Marvel Rivals players theorize the next female Vanguard

Marvel Rivals has been off to a successful start with Season One, adding Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman to the roster as a Duelist and Strategist, respectively. While it’s great to see more characters added to any role, Rivals fans have been busy theorizing the next female Vanguard character.

The Vanguard lineup is currently dominated by male characters, with Peni Parker being the only female character out of all eight Vanguards. However, Rivals was data mined and it’s been revealed that Emma Frost will be the next Vanguard introduced to the game. That didn’t stop fans on Reddit from theorizing about other characters that could step into the role, though.

Emma Frost was originally an adversary of Charles Xavier’s X-Men, eventually joining them after the death of her Hellions. She even went on to train the latest generation of mutants, Generation X. Emma Frost is perfect for the Vanguard position because she can transform her body into a diamond, becoming virtually indestructible. It would make sense for her abilities to focus on a combination of her telepathic powers and her diamond form. I’m particularly excited to see how her diamond form translates to the game.

While waiting for the update, fans on Reddit also discussed the female Vanguards they’d like to see introduced to the game, with thousands of people chiming in. Of course, there are some stand-outs from the bunch that received more likes than the rest. 

Armor, or Hisako Ichiki, from X-Men, received the most likes from the community, topping 4,000. Her name alone makes her seem perfectly situated for the Vanguard role. She grew up in Tokyo, Japan before heading to the Xavier Institute to train her abilities, and can generate psionic armor around herself that grants super strength and durability.

Lady Sif has the second most likes with over 3,000. She’s an Asgardian warrior who wields a sword enchanted by Odin as she guards the Bifrost, so it would be interesting to see abilities that focus on Bifrost if she ever is introduced to the game. Of course, Thor would probably prefer Jane as Valkyrie to join him in the Vanguards.

Medusa from Inhumans garnered a lot of attention, too. With over a thousand likes from the community, she’s a favorite. Medusa has prehensile hair, meaning she can control the movement, growth, and maneuverability of each strand independently from the rest. Furthermore, her hair is tough as metal, making it the perfect tool against her adversaries. Fans have theorized that she’d have some interesting crowd control abilities with her hair providing the large hitbox the role requires, helping her fight back against groups of enemies.

It was unsurprising to see characters with a long history in the franchise, but the idea of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur piqued some interest with nearly a thousand likes as well. She premiered in February 2023 and is the newest character mentioned. Fans considered that her Devil Dino is probably “too large” to be featured as her main character, so it could instead be an interesting ultimate ability if she gets added to the game.

While these are just fan theories, it would make sense for NetEase to consider the community’s wants in their future updates.