Marvel Rivals has gotten a ton of praise for its expressive art style and stellar character designs. However, there are some legitimate criticisms at some characters being too stylized, sometimes detracting from their iconic imagery. While we’ll never complain about the liberties taken with Emma Frost and Squirrel Girl, other characters have been done dirty.
One character who might have the worst default costume is, unfortunately, Spider-Man. The fact that Spider-Man doesn’t have his classic costume in Marvel Rivals feels wrong. He does have a couple of alternate outfits that are decent, but none of them can replace his classic costume.
Spider-Man’s default appearance has the classic blue and red look done correctly. His mask is also done pretty well. Unfortunately, that’s all the praise we have for his default costume, because we’re pretty annoyed at everything else.
The giant spider logo in his chest feels overdone and something his clone Ben Reilly would do to stand out. He also has annoying black lines everywhere, including weird spots on his knees, which are supposed to show some type of armor or protection. In the end, it feels like the artists had too much fun with Spidey, and we wish his classic outfit was here.
At the time of writing, the best options Marvel Rivals players have to mimic his classic costume are his outfits from Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Both costumes have also been criticized for looking too armory and overdesigned, but they look a lot better than his default suit. It could always be nostalgia for that Insomniac Games title, but many do see that as a suitable replacement.
Fans have talked about missing these characters’ classic outfits before. Magneto has an over-designed costume that complicates his original Jack Kirby outfit. Captain America looks too tech-oriented, messing up his super soldier backstory. Emma Frost, as much as we love her, looks like she was designed for the male gaze instead of being a normal kind of sexy that women would approve of.
There’s always a chance that the folks at NetEase Games will eventually add more classic outfits in Marvel Rivals. Maybe we’ll have to wait for that new Spider-Man movie to get a suit that resembles his original Steve Ditko uniform, but we’ll take it. As much as fans love the expressive and over-designed look of Rivals, they would appreciate some classic comic book costumes.
While we could use more classic costumes, Marvel Rivals is still an excellent game and everyone should play it. After all, it’s a Free-to-Play game, and there’s literally nothing to lose. Except maybe your time and sanity.