Marvel Rivals Ignite # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Marvel Rivals series is a popular team shooter game (or whatever you call this Overwatch/Apex/Fortnite genre) which had already had one comic book about it. However with so many characters on the roster (as well as new DLC ones coming out) that comic scratched the surface. This second book covers a few more characters that only got cameos in the last book. However... this comic takes a very different approach as it seems everyone is in the Feudal Japan era. Let's check it out.

"Demon Days: Ko-Sute-Iwa" opens with Psylocke (called Sai in this story) kicking patrons out of her establishment that didn't like that they were serving 'monsters' like Mantis, who they consider a yokai. Mantis offers her some Dango as a token of appreciation. Sai says she could use some information as she looking for the Stone of Abandoned Children, the Ko-Sute-Iwa.

Mantis says that is an evil place and she senses that it's more than curiosity that drives her there. She will tell Sai how to get there but she warns her to be careful.

Sai arrives at the designated area and walks past an odd structure. She sits next to a hooded man that is sitting up against a tree. The man asks her if the stench doesn't bother her. Sai says she only smells the summer grass. The legends tell of the scent of blood, and this is the stone where mothers place unwanted children. The women would leave their children upon the stone, leaving them to the poor babies at the mercy of the crows.

Sai asks what the etching on the stone means. The hooded man says it's a mystery and asks if she's ever heard of 'the Curse of the Sym'. The Sym is an evil spirit formed by the souls of the children abandoned on the stone, and it is fueled by hatred and revenge. Its hunger and size has grown over the centuries. It is no longer content with the offerings and now hunts large animals and grown humans. The etchings on the stone are said to be the claw marks of the Sym.

 

Sai thanks him for the tale. She had some to get a glimpse at the stone and appreciates the history lesson. She bids the hooded stranger farewell and heads off. The man tells her to take care and can see the symbiote crawling out of his face. As the woman turns to leave, the symbiote tendrils reach out towards her.

Sai tosses her hat in the way to block the attack. She grabs her sword and quickly slices the hat and the tendrils in half. The symbiote takes form of a crow and flies away. She notices that the hooded stranger is no longer there. She heads over to the stone and sets down the Dango that Mantis gave her earlier. As she leaves, she ponders that she will need a new hat. It's implied that the symbiote is going to eat the food she left for it. 

"Tsuchigumo" opens with a samurai and several villagers imploring The Punisher to take care of the Tsuchigumo since they can't sleep safely with that yokai out there. The Punisher says that's not his job. The man says his wife and kids are scared. The Punisher agrees since this will keep the children safe.

The yokai shows up which looks like a giant spider. The men open fire with their muskets but the spider dodges everything and webs them up. The Punisher says he'll do things his way as starts to open fire with twin gatling guns. The spider zips back and forth to avoid the shots, which result in burning down the bamboo forest behind it.

 

The spider turns into some sort of giant arachnid monster. The Punisher says this is a puppet rather than a monster. The puppet spins, firing off webbing. The Punisher uses a bazooka to blast through the web shots. The Punisher and the spider yokai continue to blast each other with gatling guns and webbings. The webbed up villagers say they're both monsters.

As the Punisher has his attention focused on the giant spider, someone runs at him from behind with a knife. Punisher dodges the knife attack and slams the person to the ground. As he aims his bazooka at her, he realizes she's just a kid. He asks her how she can terrorize these people.

The girl tears up and says she was protecting the village in the mountain and would never attack anyone. She says the samurai was tricking him. The samurai tells the Punisher to kill the monster. The Punisher says he would never have a reason to shoot a kid. The samurai says they had a deal and their children can't sleep with that menace alive. The samurai shakes one of the kids a little too hard and it's revealed that it's fake puppet too. The Punisher and Peni give each other a look and approach the samurai, now that the gig is up.

Punisher and Peni blast everything around the samurai, leaving him unconscious from fear. Punisher calls him a moron and Peni says he's not much different since he blasted away the entire bamboo forest. The Punisher says the bamboo grows back fast. Peni says that's no excuse and their fight isn't over. Punisher says he won't show her any mercy next time, even if she begs. Peni says he'll be the one begging for mercy. The other villagers, still webbed up ask if those two will ever stop, and one of them wants to go home.

