Marvel Rivals and MCU tie-ins are a match made in heaven for fans of Marvel, as the unique designs of the films make for fantastic skins in NetEase’s hero shooter. While Marvel Rivals has no shortage of MCU skin potential between existing films and upcoming ones, it would be wise for the game to take advantage of the hype of a new film at the time it releases. Marvel Rivals attempted this collaboration with the recent release of Captain America: Brave New World, but the content it offered players has one glaring omission.
In a collaboration with the new MCU film, Marvel Rivals players who purchase tickets to Captain America: Brave New World through Regal can earn a special nameplate, spray, and mystery costume. While many fans anticipated this mystery costume to be a new MCU Red Hulk skin for Marvel Rivals‘ Hulk, the skin ended up being the already-existing Revolution Winter Soldier skin, unrelated to the film entirely. Although receiving a free skin alongside movie tickets is a nice incentive, it seems like this collaboration was a major missed opportunity to add a new MCU skin.
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A Red Hulk Skin for Marvel Rivals Would Have Been the Perfect Captain America: Brave New World Tie-In
Hulk Getting a Red Hulk Skin Would Be a Simple But Meaningful Addition
Recent MCU skin releases like the Infinity War skin for Captain America have been popular additions. Marvel Rivals has been good about adding skins for popular MCU films, such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool and Wolverine, but some of these skins don’t feel as timely as they could be. With Captain America: Brave New World being the first new MCU film to release since Marvel Rivals‘ launch, now would have been the perfect time to establish the precedent of releasing a new skin alongside an MCU film, but the opportunity seems to have passed.
Red Hulk would have been the obvious choice for a Marvel Rivals skin tie-in for Captain America: Brave New World, despite Bruce Banner and Thunderbolt Ross being completely different characters. A simple red recolor for Hulk wouldn’t have been too much of a change from his base skin, so it seems like this type of MCU skin would have been perfect compared to a more complicated potential skin like Sam Wilson’s Captain America. However, the lack of a Red Hulk skin to coincide with Captain America: Brave New World could foreshadow a future character addition.
Marvel Rivals Skipping the Chance for a Red Hulk Skin Could Mean Thunderbolt Ross is Headed to the Game
Marvel Rivals has already made it clear that some Marvel characters that could become skins for existing heroes may become full-fledged characters themselves, such as Miles Morales or Sam Wilson. With this in mind, it’s possible that Red Hulk will be a future addition to Marvel Rivals as his own unique character, potentially adopting different powers from Bruce Banner, such as a permanent Hulk form, since Ross can consciously control his transformations. The potential Red Hulk has to be his own character may have prevented Marvel Rivals from receiving a Red Hulk skin for Captain America: Brave New World.
Currently, Hulk’s only other skins in Marvel Rivals aside from the default one are the rare G-Bomb skin and legendary Green Scar.
However, Marvel Rivals has been somewhat inconsistent with how it treats separate characters as skins for existing ones. For example, Mr. Fantastic has a skin for The Maker, the villainous Ultimate Universe version of the hero, and Venom has an Anti-Venom skin, which is technically a different version of the Venom symbiote infused with Martin Li’s negative powers, and both are on the border between different characters and variants of the original character. Thunderbolt Ross’ Red Hulk must fall enough into the “separate character” camp compared to Bruce Banner’s Hulk that Marvel Rivals wants to leave the door open for the character to potentially join the roster later down the line.
Third-Person Shooter
Action
Multiplayer
- Released
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December 6, 2024
- ESRB
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T For Teen // Violence
- Developer(s)
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NetEase Games
- Publisher(s)
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NetEase Games