Summary
Superhero-related games are fairly obscured right now in terms of what fans will receive from them besides Insomniac’sMarvel’s Spider-Man 2and Rocksteady’sSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. There have been a bunch announced that will surely be exciting, such as Monolith’sWonder Woman, Insomniac’sMarvel’s Wolverine, anda Black Panther and Captain America game from Skydance set in WW2, but it seems like it’ll still be quite a while before firm details are shared on any of them. Likewise, two upcoming EA projects are highly anticipated as aBlack Panthergame and anIron Mangame.
Both are currently untitled and have only shared singular promotional images, but the idea of a AAAIron Mangame from the developer of theDead Spaceremake is thrilling, to say the least. It’s anyone’s guess what point in Tony Stark’s life the game will pick up at, whether it will be set in Marvel’s New York City or somewhere EA Motive can stake more of an authentic claim, and what villains it will feature. Further, if EA Motive wants to truly make this character its own, it needs to abandon the MCU, which should be easy enough since it never meaningfully dove deeply intoIron Man’s eccentric rogues’ gallery.
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The MCU Failed to Truly Represent Iron Man Villains
Iron Maneasily has the most odd rogues’ gallery out of any Marvel superhero due to how they range in obscurity, intimidation, and relevancy. Iron Man’s most fearsome and iconic villain is the Mandarin, for example, but he also has antagonists such as Blizzard, Spymaster, or Controller, who a lot of fans might never have heard of before.
It’s difficult to determine why exactly many of these antagonists are Iron Man villains specifically, too, since few of them have actual themed similarities that make sense in a hero-villain pairing. Most of Spider-Man’s villains are also themed after animals and therefore, no matter how absurd the Rhino, Scorpion, or Tarantula seem, they at least match Spider-Man’s idiosyncrasies. The only Iron Man villains that do the same are other armored individuals and sentient or automated drones, and that’s been rarely as effective or interesting.
The MCU did make a point of adapting Iron Man’s most notable antagonists, but because there were already so few that are distinguishable it still leaves the character with a lot that EA Motive can hopefully iterate upon in itsIron Mangame. Even villains that do appear in the MCU were adapted without that much of a distinguished tone, particularlyIron Man 3’s blunder regarding the Mandarin, and EA Motive should have no problem adapting each of these antagonists better.
EA’s Iron Man Game Needs to Establish Tony Stark Before Other Marvel Characters
Most importantly, Stark needs to be the star of thisIron Mangame and his relationships should be critical to its story. TheMCU’sIron Mantrilogyis a hit-or-miss for some fans of the franchise, but it’s fairly undeniable that Robert Downey Jr.’s charismatic presence would light up a room in any of the ensemble movies he appeared in between eachIron Maninstallment and afterward, too. That’s likely EA Motive’s best course of action, then—strip Stark away from other Marvel characters for a while and give fans a story-driven adventure that features him exclusively, which is something MCU fans haven’t experienced for a while now.
LikeMarvel’s Spider-Man,EA Motive’sIron Mangamecan distill the Marvel universe and take time fleshing out its titular character. If EA Motive can allow fans to disassociate Stark from the wise-cracking portrayal they’ve had burned into their synapses now through the MCU and games likeMarvel’s AvengersandMarvel’s Midnight Sunswhile also introducing villains of his that can be iconic in a fresh interpretation, it will be able to carve a new path for the character that is desperately needed.
AnIron Mangame from EA Motive is currently in development.
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