 

"Sounds of Victory" opens with Luna Snow being invited to Yggsgard with a venue prepared especially for her. Just as the show is about to begin... someone calls out that her powers will belong to her. Luna turns to see a figure floating in the sky. 

The woman turns out to be Hela, who remarks how foolish it is for Asgardians to be praising mortal music. She tries to encase everyone within a shield and Luna tries to get out of it. Hela tells Odin to surrender or she will kill his people and deny them access to Valhalla. 

Luna Snow calls out to her, and Hela asks how a tiny mortal thinks she's allowed to speak to the Queen of Hel. Luna demands she releases the people. Hela tosses dark energy daggers and Luna counters with her ice attacks. The projectiles collide and explode. Hela says Luna is an insect that can never touch her. Luna creates an ice platform and uses it to fly up towards her. She asks her why she is attacking Yggsgard. Hle says she does this to save the world.

Luna forms an ice blade and swings it towards Hela, who blocks it with her own weapon. Luna asks what she's talking about. Hela explains that Space-Time is collapsing as multiple universes have merged into a timestream entanglement, as we see Psylocke fighting Venom and Punisher fighting Peni in different realities. Luna says she heard the problem was solved. Hela says she's wrong and the entanglement is destroying the entire space-time continuum. They have to stop it before it breaks the multiverse completely.

 

Luna asks what that had to with her invading Yggsgard. Hela says if the combines the forces of Hel and Yggsgard she will have the power to untie the entire entanglement. Luna asks why she didn't just ask for help. Hela says that only the weak ask. Luna says only someone villainous would say that and starts blasting her absolutely zero ice diamonds.

Luna lunges into battle as the people cheer and chant her name. Hela forms an energy orb and traps Luna inside it. She throws him back to the ground. Luna realizes she was hit by a paralyzing spell and couldn't move. She then hears the people chanting her name. Luna realizes that the fate of two worlds is in their hands as she fires off an ice blast towards Hela.

Hela is hit and crashes to the ground. She asks Luna how she was able to undo her magic. Luna says she has the power of the people, the power she denied. Elsewhere, Loki s watching and determines that Luna is a stronger strategist than he thought. He says he should learn not to underestimate the power of a mortal. 

My Thoughts-

So this was very unexpected. The first two stories take place in the feudal Japan era with alternate versions of Psylocke, Venom, the Punisher and Peni. In Psylocke's case, she's a woman named Sai and seems to not have any mutant powers. Venom is this sort of demonic entity called The Sym. The Punisher and Peni are pretty much samurai versions of themselves.

We can assume the third story doesn't take place in that era, despite the characters being in Asgard. Both Luna and Hela were wearing variant versions of their outfits from the game. Likewise, The Punisher had a samurai-based outfit in the game so this was the perfect opportunity to use it.

 

The comic sort of takes a more manga feel. It's mostly black and white with very washed out subtle colors here and there to break the monotony but not ruin the flow. The overall art style and inking is very manga style and we get the action lines and so forth you would see in a manga.

 

The stories were pretty cool though I wonder what fans of the game would think. While I liked the vibe of the first story, I felt calling it 'Psylocke VS Venom' was a bit of a stretch. Sai just sliced 'the Sym' and that was it. To top if off in the Luna story where they showed the multiverse, we saw the regular (Rivals anyways) versions of Psylocke fighting with Venom. It was weird because the same panel did show the samurai versions of Punisher and Peni... so maybe the writer of the third story missed the memo on what Psylocke and Venom were supposed to look like?

Either way, the comic was fun but definitely not what I was expecting. I also found out the comic is called Ignite due to the gaming tournaments called Marvel Rivals Ignite, similar to Evo or the Capcom pro Cup.  Overall fun read. I wonder if we'll be seeing more Marvel Rivals comics down the line, especially as we get more characters added like Emma Frost and the Fantastic Four.