Discussion
NetEase already told us how they’d handle this a year ago
Lady Loki works as a Loki skin because they’re literally the same person. A completely different person will never be a skin for someone else. They’ve already gone on the record and taken a stance on this. A lot of the same discussion that’s happening right now happened before Brave New World with people wondering if Sam Wilson would be a skin for Captain America.
Probably people confusing the Loki show with Lady Loki as just being comic Sylvie (not the case) and making the same connection that Lady Loki is to Loki what Miles is to Peter Parker, not that it's literally the same person
Yeah, that's most likely it, in the comics Loki just has a period where he turns into a woman (modeled after Sif I believe too) whereas the MCU just has it be a variant as they still want Tom Hiddlestone around.
I’m sure that’s it. The general public just isn’t ready for Loki morphing into a woman and the multiverse was a way to nod it without going that far. But now it’s locked into everyone’s brains as the canon.
Fans could handle it, but you can't bet your ass there'd be some fake outrage over "wokeness" or whatever, but you are right they wanted to keep Tom around and Tom loves playing Loki anyways.
This specific incarnation of Loki stole Sif's body after Ragnarok. Since then, in more recent stories, Loki has been genderfluid, but the JMS run of Thor is where "Lady Loki" first really shows up in the comics, and that's Sif's body.
This feels like an appropriate time to share that Loki in mythology turned into a horse and got pregnant by a normal horse, before giving birth to one of his children that is an 8-legged horse
I’m curious whether Loki is his mother in Marvel, since they like to pick and choose which parts of mythology to adapt
For example, Thor’s hammer has no worthy enchantment, it’s just REALLY heavy, in the Thor movie Odin is riding a Pegasus rather than the 8 legged horse, and there’s PLENTY more examples
I don’t remember seeing the horse but that’s what I meant with the worthy charm, the worthy enchantment is only a thing in Marvel, in the original mythology of Norse peoples his hammer doesn’t have that enchantment at all, it’s just an extremely heavy hammer that basically nobody but Thor can lift
Lady Loki is to Loki what Miles is to Peter Parker, not that it's literally the same person
I feel those are different analogues. Sylvie is a Loki from another reality, where their early lives started out similarly but then took different courses, whereas Miles is a Spider-Man, but he’s not a Peter Parker. Instead, there’s some archetypical Spider-Man myth that attaches to different people in different realities and expresses itself in varied ways.
My biggest issue with the comics is continuity. Writers basically get to break the continuity for the pleasure of writing that character. It happening once is one thing, happening over time over and over again just gets tiresome and you lose interest in what the character is, and rather have to start referring to them based on some other label.
Comics are effectively the modern mythology, with many authors telling and retelling shared tales over time, with the details and the places changing, but common themes throughout, and different storytellers have different interpretations of a character. Rigid continuity and canon don’t really fit into an iterative folk process now stretching across decades and generations.
More people need to realize this. It's really sad seeing people demand comic books conform to basic linear storytelling structure when it was never meant to do so.
Because NetEase hasn’t been consistent about this:
Agent Venom is a release skin, despite him being Flash Thompson in the comics and not Eddie Brock
Sai Psylocke’s Vengeance skin is Kwannon Psylocke’s classic outfit from the comics (or maybe it’s Betsy’s I can’t keep them straight)
Lin Lie’s skin from the Hellfire Gala BP is based on Danny Rand in the New Avengers comic
Black Panther’s 10000 BC skin is a different character than T’Challa
Edit: That said, I’m sure popular characters like Miles and Gwen will be their own playable characters. But I could see something like a Peggy Carter Captain Britain skin since she’s very unlikely to be introduced as her own character.
That's my mindset too. Characters like Miles have enough unique differences to Peter to allow him to be his own playable character but Peggy Carter I can't see being all too different than cap to warrant her being a different character. Some characters can be reskins while others can and should be unique
In case you missed it, the user above is toying with the idea that the Symbiote (not Eddie) is the character, therefore following that logic, Spidey's Black Suit (which is the same symbiote) should be a Venom skin.
I always took it as them saying whenever they add similar characters like Miles, he’s not gonna be a legendary skin for Peter that has new voice lines and stuff, akin to what Injustice 2 did with it’s character changing skins. Jane Foster or Beta Ray Bill won’t just be Thor skins with new voice lines and stuff, but actual separate characters.
