Summary
Over the last 60+ years,Marvelhas forged itself quite the array of great supervillains. While The Avengers, X-Men, Defenders, and every individual hero gets at least a handful of iconic adversaries to go up against, it’s Spider-Man that undoubtedly has the best rogue’s gallery of the lot.Venom, Kraven, Sandman, Mysterio, Electro, Rhino, and Scorpion are all just some of the most well-known Spidey villains, but right at the top of the pile is Doctor Octopus, a villain that’s only continued to grow in popularity over the last few decades.
Debuting in 1963, Doc Ock has been around for six decades now, and while he was always a prominent feature of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery, he’s really become a focal point of Spider-Man comics, TV shows, movies, and video games in the last two decades or so. Taking a leading, show-stopping role inSam Raimi’sSpider-Man 2back in 2004, Doc Ock has only continued to appear in bigger roles ever since, even taking on the mantle of the Superior Spider-Man, and appearing as a the main villain in Insomniac’s firstSpider-Mangame. With both brains and brawn on his side, Doc Ock makes for a formidable foe, and he’d be a top choice for a hypothetical NetherRealm Studios Marvel fighting game, with a blueprint already waiting in the wings.
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Injustice’s Brainiac Serves as the Perfect Blueprint for a Marvel NetherRealm Doctor Octopus
NetherRealm Studios is obviously a developer best known for itsMortal Kombatfranchise, and for the most part, those games feature a pretty varied roster. From a long list of differently colored ninjas with various abilities and weapons, to shape-shifting lizards, to elder gods with elemental powers, to huge four-armed henchmen, theMortal Kombatroster is quite a diverse one. However, gameplay-wise, it’s often the case that many of these fighters can blend into one a little too easily.
NetherRealm’sInjusticeseries, in contrast, arguably features a much more diverse cast of characters. Rather than just divide fighters into heavy and slow, or fast and nimble,Injustice’s roster sees a slew of iconic DC characters all have their special abilities reflected in a moveset that’s wholly unique to them. Each character’s movement speed, damage, and animations are also completely unique to them, meaning that every hero and villain feels entirely different to play as, even if they share some similar moves like Supergirl and Superman inInjustice 2.
Over the course of two games, theInjusticeseries has added a good portion ofDC’s most iconic villains, again, each with their own original moveset that’s tailor-made for them. Though everyInjusticeplayer will have their own personal favorite villain to play as,Injustice 2’s big bad Brainiac is still one of the most popular in the series, even if it’s just for his intimidating design and demeanor. Portrayed as a significant threat inInjustice 2’s story mode and presented as one of the game’s final villains, Brainiac can be pretty tough to fight against, using a nice mix of long-range projectiles and close-range attacks, most of which utilize the villain’s mechanical tentacle appendages.
In the unlikely event that NetherRealm Studios actually ends up making aMarvelfighting game like so many fans want it to, then the developer already has the perfect blueprint for Doc Ock ready and waiting. All NetherRealm would need to do is take Brainiac’s tentacle attacks and apply them to a Doc Ock character model. Of course, a handful of new moves would also need to be added, but Brainiac’sInjustice 2moveset provides a great basis for NetherRealm to work on if it ever brings Doc Ock to a fighting game.
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