Summary
- The Marvel vs. Capcom dev diary reveals that Iron Man and Fantastic Four were off limits due to exclusivity deals.
- But bizzarely, Capcom would’ve been allowed to use an Iron Man villain as the final boss.
The original Marvel vs. Capcom had a stacked roster, especially in 1998. It featured fan-favourites like Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine (the then most famous trio in Marvel), as well as relatively new icons like Venom.
But there are a few other notable picks that didn’t make the cut.
YouTuber SeventhForce has been digging through the Producer’s Essay over on Twitter, a five part dev diary written by Kenji Kataoka. It’s chock full of interesting details, such as his narrowed down proposal list for the roster which included the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Psylocke, Jubilee, Mr. Fantastic, and bizzarely, Howard the Duck.
Marvel rejected Iron Man because of an exclusivity contract and suggested using War Machine in his place. The Fantastic Four were likewise “legally off the table”, to the point where Kataoka couldn’t even get a background cameo approved.
Marvel would have allowed Deathlok, Beast, Iron Fist, Quasar, Namor, Sasquatch, Machine Man, Elektra, Speedball, Spider-Woman, and Medusa.
As for Howard the Duck, several devs at Capcom were “really passionate about him”, even putting together a petition to add him to the game, but Marvel still said no.
The Final Boss Was Supposed To Be Galactus
Another interesting tid-bit revealed in the dev diary is that Onslaught wasn’t Capcom’s first idea for the final boss. It originally wanted Galactus, but he was rejected because Marvel thought he was too powerful, and not someone that could be defeated with a punch.
In his place, Marvel suggested using Loki, but Capcom didn’t think Japanese players would recognise him, and they thought his green and yellow tights looked silly. So, Marvel put forward another compromise — Fin Fang Foom.
But Kataoka was confused about why they’d be allowed to use an Iron Man villain and not… Iron Man. So, he started listing off a bunch of other villains, including Carnage (who Marvel rejected), until eventually he mentioned Onslaught. The rest is history.
So, Marvel vs. Capcom’s final boss wasn’t the first, second, third, or even fourth choice.