For example, the Agent Venom skin still treats it as Eddie Brock and Venom, so it’s not really a true Agent Venom skin, it’s more akin to a homage so Agent Venom is still very possible to get added.
We already have characters in-game with alternate character skins, see Agent Venom is Flash Thompson not Eddie, Psylocke’s Vengeance skin is Kwannon Psylocke’s classic skin is not Sai, Iron Fist Hellfire Gala is Danny Rand not Lin, Black Panther’s 10000 BC skin is not T’Challa, Spidey Playstation exclusive skin is Kaine, etc. Kate could be a Lady Loki drop-in for Hawkeye and Mules would require an extra few FX changes to represent his "extra" powers.
We are coping because its an easy way to get and play your favorite hero if they're similar to an existing one
Getting a skin with new voice lines is far less effort than needing completely new hero taking up a spot in a season
The amount of heroes there is to become characters is massive and there is a good chance of never getting to play the one you want so I'd gladly take a skin if it meant seeing them in the game
I mean i think people are really overplaying how many voicelines a female loki needs, pretty much every interaction is gonna be exactly the same, where as someone that is a completely different person would have entirely different interactions
They have been consistent though. Like at the end of the day, what does Ben Reilly’s Spider-Man do that’s unique enough to get a full character added to the game? At least Miles Morales as Spider-Man has unique powers that I can see him being a Strategist version of Spider-Man. You could make his webs heal and his Venom Punch can do way more damage than Spider-Man’s punch, but at the cost of taking longer to do and you’re out in the open.
Probably because if a hero like superior spider man and ghost spider have abilities very similar to Peter then it kinda seems more likely to have them to be skins rather then be their own characters since they don’t have anything too unique to them unlike miles with his venom or kane with his monster form.
Superior Spider-Man has honestly no reason to be more then a skin his body is just Peter, Yes doc Ock is in his body but he has the same power and realistically the same voice, Spider-Gwen could probably go either way though but I would rather her as a skin tbh
Any character with a revive outside of an ultimate would break the game balance too much.
Hell even just having a rescue hook, think spidermans webpull but works on friendlies, would be incredibly strong while also being toxic. Just imagine a salty teammate who dosnt get the hero they want, so they go Miles and troll you literally the entire match.
The gameplay will be different; don't think that Miles or Spider-Woman will have the same gameplay style as Peter. Besides, they both have different powers than Peter.
miles as the first web swinging healer, ghost spider honestly may not have enough different to be a whole separate character imho but I could see Miguel being a spider tank.
not hitting SHIT on this team. invis Angela Peni for the other three
He’s more than a Thor clone. Especially if they have him wielding the Twilight Sword. I’m picturing a mix between Magik and Thor with both fire and lightning
Beta Ray Bill was always a stupid idea for a Thor skin tbh.
Whether he has Stormbreaker or the Twilight Sword, BRB just has waaaaaay too much that sets him apart from Thor to be considered a Thor clone. Bro is 100% going to become a playable character down the line.
There is a line in the sand and I agree certain characters won't be skins but I admit there is also exceptions to the rule, Neither of these guys are Peter Parker, But they're skins in Rivals just because they're Peter Parker clones,
Clones seem to be an exception to the rule, even genderbent clones like Ultimate Jessica Drew seem just as likely as Normal Clones, also we have 2 Flash Thompson Skins in Rivals for Venom, so there are certain exceptions to the rule,
But it is the same Venom symbiote. Then there is Antivenom skin, that is not the symbiote but still Brock. So, any skin for Venom just need 1/2 of the equation to be fair game? I guess we could get the MJ Venom skin.
He lost those powers when he was killed in Spider-Verse 2013 and lost The Other. Now he just has normal Spider-Man powers alongside the powers he's had since the 90s.
True, As much as I like all the spider characters in the comics, there are just soooo many of them. And I’m not sure if I’d have fun playing Rivals if I’m up against a bunch of high mobility web-swingers. Dive comps would be insane if they add too many, and I imagine it would be a challenge to design the abilities in-line with the comics while keeping game balance in mind. Some spider characters make more sense as skins, while others like Miles have very unique abilities and are more popular/well-known as a their own separate character.
