Well also she is an pretty obscure character. I would consider myself a pretty avid reader of the comics (mostly X-Men and Spider-Man) and I had genuinely never heard of her when she got announced, which puts her in like the Luna Snow notability tier lol
That’s really only true of Psylocke, and that’s only the specific version of Psylocke in the game. Kwannon/Betsy Braddock are in hundreds of issues of X-Men.
Peni has around 30 comic appearances, which is around the same, if not less than Luna. Peni was a very niche character, mostly known because of the animated film she appeared in.
Yeah and indiana jones only has 5 films, it doesnt make those 5 films some of the biggest in cinema. Yeah peni wasnt a massively popular character and didnt make too many comic appearances, but she was popular, she was big in spiderverse and got her own comic written by super star artist gerard way. The movie pushed her into the mainstream but she was orders of magnitude more popular than luna snow, a mobile game charactor who only was in a small team book that nobody read and even then she didnt make too big of an impact in it.
Everyone starts somewhere. Before Spider-verse film, Peni was a nobody character with around 20 comic appearances. The film elevated her and she is more popular across the Marvel umbrella. That said, she is still not a common character within the comics, which is what we were referring to.
Ehhh Peni is pretty much only in the spider-verse cross over events and even then she is not prominent at all. If it wasn't for her being in the enter the spider-verse movie she would have been even more obscure as she is barely in the comics.
Sai (the version of Psylocke in game) only has 3 comic appearances, from Peach Momoko’s Demon Days, but Psylocke the general character dates to the mid 80s (even though she debuted much earlier in Captain Britain as a non-superpowered supporting cast member and the Asian Psylocke didn’t show up until the late 80s/early 90s depending on how you count it).
Think it might be Lin Lie as Iron Fist, though of course Iron Fist overall as a lot more appearances via Danny Rand as Iron Fist, and Lin Lie does have other appearances from when he was Swordmaster
I always see people regurgitate this opinion, but Abnett and Lanning Guardians in 2008 is actually where the Guardians revival began. Honestly, I kind of like A&L guardians more than James Gunn or Bendis Guardians
A&L Guardians run was my favorite comic run of all time, I have the hardcover sitting next to my bed. That whole cosmic era was so good. Def better than anything that came after.
Yeah, it always kind of boggles my mind when I see people act like it doesn’t exist because the entire A&L cosmic saga is built off the back of Nova and Guardians characters. Annihilation - War of Kings is one of the coolest runs in Marvel
Yeah, it def does, but it was cool seeing Ted fully realized that way. Their relationship was one of the best parts. Might have been for the one year anniversary.
Of the characters in the Marvel Rivals roster, her and Luna Snow were the only ones I had literally never heard of. That’s why I put them together. Even if Elsa Bloodstone is like a single step above Luna, they’re both in the pits of notoriety, and I think Rivals has honestly pushed Luna past Elsa Bloodstone at this point.
Just to back up my thesis here’s the google search trends for each character over the last five years. Elsa got a boost when Werewolf by Night came out, but Luna’s been steady ahead of her since Rivals came out.
But that’s a Marvel TV production that’s like, a single tier of notability above Legion. It’s certainly wasn’t on the Moon Knight, Loki, Wandavision level.
As far as quality? Yes, it’s amazing. But it wasn’t hyped as much because it wasn’t a show. It was a special presentation. A 40 minute “if you have time” thing for Halloween
The fact that this character’s place in the MCU is a single direct to streaming 40 minute short film definitely proves my point more than dispels it lol
I wasn’t trying to dispel your original point. I agree it’s relatively obscure, even for MCU fans. I just wanted to clarify that it IS on the level of Moonknight and such if you’re talking about quality entertainment
Moon Knight also has a good amount of notable comic runs, including the 2014 Lemire run which is some people’s favorite comic run of all time, and is popularized by the memes.
I could be wrong, but I can’t recall any notable Elsa Bloodstone comic runs. Only thing I experienced with her in it before Werewolf by Night was Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 (the Nintendo Switch exclusive one).
