Marvel Rivals has a giant villain-shaped problem

Marvel Rivals is competing for a top spot in superhero shooter space, but there’s one glaring issue—villains are massively outnumbered. 

While Marvel doesn’t have any shortage of iconic bad guys, the game’s current roster leans heavily toward heroes, leaving fans wondering: When are the villains coming to the game to bring their chaotic energy? In a Reddit discussion, players are discussing how the game only has a few proper, well-defined villains right now. 

While Marvel Rivals does feature characters like Loki, Magneto, Venom, and Wanda, they don’t quite fit the mold of true villains. These anti-heroes have all walked the line between good and evil, with redemption arcs in the comics or MCU softening their edge. 

“The only one in the game that was and still is a full unrepentant villain is Hela,” a player said, noting Hela as the only truly sinister presence—driven by pure malice—alongside Namor, whose motivations are more complex.

All the other superheroes are good and have save-the-world vibes, which makes for a rather bland set of characters. Players have suggested villains such as Doctor Doom, who could potentially come into the game as a Vanguard. He could use his energy shields to soak up damage and his Doombots could swarm the enemies to take over points easily. The character recently came to Fortnite, and NetEase has already mentioned him in the game for the Gala event in season two, so he could be coming sooner than we’d expect. 

Another popular villain that comes up quite frequently in conversations is Thanos. The Mad Titan was crucial to the Avengers arc in the MCU, and his arrival in the game could also bring another team-wiping ultimate to the game, having a counterpart to Jeff’s strategy of engulfing the enemy team. Ultron has been coming up in leak,s and he can be a tank or even a potent Duelist like Namor who excels in dealing poke damage to enemies, whittling down their health for an easy elimination.

As Spider-Man is already a list of superheroes in the game, a season based on his character could see a wide variety of supervillains such as Carnage, Sandman, Mysterio, Lizard, Rhino, Vulture, and many more. These characters have unique abilities in the comics, and they could add a lot of counter to the current meta superheroes. 

For example, Doctor Octopus has long mechanical tentacles, which might allow the character to climb up walls and counter aerial superheroes like Spider-Man or even Iron Man and Human Torch, which would definitely cement him in the meta. Another supervillain could be Electro, who could be an electric-based Duelist and also have crowd control ability on his attacks, stunning enemies in their place. 

Similar to the Team-up abilities in the game right now, we could also get Rivalries in the game with enough villains. It could give a hero or villain extra firepower if they manage to take down their rival on the opponent team, which should make for spicier gameplay for the players with a personal vendetta against a few superheroes or villains. 

These are just some of the villain possibilities in Marvel Rivals, and the developer has a ton of other characters in the arsenal as well. The next season could be the one for the villains, and it should even the playing field between heroes and villains to make matches feel more exciting.