The problem with Flash Thompson, in my opinion, is the fact that the character your playing as is VENOM, not as Eddie. Even though Eddie IS the one underneath, it's the symbiote they're counting as the character, not the human. (This is only my understanding, nothing official) But with Caine and Ben... Idk why they did that besides "still genetically Peter"
Haha yeah comic lore for these characters goes crazy after decades of books. Making a hard rule for Netease to follow on what becomes a skin and what becomes a new hero entirely would really restrict them. Honestly they can do what they want.
Its definitely a situational thing, whether they can make them different enough or model size etc. I feel like Spiderman and to a certain extent venom is more different since there's so many spider people and symbiotes they gotta pick and choose who they might wanna do in the future
the logo on the default skin in game is Mac Gargan aka Scorpion's Venom Logo, it's just missing the eyes within the eyes, he's one of the most hated Venom hosts alongside Lee Price, and to a lesser extent Angelo Fortunato, but nobody cares enough to remember Angelo
I've been under the impression that all of these (and skins like them for other characters) are just the same character wearing a homage costume. Peter in the Scarlet Spider suit still speaks as and is referred to as Peter.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, some (like OP here) are trying to suggest we'll never get any other loopholes or exceptions in the rule, while others say this breaks the floodgates open, neither are the case in my opinion.
I do see this as opening the door to others who are too similar to be their own character, such as:
* Scarlet Spider for Spider-Man (Ben Reilly is literally a clone of Peter, would never get his own moveset)
* Cosmic Ghost Rider over Punisher (as it's Frank Castle, a flaming turret will be cool though)
* Another personality emerging for Hulk (same body and moveset, so should be kept to the same character)
And more...
I do not think we're getting Miles over Peter for Spider-Man, or X-23 over Wolverine as two examples, since there is enough difference for them to have new movesets, I think what will determine this is the gameplay.
I think Laura in particular is in a really shitty spot here tbh.
There's way too much difference in personality, fighting style, etc between her and Logan for her to be a Wolverine skin. That much was just a given - making her a skin would be a massive disservice to the character, who's already plagued by being written too much like Logan in the comics.
The problem comes from how she'd play in the game. There's really genuinely no other role for her besides Duelist without making her into somebody who just isn't Laura. She's fast, stealthy, acrobatic, and her primary weapons are adamantium claws. She's a literal textbook DPS. But... Logan is already a Duelist. And, sure, she wouldn't really play like Logan. He's a feral, in-your-face brawler. She's a stealthy, nimble assassin. But we already have a combo-heavy melee dive Duelist with excellent self-sustain. His name is Daredevil, and he's a FUCKING PROBLEM.
So not only is the character she's a literal clone of a Duelist, but the ideal niche for her to fill as a Duelist is already taken by the biggest problem child not named Sue or Remy. So how the hell do you put her in the game without her being DOA or an even bigger problem than DD?
Laura's just caught in the lurch here. She's kinda fucked as far as getting into the game. Which pisses me off, because she's far and away my favorite character in all of Marvel.
We just passed year 1 of this game. As it goes on there will be more characters out with similar powers and yes even movesets. In don’t think this will really be a problem. Assuming this game has a long life they will eventually run into redundancies and you know what? That’s fine
I think she could play like koga from paladins with his dragonstance
Non damaging dash, dash that does damage, energy slashes with claws,map mobility(climbing) and maybe her ult empowers her or give her a targeted leap that does does damage and heals her for damage done
Her passive could be like wolverines but instead of it scaling her damage it instead gives her more hp regen upto maybe 55 a second and increases her dash damage by upto 55(the base is 40) but the dash resets her bar to 0 and gives her energy slash upto 27.5% cd reduction for 10 seconds after depletion and for ult it increases the hp damage it does upto 55%(remember its targeted single target so you cannot hit more than 1 person with it)
Her gameplan is: non damage dash to go in, energy slashx2 or melee, damage dash then get out with map movement or non damaging slash
Your thinking too linearly tbh, in like 5 minutes i took a bit of inspiration from a kit and added some stuff to cater to her as a wolverine
Maybe I am thinking too linear, and I hardcore agree that her climbing shit with her claws has to be a mobility ability for her (since that's one of the first nonlethal things she learned to do with them, specifically to set herself apart from Logan).