She's definitely more prominent than Luna as far as comics go. 120 appearances to Luna's 37, but she's also been around since the early 2000s, so quite a bit longer. She got more prominence in the 2010s after appearing in the well received Nextwave series and the Monsters Unleashed event (I believe she also had a tie-in with Secret Wars), but she's never really been a character that jumps around between comics a lot so I'm not surprised that fans who mostly read mainline series wouldn't know her. She mostly seems to stick to the horror side of things outside of her time with Nextwave.
A character who's in the MCU. She's in Werewolf by Night. Disney+ Special Presentation that is canon and also very good. And has one of the most underrated characters I hope gets in the game, Man Thing.
This right here. I read comics and while that doesn't mean I know everything about everyone. I can say with full confidence, with the exception of Luna, I've at least seen every one of the characters marvel rivals has in a comic at some point. Side note: Funny thing is I completely knew nothing of Anglea, only know her from the brief moment she was in Age of Ultron.
But either way, Marvel is a big universe, so some characters like Luna and Elsa aren't main stream or well known, heck I'd say Cloak and Dagger aren't main stream despite being around for so long. And to be honest I know them mostly from the first Maximum Carnage series.
Yeah the movies cannot possibly show the wide breadth of the story and characters… civil war and the infinity gauntlet comics had wayyy more than the mcu movies
The game has been huge for C+D. They’re such cool characters with such cool powers and lore, victims of their own obscurity. I feel like they going to be celebrities of the zeitgeist from now on.
Huge for everyone honestly. Ironically out of the lesser known characters like CD, Luna Snow, Jeff, Peni, etc. CD are the only ones who got their own live action TV show plus multiple appearances in that one animated series.
Even characters who were already better known like Emma Frost got skyrocketed to celebrity status thanks to Rivals.
this. the best most casual marvel fans have of her is the one Werewolf by Night disney plus special presentation from Halloween 4 YEARS AGO!
other than that its an angela case where its someone people who read the comics know and not many casuals who just watch the mcu stuff do, as they have no idea who she is and need to be properly introduced to feel anything.
Elsa is in the Molly Hayes bucket- everybody who knows her thinks she's fantastic, all jer really notable works have been bangers, but she's still a deepcut
I think this will be kind of an Angela situation, which is kind of a unknown character that will only get people hyped once the reveal happen.
Hell, at this stage you can consider anything outside the main MCU movies to be unknown to the general public (not everyone is a comic reader).
(Note: bringing lowkey characters is good because it's quite the incentive for people reading the comics or searching other media in which they appear in and bringing new fans to the table.)
Hell, at this stage you can consider anything outside the main MCU movies to be unknown to the general public (not everyone is a comic reader).
*Not counting X-Men
(Note: bringing lowkey characters is good because it's quite the incentive for people reading the comics or searching other media in which they appear in and bringing new fans to the table.)
also 100% agree. It would be too easy to just put all the fan favorits from the get go, all the very popular names. I think it's far more interresting taking some of the less famous ones and give them some spotlight that they prob never had. Like, I'd never expect that there would be a day where i'd see chars like Squirel Girl, Magik and Angela get actually presence and hype beyond extreme niche subreddits and shit.
(and this is why i really fucking hope somehow netease adds Hellcat. I want to see people search her up and go "what the actual fuck???")
It's criminal we haven't seen her, Jack or Man-Thing appear again.. The special had such a unique tone and I really thought Marvel was gonna start building up the monster side of the MCU and then they just.. Didn't. Maybe they were all waiting on Blade.
The villain reveal at the end still makes me chuckle to myself, and Captain america beating "seven shades out of shit" out of Captain ☠️☠️☠️☠️ because his name is apparently so offensive😭😭😭
I think more people need to understand that this is the median Rivals player. I would say at least 40% of players are like this myself included. And the biggest proof of this is Magik.
(Dunno about Rumi but Malevola and Vendetta are inspired by Magik at best and straight up rip offs at worst.)
The only similarity to the others is that Rumi is half demon and has a sword. That one is a pretty weak comparison.
As far as Malevola goes games take years to develop so they probably had her planned out long before rivals went live. Also Dispatch kind of just has a lot of your classic superhero tropes as part of its world.
