Announced on this morning’s Marvel’s Avengers War Table stream, the game’s main villain is MODOK (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing). MODOK hasn’t featured in the MCU, but has been in comics for over 50 years and has featured in games such as Marvel VS Capcom.
Like Kamala Khan, MODOK (or George Tarleton as he’s known) was affected by A-Day. MODOK was injured and disfigured, then in his pursuit to transform himself essentially became MODOK.
I personally found it interesting that the Crystal Dynamics and Marvel would choose a villain that will be largely unknown to the majority of Marvel fans. Speaking to Creative Director, Shaun Escayg he let me know why the team wanted to feature Kamala Khan as the main protagonist and MODOK as the main villain.
“We wanted to tell an original, deep moving campaign narrative that centered around the Kamala Khan origin story and we wanted the players to journey with her and reassemble these adventures. We drew on everything we had in the 80 year history, which predates the MCU world. It’s where they drew from and it’s created that awesome Marvel work from as well. We felt like having more to draw from, and particular tailored to our particular themes was exciting and challenging and also what we live to do.” said Escayg.
Speaking about Kamala Khan, Escayg went to say that “Kamala Khan is a very special character because she represents us as players. She is a comic book fan, she’s an Avengers fan, she’s a superhero fan and in some ways, we at the studio feel that’s the strongest connection to seeing the Avengers. She also gives us a lot of perspective, of the heroes. It’s that undying hope and determination that makes Kamala Khan, despite all the tragedy and evidence against the Avengers, she’s determined to show that these are the heroes that we need and not AIM”.
Marvel’s Avengers releases on September 4th for PS4, Xbox One and PC. PS5 and Xbox Series X releases are coming later this year as free upgrades to those who purchase on current gen consoles.
