While the costumes might be a little pricey and the third-person perspective frustrating at times, one thing you can't criticise is the list of Marvel Rivals characters. Why did no one tell me about the adorable shark previously relegated to the comics? Taking Marvel characters most of us had never heard of before and thrusting them into the limelight has been one of its greatest strengths.
This roster is only getting bigger, too, with each new season bringing a handful of heroes (or villains). With almost 70 years of Marvel comic books to draw from, NetEase isn't running out of material anytime soon. Keep up with our Marvel Rivals tier list to see where these characters rank with each update, and our Marvel Rivals crosshair guide to quickly customise your interface.
Below, you'll find a list of all the characters currently available, the latest news on upcoming characters, and even a list of leaked heroes supposedly coming to Marvel Rivals in the future.
All Marvel Rivals characters
With the arrival of Emma Frost at the start of Season 2, there are currently 38 characters in Marvel Rivals across its three roles: Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist. These range from the well-known Avengers, X-Men (mutants), and Fantastic Four heroes, all the way to an icy K-pop star and an adorable little landshark.
New Marvel Rivals characters
The newest characters are Emma Frost and Ultron, joining in Marvel Rivals Season 2. Since Ultron is the mid-season update addition, his ability kit is not yet known.
Emma Frost
- Role: Vanguard
- Difficulty: Three stars
Emma Frost is a formidable Vanguard, using her diamond skin and psychic abilities to control the battlefield. With two forms—her standard form favouring range while her diamond form is all about melee—Emma Frost is quite complicated to get to grips with. However, she's invaluable to your team, not least because of her unique ability to disable enemy ultimates. Say goodbye to Strategist ultimates keeping the entire enemy team alive at the last second.
Here are Emma Frost's abilities:
- Telepathic Pulse (normal attack) - Fire a psionic beam to deal damage; the longer the beam hits, the higher the damage.
- Faceted Fury (alt attack) - In diamond form, deliver a crushing two-hit jab to enemies.
- Psionic Seduction (ultimate) - Psychically assault enemies ahead of you, stunning them and preventing them from using ultimate abilities. After targeting individuals enough for long enough, you will force them to move towards you.
- Diamond Form (ability) - Transform your attack style to be more melee-focused, while gaining damage reduction and becoming unstoppable.
- Carbon Crush (ability) - In diamond form, lunge towards an enemy and slam them on the ground behind you.
- Psychic Spear (ability) - Create a fragment of the enemy's consciousness on the ground ahead of you. Damaging and destroying this deals bonus damage to the target. Additionally, it can be pierced using Telepathic Pulse, letting you hit both the fragment and the original target.
- Mind's Aegis (ability) - Create a barrier at the designated location.
- Crystal Kick (ability) - In diamond form, unleash a kick that knocks enemies backwards. Deals extra damage if the target hits a wall.
- Mind Link (team-up) - Emma Frost empowers Psylocke and Magneto, letting them create a projection of themselves that mimics the player's movement and can use their abilities.
Upcoming Marvel Rivals characters
With Emma Frost headlining the launch of Marvel Rivals Season 2, that just leaves Ultron as the only currently confirmed upcoming character, sidelining the heavily teased Blade. However, the vampiric vampire hunter is likely to arrive in Season 3.
In the Season 2 developer insight video, NetEase confirmed that from Season 3 onwards, a new character will be released every single month as upcoming seasons are shrunk down to just two months each. One hero will release at the start of a season, and the second at the mid-season update, if you can really call it that, given how short they'll be. In other words, there will be 12 new heroes each year.
Ultron
- Role: Strategist
- Difficulty: Unknown
- Release: Season 2.5 (May)
This malevolent machine invades the Hellfire Gala, putting Krakoa and the Mutants at risk. Despite his villainous nature, Ultron is actually a Strategist. NetEase has yet to reveal Ultron's abilities, but there have been several leaks that give us a glimpse into his playstyle. According to these leaks, Ultron will be a mobile Strategist that uses drones to heal allies:
- Rage of Ultron: Summoning Ultron Drones to fire Encephalo Rays, damaging opponents and healing allies.
- Dynamic Flight: Quickly fly in the direction of movement and enter free flight.
- Imperative: Patch: Send a giant drone to follow and ally, constantly healing allies in a radius around it with extra healing for the targeted ally.
- Imperative: Firewall: Summon Drones to give bonus health to allies within range, focused on Ultron and the ally marked with Imperative: Patch.
- Algorithm Correction: Hold Space to fall slowly.
Blade
- Role: Likely a Duelist
- Difficulty: Unknown
- Release: Possibly Season 3
Blade, who has been teased throughout Season 1, isn't arriving in Season 2 as many expected. Nevertheless, we'll see him one day, especially as his kit has already leaked. Though details can change, it certainly sounds fitting for the vampiric vampire hunter:
- Stomp and Slash: Uses his sword to damage enemies.
- Bloodline Liberation: Lets Blade see enemies through walls.
- Fang Deflect: Blade can deflect incoming projectiles.
- The Dark Knight: A quick dash to engage or reposition.
- New Moon: Blade transforms into a vampire, boosting his stats and changing his abilities.
Leaked Marvel Rivals characters
Here are all the leaked Marvel Rivals characters so far, excluding those that have since arrived in-game:
- Angela
- Beast
- Blade
- Captain Marvel
- Colossus
- Crystal
- Cyclops
- Daredevil
- Deadpool
- Gambit
- Hit-Monkey
- The Hood
- Jean Grey
- Jia Jing
- Jubilee
- Locus
- MODOK
- Nightcrawler
- Paste-Pot Pete
- Professor X
- Rogue
- Valkyrie
While some are suspected to be fakeouts, there are plenty that are obvious choices in the future with much more details to back them up, such as Ultron and Blade, who are suspected to debut in Season 2.
All Marvel Rivals team-up abilities
Not only are each character incredibly unique and fun to play, but they also have team-up abilities that change how they play when used with specific allies. These are superheroes, after all, there are tons of different teams and alliances, and the team-up system is a great way to represent these links in gameplay.
Team-up abilities change each season, with new ones being added and existing ones being tweaked or retired thanks to an ever-expanding roster.
