by RadiumEyes, HSM team writer

Marvel’s rich history of superhero comics goes back decades – it originally began as Timely Publications in 1939, and it had two major name changes (first to Atlas Comics, then to Marvel in 1961). Martin Goodman founded the company at his existing company, and the company’s first comic (Marvel Comics #1, October 1939) featured the debut of the original Human Torch and the detective character the Angel (no relation to Warren Worthington III, one of the original X-Men). The Human Torch of Marvel Comics #1 happened to be an android, instead of the now-familiar Johnny Storm who currently dons the namesake; this character became one of three core characters of Timely Production’s run, alongside Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner (the lattermost of whom actually debuted in an unpublished comic intended as a promotional item to be offered a movie theaters).

At this nascent stage of Marvel’s development, writers such as Carl Burgos and Al Anders contributed to publications – characters like the Destroyer first appeared here, and Timely appeared at time when such iconic characters as Superman and Batman made their respective first appearances in DC.

Nowadays, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is under Disney’s umbrella (along with Pixar and Lucasfilm), and hundreds of characters debuted under Marvel’s banner; one can look to the various film adaptations of numerous characters (ranging from Spider-Man to the X-Men to The Punisher) to see the great commercial viability of Marvel as a franchise – before the first X-Men film, the company didn’t exactly find itself in a great position cinematically. However, the exploits of Charles Xavier, Wolverine and others paved the way for a lucrative film series, but the video game market saw success earlier than that – X-Men: Children of the Atom helped establish the commercial appeal of Marvel characters in fighting games, and this branched out into the now-famous Marvel vs. Capcom series.

Yes, the Spider-Mobile existed in the comics.

This article will be about LEGO Marvel Superheroes, the 2013 outing that combines the comics franchise with the popular brick-building toy; this comes after numerous recent forays into LEGO games based on popular characters and films, with Pirates of the Caribbean, DC Comics and Lord of the Rings among them.

In classic LEGO fashion, LEGO Marvel focuses on comedy, with a story concerning Loki attempting to punish the world for being incarcerated by S.H.I.E.L.D. Those familiar with the first Avengers movie may recognize this formula – the game draws from various Marvel films, while simultaneously including characters that never made a formal cinematic appearance (Squirrel Girl and Superior Spider-Man come to mind). Several of the characters lend themselves well to humorous dialogue, such as Spider-Man and Deadpool, and LEGO manages to integrate humor rather well into the narrative; seeing all these characters in action makes for a wonderful experience in its own right.

The sheer number of available characters (some of whom have two or more costume options) means you’ll have a good time ahead of you unlocking everything; the game offers challenges in the form of quests (some of them rather silly, such as telepathically getting a man to climb the Empire State Building to apologize to his wife, but that’s to be expected in a LEGO game) that various people have you engage in. These range from races, to assaulting villains, to fetch quests – the lattermost includes locating people and escorting them to the person whom you initiated the side mission with. One of my favorites happens to be available on the Helicarrier – apparently, some of the S.H.I.E.L.D. employees played hide-and-seek, and one hid so well that nobody found him for three hours. I won’t spoil anything about it, but there’s a reason he couldn’t be found, and it will become apparent when you play the mission. LEGO Marvel gives you plenty to do aside from the storyline, and obtaining 100% completion can be a chore; most of the missions are excellently done, but a few felt rather frustrating to deal with.

Which brings me to some criticisms. Flying takes some getting used to; this applies both to vehicles and characters. To illustrate this, Iron Man has the capacity to fly in most of his armors (the Mark I being the sole exception), and steering him can be crazy. DCUO had the good fortune of streamlining flight a little better, with the X button serving as the boost button, and the left analog stick regulating movement; in LEGO Marvel, you adjust altitude with the X and O buttons, which becomes problematic as the X button also allows you to move faster, while the O button can cancel flight altogether. LEGO Batman II had the same issue, but in a different capacity; the left analog stick controlled the targeting reticle for various powers when the player activated flight, making turns rather difficult to accomplish. I brought up DCUO earlier, because the game really made movement more intuitive; it felt more fluid, as it mapped one’s ascent and descent to the analog stick instead of the buttons. Controlling Iron Man while in flight mode isn’t completely horrible, but it could be improved by adopting a similar scheme seen in DCUO.

Draw distance works rather well in here, although some minor problems emerged; the biggest issue, for me, occurs during vehicle races. Other vehicles spawn to make it more challenging, but sometimes they don’t appear until you’re nearly on top of them; crashing into a car that rendered so late can cost you valuable time, and I’d rather not be hampered by spawning issues. Still, as mentioned, this is a rather minor complaint, as it doesn’t harm the game in any significant way. Overall, render distance works admirably well, and one can make adjustments easily enough as you’re aware of all the surrounding objects and LEGO figures. Another major issue I had deals with the occasional crash, although that occurred mainly during my earliest playthroughs – currently, there’s no trouble along that front.