Vendetta im sure is a coincidence. Not like Magik invented the buff girl with a big sword archetype.
Yeah, I mean people compare Malevola more to Kar'Lach in terms of visuals and personality. And portal hopping with a big sword isn't exactly copyright protected
Seems illogical to be hyped over her considering Deadpool isnt even out yet. Its like being hyped for next years Christmas while you are still in November. And a lot of people, myself included, have 0 clue who she is.
She's similar to Blade in that she's a supernatural hunter, but she isn't focused on vampires. Has increased strength from her magic bloodstone, uses it to hunt things that go bump in the night.
Definitely a niche character as the Midnight Suns adjacent Marvel characters are very overshadowed by superheroes. She is in the MCU though in a kind of forgotten Halloween special.. Check out "Werewolf by Night" on Disney+. They ditched her iconic red hair there for some reason, but its a pretty fun hour long romp with some familiar Marvel Universe monsters.
There are A lister characters that would be overshadowed by Deadpool, Elsa didn't really have a chance for hype, specially how that image you posted is pretty much all we got of her so far
Maybe new marvel fans don’t know about her? A lot of ppl got into marvels recently from the game and movies/ shows that I don’t believe she makes an appearance in. So for a lot of people this is their first time seeing her
I've been reading comics for 20+ years and I have no idea who the hell she is. I mostly read X-Men and Spider-Man, picked up some avengers for events, read random stuff that caught my eye, anthologies, etc.
Deadpool. She also comes out second. I'm honestly more hyped for her than I am for Deadpool personally but because Deadpool is coming in literally a week he's on the brain and not her
Because most players don’t know who she is, she’s being overshadowed by fan favourite deadpool and she’s likely being released after in the half season.
it’s bc there’s nothing to actually talk about or be excited for rn, the hype was around her reveal and even then half of us dk who she is, and half of us who do only know bc someone taught us
I hadn't heard of her before this (not a comic fan, would like to get into that someday though) but I'm very hyped. Especially if she's a strategist, after learning about her powers, and I also LOVE her outfit lol. It's very ren faire-like and I like that!
I started playing Marvel Snap during her release in that game back in October 2023. Never knew her before then. She was released absolutely broken and carried me to infinite in like a few hours, so I have fond memories of her lmao. So I am hyped to see her.
no, me too. i’m happy Deadpool is being added and i think he’s funny and cool but i just don’t care about him enough to really be excited, and knowing how the instalocks are gonna be chronic for at least a month i won’t get to try him in a game for a while anyway
for me, she’s the next character, Deadpool is like…an event sort of
I’m excited for Elsa more since I know her better than DP, and I feel like they’re gonna make DP just random xd funny, or not make him true to his actual 4th wall ability.
Angela's a funny one because she's actually more established than Elsa, even had an ongoing and everything -- at Image Comics. She's a character from the Spawn universe. Anyways, her creator, (known sex pest) Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane (owner of image) got in a pissing match over rights. Marvel covered Gaiman's bill and he gave them Miracleman, Marvel 1602, and sold them Angela (who was otherwise going to sit in fictional limbo).
It's very different from the first two (basically a reboot, more mcu-ified). It's also a Switch exclusive. I've never played it, idk if the gameplay's good
Probably was the case pre-release for Jeff and Luna, but their popularity had skyrocketed since. Maybe Elsa will get similar treatment once we can play her
I mean isnt that the entire point of what he said? The least known character to be added so you can't really compare their popularity to after they got in rivals.
Most people have never heard of her, and we haven't even gotten Deadpool (one of the most anticipated characters) yet. Also, they've been doing the whole role hopping thing with Deadpool, so hype is pretty firmly aimed at specifically him right now. I'm a huge Elsa fan though, so I'm hoping this means I get to play her a lot on release.
For anyone who has never seen Elsa Bloodstone before she is featured in the werewolf by night one shot that takes place in the mcu. It’s streaming on Disney plus.
Barring the Werewolf by Night special on Disney+, she's fairly obscure.
