe and a sword respectively, those weapons aren’t actually included in their move set and are mere props for their winning cinematics should players achieve MVP status.
In theory, colorway swaps would be a harmless means of supplementary skins. In fact, the white palette swap for Storm and the red palette swap for Star-Lord are substantial and visually striking. Unfortunately, some palette swaps have already alluded to the disappointing notion that some characters will be represented as a skin and not their own roster addition.Marvel Rivalshas thankfully clarified thatMiles Morales and Gwen Stacywould only ever be their own characters and not skins if they were considered, and yet Venom having an Anti-Venom costume suggests that certain variations of a character may nonetheless be back-burned regardless of how different or paramount they are.
Marvel Rivals’ Anti-Venom Costume Misses the Potential a Roster Character Could’ve Had
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Anti-Venom makes sense as a skin forMarvel Rivals’ Venomand if the symbiote’s abilities weren’t any different it wouldn’t be an issue at all that the white-and-black suit is a colorway. It’d be odd to have another Eddie Brock character just for Anti-Venom, for example.
However, because Anti-Venom has curative properties rather than decidedly venomous ones, it would’ve been neat to see Anti-Venom designed as aMarvel RivalsStrategistwho could potentially heal or buff teammates while sapping health from enemies.
Indeed, Anti-Venom is known for sapping Spider-Man’s radioactivity and leaving him powerless, and ifMarvel Rivalsdesigned Anti-Venom similarly it would be fascinating to see him neutralize enemy abilities or put them on cooldown so that they’re left defenseless and with strategies ruined. It would be particularly overpowered if a well-timed Anti-Venom Ultimate could even neutralize enemy Ultimates in a radius to secure points last-minute, all while Anti-Venom continues to heal teammates around him.
Marvel Rivals Hopefully Sets Sights on Other Symbiote Characters
That said,Marvel Rivalshas endless characters waiting in line to be adaptedand a healer iteration of Venom that would be lacking in its own costume potential is hardly a hill to die on. Of course, anyone who adores various symbiote characters such as Toxin, Scorn, Scream, or even Venom 2099 will probably be disappointed as they’re unlikely to join the roster at any point in the future now that Anti-Venom is a skin and not his own character with a distinct kit.
Cletus Kasady’s Carnage is the only symbiote character whose acceptance as a roster entry is on the table due to the blood-red fiend’s popularity, with Knull only having the tiniest glimmer of hope to join the roster due to his relevance in Venom andMarvel Rivals’ overarching narrative. In the meantime, it’s been surprising that Klyntar was one ofMarvel Rivals’ first maps and it’ll be interesting to see if its inclusion so early is meant to tease that a lot more symbiotes are on their way or not.