With the criticisms aside, let’s look at where LEGO Marvel shines.

Like LEGO Batman II and LEGO Lord of the Rings before it, Marvel Superheroes has an overworld map, and New York City looks amazing – one can fly for several miles as Iron Man, for example, or leap from the SHIELD Helicarrier to the city below. The sheer magnitude of the map is nothing short of breathtaking; you really get a sense of scale in the game. Here, players can engage in numerous side missions to obtain studs, Gold Bricks and character tokens; with so many at your disposal, it can be time-consuming, but the game allows you to proceed at your own pace. You don’t have to do them in any particular order (although characters do offer you three missions each, which means you have to finish them in the allotted order given), and that freedom of movement makes the game thoroughly enjoyable. Plus, the minifigures have some wonderful dialogue – hearing Black Panther, Groot (“I am Groot!”), Captain Britain and numerous other Marvel stalwarts as they give out missions truly gives Marvel Superheroes a nice, light-hearted touch.

In addition, the bonus stages (each with their own introduction by the Merc With a Mouth himself, Deadpool) offer some funny moments; seeing Doctor Octopus have to clean up his own mess, for example, is a sight to behold. Speaking of the characters, the developers really put effort into incorporating character designs and costumes into the game – the appearance of Superior Spider-Man was a refreshing surprise, as it shows they have their fingers on the pulse of Marvel’s comics. For those unfamiliar with him, Superior Spider-Man happens to be Doctor Octopus’ mind in Spider-Man’s body – after the Dying Wish story arc, Doc Ock sought to prove himself Peter Parker’s superior, and implanted his mind into Parker’s body in order to show he can be a better superhero. This could actually be a cool way of introducing elements of the Superior Spider-Man comics into a sequel; the Goblin King’s victory (and yes, this is Norman Osborn we’re talking about) in a gang war led to the establishment of the Goblin Nation, and Octavius must find a way to strike back.

Speaking of narratives, the story of Marvel Superheroes does a great job at balancing humor with action – like in previous LEGO games, you have objects that can only be interacted with by specific characters, so you must return to a main mission in Free Play to discover everything. This allows for some replay value; when you can’t access everything in a level during Story mode, you’re given the option to replay the level and find the things you weren’t able to before. LEGO Marvel follows in the footsteps of LEGO Batman II in the use of fire-based powers and explosives, but adds a few unique abilities in the process  – Jean Grey, for example, can use her telekinesis to take control of various LEGO characters, in order to access switches or complete side quests. The game also introduces large LEGO figures, such as The Hulk and Thing, that can break certain panels and lift heavy objects; it’s quite fun to run around as these characters, seeing what can Hulk smash and whatnot. Having various characters with a specific power means you don’t have to rely on one character only to access certain switches or open up certain areas; the one power that may be rather under-represented is magnetic powers, which Magneto, Polaris and Stan Lee share. And before you ask, yes, Stan Lee has access to several, including Hulk’s.

This brings me to a wish-list in regards to the game. If they plan on a sequel, they could include more characters with diverse power sets at their disposal; here are a few that I think would make great additions to a LEGO Marvel game:

Armor: Hisako Ichiki can generate a psionic armor around herself, which draws from the blood of her ancestors; this would work well as a large character, and like Spider-Man, one could activate the power with the triangle button.

X-23: A female clone of Wolverine, Laura Kinney has the ability to draw claws from her hands and feet.  This means she can access Claw Switches, and use the same “sense power” as Wolverine; in addition, one could offer different costumes, such as her X-Men: Evolution appearance and Kirika Yashida.

Cable: Nathan Summers worked alongside Deadpool for quite some time, and he happens to be the son of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. As an Omega Level Telekinetic, he inherited Jean Grey’s powers; plus, given his rather extensive wardrobe, some alternate costumes can be made available.

X-Force costumes: Various characters present in LEGO Marvel (such as Wolverine, Angel and Storm) once worked in the X-Force team; offering their X-Force costumes would be awesome to see.

Araña: Anya Corazon inherited the title of Spider-Girl at one point, but she originally worked as Araña.

Morgan le Fay: Le Fey is a sorceress, capable of time travel, and a former lover of Doctor Doom.

Domino: Neena Thurmon recently appeared in the Deadpool video, and seeing a LEGO version of her would be great to see.

Nico Minoru: A spellcaster who first appeared in the Runaways comic line, Nico can cast a spell only once, through the Staff of One.

Other possibilities include Blue Marvel, Daken, Echo (formerly Ronin), Ares, Avalanche, Cannonball, Spiral, Lady Deathstrike and Sunfire, not to mention a host of other characters. If a sequel is in the works, there are plenty of options, as far as characters are concerned.

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