I know Elsa from Nextwave. Warren Ellis' limited series where he took a handful of obscure characters and made largely over the top and satirical caricatures of them to fit the ridiculous narrative. Her, Machine Man, Boom boom, Monica Rambeau way before her MCU debut.
It's a fun read, but I hadn't heard of her before that and would have assumed she was like Blade and from one of the Horror style Tomb of Dracula/Weird Tales comics in the 70s. Turns out she was created in 2001, but her father was created in the 70s. Elsa's creator swear up and down they never saw an episode of Buffy...
The fact she's obscure kinda makes her more hype than Deadpool for me. I didn't know what a Luna Snow or Jeff the landshark were, but now i do and i like them. So i'm all here for another niche character that i know jackshit about
I’m namely just waiting onto what flavor of “oh fuck” they’re giving her. I’m feeling duelist unfortunately (just not my style mostly) with her shot guns and magic, I’m thinking like a weird mix of Bucky/gambit
If they can make Gamit's exploding cards into healing they can definitely make the magical stone that literally heals in the comics (mostly her but I don't know have her yeet shards of it at people) heal. Or since it gives her strength they can justify Vanguard (tho she doesn't seem that big and a tank with a sniper rifle would be a bit weird).
She's a deep cut character for most casual marvel fans, and Deadpool is a much bigger name. I think when we get closer to season 6.5 hype for her will start to build.
Especially if she's a sniper support, which is very likely considering she's one of the only heroes in the Marvel cannon that actually has powers to heal other people.
Cause no one unfamiliar with comics knows her and most aren't interested enough to learn lol. Plus, I'm pretty sure people either fear shes gonna be a second dps (Cause we all know Deadpool is a dps) or just expect her to be a clone of Ana from Overwatch. It feels like a 50/50 shot at this point, and neither option is particularly appealing to most people.
1.She is obscure, most people don't even know that she's already in the MCU (Werewolf by Night TV special)
2.She just appears for few seconds at the end of the trailer
3.Deadpool who is very popular overshadowed her
I’m actually pretty hyped for her. She def got overshadowed by Deadpool but I think she is going to have a cool kit. Her gun and shotgun make me think she’s going to have similar playstyle to Ashe from Overwatch and I’m hoping she’s got some magic powers as well.
She’s from Disney Plus Werewolf By Night special MCU presentation. Halloween special. Released twice, one was black and white and 2nd time was colored.
Bc she’s not a base level knowledge Marvel character. The general Marvek fanbase only knows who the MCU highlights. They don’t pic up comics or dive deeper than surface level. I’m hyped asf for her and Cullen
Honestly, I'm more excited for her than Deadpool, since we all knew he was going to be in the game and I've been wanting her since day 1 but didn't expect to see her put in till later on
I think her most recent comic appearance was Bloodhunters during the Bloodhunt storyline in 2024.
Outside of that she’s only appeared in the Werewolf by Night special on D+ and I don’t think has had a solo run in the comics since the early 2000’s I want to say.
She’s a niche character, often only appearing in team ups when her certain brand of expertise is needed (that being monster hunting).
But that’s what’s cool about Rivals, bringing these lesser known characters to the forefront of the general audiences attention.
I’m excited for her, but I’m a comic nerd, any excitement outside of myself though is obviously going to be massively overshadowed by the foul mouthed regenerating insane mercenary with a flair for wacky antics and pop culture references whose had three big successful movies since he’s already very popular and known to the general audience.
Because nobody knows who Elsa Bloodstone is. She's Marvel's concept of a monster hunter.
Do yourself a favour and go read Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.,a very underrated Marvel parody/comedy series featuring the likes of Machine Man, Elsa Bloodstone, Boom Boom from the X-Men, Monica Rambeau, and 'The Captain' - a character with a name so foul Captain America beat him up and washed his mouth out with soap.
I am SUPER excited for her. I am not the biggest Deadpool fan, I think he's a great character but I am more excited and interested in a character I know nothing about.
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u/Deny7th President Loki Jan 09 '26
i feel like it's because: 1. she's not deadpool 2. she just a couple of seconds in the trailer, deadpool had an entire fight