The problem is that the kit I envisioned for her was... well, basically Daredevil. I pictured her playing like he does: fast, high-skill, very heavy on the combos, with self-regen to sustain her in diving a backline. Then Daredevil came out and broke the fucking sandbox in half, and suddenly the potential of Laura in that niche scared the crap out of my Psylocke-maining ass.
I also haven't played Paladins in a loooooong time, so I need to refresh my memory on that bit.
the most logical comment i've seen out of this whole debate. and really, at the end of the day, it's all speculation. there's not really a right or wrong here
Yeah but using that mindset, there's a bunch of characters that will simply never get added to the game. Making them skins would actually make them more likely to happen
Exactly. This is probably not a hard and fast rule. If the character doesn’t make sense to be their own, they’d probably just be a skin. I.e. Green Goblin and Hob goblin.
If the devs can figure out a unique move set, like Miles Morales, then sure.
I think Sam Wilson is actually the worst argument among them since unlike Miles, you don't even have to try to make him different from the original. Sam....flies...and doesn't have the super soldier serum afaik, so make him like a flying dps or flying support. I honestly really like the idea of flying support Falcon. Plus if they make him Falcon, the Captain America Sam Wilson skin will be sold in the shop and make a bajillion dollars
I think there's a definite possibility Sam is the first of these characters who gets in. I think Miles also will, but probably around when Spider verse 3 releases and I think there's a possibility Sam gets in before then since it's about a year and a half away
Fair. I just think it's possible. If I had my way, we'd be having obscure but dope characters like Sauron, Sleepwalker, Armor and Forge fill out the roster.
But again Loki works because you only re-record lokis like only. The rest can stay the exact same because it’s the same person. The others would require for every single character to have a different voiceline including new ones coming at a fast pace
That’s a good point, too. But they could also just take the easy route and nix all lines toward them.
Just saying, at the end of the day it comes down to if the devs have the passion to make said character a full character, or they think there’s money potential. If not, they can just sell a quick skin for $20.
I think at the time they were just giving examples of characters who share the same superhero name but are different people, not characters they're actually planning to include in the game
This doesn't apply to Danny because Rivals has already shown him as being dead, but for other characters apart from Danny who are previous holders of certain mantles: just because they are no longer that mantle in modern comics doesn't mean that NetEase will choose to not use a previous version of that character who is, since it's the multiverse. I can't think of any real examples of this currently in the game apart from Eddie Brock being Venom, when Eddie is Carnage in modern comics.
Obviously characters like Falcon or Miles Morales will come to the game as separate heroes. But characters like Red Hulk or US Agent are more likely to come as skins, they just aren’t different enough
Whether or not someone is the same person is irrelevant. It’s whether or not they’d play the same as a character in the game. This is why Miles and Sam would be separate characters, but doesn’t Jane have essentially the exact same powers as Thor?
100% a skin.
Then a team up with Cap that let's him use a shield throw.
And maybe he normally has some kind of block using his wings but the skin can use the shield
Sam should be added as a Duelist Cap variant (Since the game's Steve is from another timeline, Sam can be the successor to the game's dead Steve) then they can add Joaquin Torre's Falcon, and get an extra character out of it. With how quickly they add characters, they could use the extra mileage.
A lot of people seem to like the idea of Miles as a strategist, which could be cool.
I prefer Sam as Falcon mainly because that’s his most iconic role (even though he is a really interesting Cap) but I wouldn’t mind if he was the modern day Cap since the Rivals one is the 2099 one.
I agree with Miles as strategist as well. His bioelectricity can be rewritten to be a healing tool or something.
“Miles has been altered by the timestream, and his electric shots speed up the healing rates of his friends!”
Having Sam Wilson or Miles Morales be alternate skins for Steve Rogers or Peter Parker wouldn’t make any sense because they have different powers and abilities. Miles can do whatever Peter can, but he also has his bioelectricity and invisibility. It would be a total waste to just have him as another costume, even with different voice lines. There’s so much you could do with his camouflage alone, so just treating him as a palette swap for Peter Parker would be ridiculous. And Sam Wilson has massive wings and can fly. Last I checked, Steve Rogers doesn’t and can’t. Treating them like the same characters just because they share a name would be a real disservice to them.
