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Marvel Rivals Season 1 is upon us, and with it comes new heroes, new maps, and some pretty interesting buffs and nerfs. In the run-up to its release, I got to check out this season, and while the new heroes may be a little broken and a pain to play against, they are also incredibly fun.
The first thing I did once I got into the test server was try out the two new heroes coming to Season 1, half of the Fantastic Four: Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. I was initially interested in Mister Fantastic after watching his teaser trailer, which demonstrated how he could transform into a Vanguard, deflect incoming damage, and bash enemy players into one another.
Mister Fantastic is an excellent flanker—diving on Strategists or escaping from a fight is easy thanks to this chest bump ability (known as Flexible Elongation), as you can latch yourself to enemies or teammates and drag yourself toward them. The bump also deals some nasty damage. It’s probably the most obnoxious attack I’ve ever seen. Although his primary weapon took some getting used to, it’s incredibly effective as long as you can hit your shots. Punching your enemies won’t just deal a good chunk of damage to one player—if you hold down the left mouse button and drag it across your screen, you can hit multiple targets as long as they’re close to one another.
If you use your elastic abilities enough, it’ll also trigger a passive ability, Elastic Strength, which boosts your damage and shield, granting you 950 health and turning you into a Vanguard hybrid. This, alongside the Reflexive Rubber ability that lets you reflect incoming damage, can be a lifesaver when you’re fighting behind enemy lines and is one of the biggest components that make Mister Fantastic such an effective flanker.
But this durability is also what makes Mister Fantastic such a pain to play against. On multiple occasions, this menace was able to jump into the backline, take out a Strategist or two, block some incoming damage, and then whip away before anyone could land a killing blow. Going forward, I think the best course of action to take if there’s a Mister Fantastic on the enemy team is to pay close attention to your Strategists and team focus him as soon as he gets too close to them.
I’ve been continually impressed with how NetEase has been able to create interesting and unique heroes.
There aren’t many self-sufficient Duelists in Marvel Rivals right now, and the ones that can shield themselves from damage or even restore some health usually take some time to do so. Iron Fist can heal himself, but he has to meditate first, meaning he’s vulnerable to incoming attacks, and Wolverine has access to an emergency pot of health but only when he’s on death’s door. However, Mister Fantastic can reflect damage onto enemy players and get access to more health as long as he hits his shots. I was able to turn into a Vanguard at least twice per fight, and while that’s a bit too OP, it’s a hell of a lot of fun.
Since Marvel Rivals’ release, I’ve been continually impressed with how NetEase has been able to create interesting, complex, and unique heroes with memorable powersets, whether it’s Jeff the Shark’s ultimate, which lets you eat and spit out entire teams, Venom and Spider-Man’s ridiculous mobility, or now killing enemies with a powerful chest bump. Some heroes may be pretty broken, and that is an issue, especially when it comes to competitive play, but the idea that if everything’s broken, nothing’s broken still stands and makes for some really entertaining and chaotic fights—there’s no denying that these heroes are incredibly fun to work with. But sooner or later, Marvel Rivals may have to put this chaos to the side in favour of a more stable meta, so until then I’d advise just having fun with all the broken heroes.
Push your luck
Like Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman also has some creative abilities that’ll likely make her a considerable threat. Her healing and defensive capabilities are pretty standard but easy to master, making her a good default Strategist. Her ultimate, Invisible Boundary, is also very simple, but it makes for a good defensive play as it turns allies invisible, provides some healing, and slows enemies down to boot. The best time to use an ultimate like this is during a messy team fight on the objective. I found that it confused the enemy team long enough to take out a couple of their players and win the fight.
I think players will find Invisible Woman an easy hero to get to grips with, especially if you have already played a lot of Luna Snow or Mantis. But one ability that does take some to tee up is her Force Physics ability. This lets you push enemies away or pull them in—it’s a game-changer.
On multiple occasions, I was able to line up a couple of enemies between me and the edge of the map, pushing them off in an instant. It’s just like a Lucio boop from Overwatch 2 and is just as annoying when it happens to you.
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There are also some new maps in Season 1: Sanctum Sanctorum, Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown, and Central Park. The first two are coming early on in Season 1, while the final map will be added in the second half.
Like most other Marvel Rivals maps, the new additions take some getting used to. Learning the layout is simple enough, especially for Midtown, as it’s a payload objective, but remembering which objects are breakable or how the map changes is the difficult part. I spent the first few games on Midtown running around and holding down B to see what buildings I could break and which areas gave me the best access to flanks or surprise attacks against the enemy team.
But I think the best part of Season 1 is the restraint that NetEase has shown. There are a couple of new heroes and maps, a great new battle pass, and some much-needed hero buffs and nerfs. But after adding 33 heroes and seven maps in Season 0, I’m glad the devs haven’t gone overboard with new content. While there are still new features to learn and try out, it’s still digestible and doesn’t completely make what I learned in Season 0 redundant—although learning the new Mister Fantastic meta will probably take its toll.
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Kurt Indovina
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