While Marvel's Avengers will obviously put the spotlight on key members of Earth's Mightiest Heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, Ms. Marvel is also going to play a leading role. Yesterday, we learned that M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. will be the lead villains, and when IGN caught up with the game's developers, they asked why Ms. Marvel and M.O.D.O.K. are taking centre stage.
Creative director and writer Shaun Excayg explained that their approach to the game was to explore, "What if we had the Avengers cross the line? The cost of their failings was just too high, people were hurt. You know, some were infected by the Terrigen blast and labelled Inhuman, they lost their leader. You know, they were disbanded and outlawed and you start them in this position."
With the Avengers disassembled, Excayg explains that a void was left for A.I.M. to rise up and that was how Ms. Marvel came into play.
"If we had the heroine and our villain both at A-Day, one infected by the Terrigen Mist, one injured by the Terrigen Blast, how would they both see this world? So a heroine who thinks, ‘No the Avengers empathy and humanity and subjectivity’ and ability to embrace differences and know what their differences are, or even recognize them, is why they are human and therefore the best protectors for humanity."
"And then a villain that feels absolutely not," he continued, talking about M.O.D.O.K.'s presence in the game. "These are their weaknesses, their subjectivity in their power is uncontrollable. They’re ruled by their emotions. In this way, Ms. Marvel and MODOK are positioned as opposites when it comes to their opinions on the Avengers and the story will focus on how this team recovers from an ultimate defeat and learn to believe in themselves again."
Marvel's Avengers is definitely shaping up to be pretty exciting, and getting this insight into why the developers have chosen these two characters to base the story around explains an awful lot.
In some ways, using the Inhumans here does feel somewhat dated - the decision was likely made when Marvel Comics was still looking to replace the X-Men with those characters - but here's hoping Square Enix is able to tell a good story that launches a brand new franchise for next-gen consoles.