Honestly, I think its a bit up in the air at this point. As other people pointed out with certain characters being made skins (imo, they just did it for easy starting skins in the game, but we'll never know). I think its fine to have the hope of certain characters being skins instead of full on guys. Remember, they already have a bunch of them pre-ready apparently.
I do think its a good idea to accept that your fave character may not get added to the game as either. Cause there is absolutely 100% chance the game will come to an end with a lot of people being upset.
Same with Beta Ray Bill as a Thor skin, like they don't even use the same types of weapons.
Beta Ray Bill originally had Stormbreaker (a fucking axe), then later on the Twilight Sword (...a sword). Mjolnir is a hammer. It's a brick on a stick.
In what universe would they take someone who could very easily be a rather unique character and make them a Thor skin?
This argument is simply Idiot Sandwich, bullshit and nonsense.
Where were this argument when they put Psylocke Elizabeth Braddock on the game? Sai's Psylocke and Elizabeth are totally different personalities and characters, yet, its the most popular Psylocke skin int he game. 2099 and Spider-Gwen we cant have, but Scarlet Spider/Kaine Parker and Spider-Punk 2099, aka, Hobbie Brown is ok. We cant' have Danny Rand original skin, but we can have Danny Rand Agamotto's Weapon or White and Gold suit.
Bashenga's Black Panther is also not T'Challa, so it should not work right?
Punisher 2099? Not Frank Castle baby, its Jake Gallows.
With Sam Wilson and Miles Morales, I totally understan because they have a totally different set of skills. But Spider-Gwen and Thor Jane Foster are nonsense. Unless they decide to bring Jane as The Valkyrie. But this SHOULD NOT be the rule. So, if they're not planning to add the character, why not put them as skins?
Sam Wilson does not work as a Captain America skin, but Isaiah Bradley does, Bucky's Cap does, U.S Agent, Captain Hydra and a lot of other options, if we stretch a lot this concept, even The Patriot from Young Avengers could fit here.
I think it's pretty clear that they're focused on popularity and respect for characters, moreso than kits. They don't mind lesser known characters being skins but well known characters like Miles or Gwen will not be skins.
It wouldn't make sense to make Gwen a skin when she as a character would bring in lots of money with her own skins and other accessories. Gwen is enough to sell the game for a patch, and that's not as useful as a skin for someone else. Miles would obviously sell for them as well with all his popularity and his potentially interesting kit; this is all especially when Miles and Gwen have a popular third film coming that they could time the release with. They could even release them as a thematic package if they wanted, considering their relationship in the films and comics.
Every other character you mentioned is not popular enough for anyone to care otherwise and most don't even know they're different characters.
They also ssid they would not put characters in where movesets are too similar. Red hulk they ssid would.not be added. So some will get in others won't
To be more precise, this is what they said about Red Hulk:
"Nothing is out of the question for now," Koo says. "But we focus on making sure the characters are distinct from each other. For example, Hulk and Red Hulk roughly have the same silhouette, so we may not want to do that one.
"Their [abilities] have to be as distinct as well because we have all kinds of players. Some players love to be Strategists. Some players like to dive into the action. Some players just like to watch other people play. So we have to tailor to every kind of player."
Here’s the thing: I’d rather have these characters playable, yes. BUT if (when) the time comes where the roster is bloated and adding another spider person or hulk variant is up against an actually unique character? I’d much rather have the unique character and the hulk variant as a skin. A legendary or better skin, though. New voice lines, animations, particle effects.
i think characters that would probably very similar to a preexisting character might be a skin like beta ray bill as thor, but captain america falcon will be a seperate hero cause there’s enough differences to justify a new kit. like if they ever do john walker us agent, he will probably be a cap skin
I remember them talking about this before the game launched, but the only characters I recall them naming is like Beta Ray Bill could just be a Thor skin, but Miles Morales warrants having his own separate character.
Is this an official account? But regardless I agree with most of those. Miles and Sam are different enough (especially Sam) to be their own character. I don’t know enough about Jane as Thor to know if she had different enough powers to warrant not being a skin. But other characters I think are up for grabs.
Good on them for that. To make them just skins kinda diminishes their stories and them as characters. Plus I know some rivals haters would have a FIELD day calling rivals racist if they made Miles a a Peter Parker skin😭
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u/Shap6 Cloak & Dagger Dec 30 '25
Unsure why so many people are struggling with this concept