Marvel Comics Exec Editor Says ‘Marvel Rivals’ Has No Effect On Print Plans, Believes Character Popularity “Has More To Do With Play Mechanics Than It Does The Character Themselves”
While Marvel Rivals may be opening the door for some of the publisher’s lesser known characters to see some love, Marvel Comics Executive Editor Tom Brevoort says that a given hero’s in-game popularity has no bearing on their comic book future because, unfortunately, the hero shooter’s core player base has little interest in checking out its actual source material.
As per usual, Brevoort offered this latest insight into Marvel Comics’ behind-the-scenes operations during the Q&A portion of his most recent Man With A Hat Substack blog entry.
In kicking off his weekly feature, the X-Men line editor chose to field a question regarding whether or not there was “anything [readers] can expect/anticipate for Cloak and Dagger in the next year?”, particularly in light of how, in the fan’s opinion, “it feels like they’ve never been more popular than they are right now thanks to Marvel Rivals.”
Unfortunately for not only the fan who asked said question but also those hoping to see a potential comic book resurgence for characters such as Hela, Emma Frost, Peni Parker, or Adam Warlock (or in the case of Luna Snow, an initial comic book boom), Brevoort in turn explained that contrary to popular belief, he has seen little crossover between Marvel Rivals players and a demand for more comic books featuring a given hero.
“I tell you,” said Brevoort, “I tend to think that popularity in Marvel Rivals likely has more to do with play mechanics than it does the characters themselves. Which is to say that I haven’t seen any major correlation between popularity in the game and a rise of interest in the character in print, outside of maybe one or two outliers.”
“That said,” he added, “we are planning to do something with Cloak and Dagger in the near future, so that potential audience will have something to take a look at.”
Interestingly, while Brevoort did not specifically note which characters were the “outliers” when it came to Marvel Rivals‘ comic book influence, a cursory glance at Marvel Comics’ upcoming publishing plans reveal at least one confirmed candidate: Jeff the Land Shark.
Making his debut as a side character in Kelly Thompson’s West Coast Avengers Vol. 3 and Deadpool Vol. 8 before spending the last four years near-exclusively relegated to his own Infinity Comic, Marvel Rivals‘ fearsome Strategist will be getting his first print solo series this June 18th, as written by Thompson and illustrated by Marvel Rivals Infinity Comic artist Tokitokoro.
(Plus, he also got his own Magic: The Gathering card as part of the recent Deadpool-centric Secret Lair Drop release.)
Notably, this is not the first time Brevoort has made it clear that the popularity of a given Marvel Rivals character is not one he considers when making publishing decisions.
Asked earlier this year whether or not the publisher was looking to capitalize on the increased interest being paid to Galacta thanks to her starring role as the game’s announcer, the executive editor affirmed that while “[editor] Jordan D. White has been waiting for his chance to do more Galacta ever since he helped to innovate that character years ago,” when it came to himself, “as the Fantastic Four editor, I have to say that I don’t like what the existence of that character does to Galactus, so I am very much in favor of refraining from more Galacta content, at least within the mainstream MU.”
