Character speculation based on the finale of The Hulk event

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Character Discussion Speculation and Concepts
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***** DISCLAIMER: COMIC BOOK SPOILERS FOLLOW *****

I know Dark Reign was over 4 years ago, but can never be too careful! icon_e_biggrin.gif

So; that was plot packed at the end, there!

Plot line 1 - The Punisher vs Daken

The comic book story

  1. Daken and HAMMER agents chased The Punisher around a city.
  2. The Punisher ends up fighting Daken hand-to-hand.
  3. The Punisher loses… spectacularly - Daken cuts him into many pieces, and dumps his remains off a rooftop.
  4. The Punisher is ‘revived’ by Morbius as a Frankenstein’s monster-esque patchwork creature dubbed Franken-Castle (especially pun-ful as The Punisher’s name is Frank Castle).
  5. Franken-Castle works with Morbius in the Legion of Monsters (good-guy horror movie inspired characters ) for a year, before being restored to life by the Ulysses Bloodstone.

Character speculation - Franken-Castle
By far the most likely to make an appearance by far - the odd thing is that Franken-Castle wasn’t exactly an upgrade for The Punisher (though he did at least get some super strength in that form) and so, since no character to date has 2 version with the same star rating, Franken-Castle would seem to be a 2** version.
Though monstrous, Franken-Castle is a good-guy so could only appear as an ally - could be a fun twist in the event plot though where you have to fight The Punisher as Daken + Dark Avengers, since of course that’s a fight the baddies get to win! icon_mrgreen.gif

Character speculation - Morbius
Morbius was vital to this comic book plot, but had zero to do with Dark Reign - he really would be an extreme long-shot to appear, given he’s not famous (though not obscure either, thanks to the old Spider-Man cartoon series).
He does at least double as an enemy and an ally, since he seems to be forever getting into mistaken fights with heroes and/or vampiric feeding frenzies.

Plot line 2 - Victoria Hand is up to something

The comic book story
There is no exact parallel in the comic books (Bruce Banner was de-powered at the time so this The Hulk event couldn’t happen), but Victoria Hand was involved in 2 possibly-relevant plots:

1st. She was working against Banner/Hulk by restoring his power so that his vengeful son, Skaar, could fulfil his wish of fighting & killing The Hulk (just killing Banner would have been dis-honourable).
Skaar never did kill The Hulk, but for a time he was a Dark Avenger before revealing himself to be a double-agent.

2nd. Victoria is one of the ‘handlers’ of the mega super-hero/villain The Sentry (think Super-man with serious mental issues) - aka Norman Osborn’s secret weapon - who is noticably absent from the game currently.
The Sentry is basically the ‘end-game’ of Dark Reign, being capable of taking on superheroes by the truckload, but does eventually die at the hands of Thor.

Character speculation - Skaar
Skaar is actually quite a plausible addition, since he continue the Hulk arc without actually being the same character + he can pull double duty as both ally and Dark Avenger.
Power-wise he is the same old heavy hitter archetype though, with red + green and maybe black (wouldn’t be shocked if he had just 2 powers however).
As a younger & less experienced Hulk, he’d almost certainly be a 2** character; would expect him to be a good asset for the Dark Avengers, and could probably surpass Hulk’s odd powers (though not his 3*** health & tile damage of course)

Character speculation - The Sentry
It’s inevitable that the Sentry will show up in Dark Reign some time, though he’s not done so thus far and chronologically it is a little early (the game storyline hasn’t even reached Doctor Doom yet) - D3 may also be holding him back to be the first 5***** character.
My instinct is he isn’t likely to appear any time soon; he is a villain in Dark Reign so does expand their roster, however by all comic-book logic he’s basically Ragnorak x 10 so he cannot just pop up mission after mission unless his power set is extremely weaker than it should be.

Character speculation - Norman or Victoria in their armour
This would seem a long-shot, but also the easiest to introduce to the game; both Norman and Victoria are currently without their Dark Reign combat armour forms, so she could be off arranging one/both of them.
Norman has his own Iron Man suit dubbed Iron Patriot, which would seem to be a balanced 2**/3*** (maybe 4**** just for fame) Dark Avenger to introduce.
Victoria has enhanced HAMMER armour (she is only an accountant/tactician), so is another mid-card villain they could add - this upgrade isn’t exactly worthy of storyline however, as she could don armour any-time.

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I expect Victoria hand, though I am surprised they did this she event without making her the reward to be honest. Would have been perfect time to introduce her instead of grey suit event #69.

I also expect iron patriot to come in as either a 3*** or more likely as a 4**** (since it would technically be Iron Patriot (dark avenger iron man) and it fits being the first 4**** dark avenger.

I could see sentry being unplayable…or at least have us see him in events for a few months before being able to obtain him.

Frankencastle is a possibility. I’d love him being part of a 1* tournement honestly.

Do NOT expect morbius though.

The mention of Victoria hand by name makes me think she will be the next villain we see..unless we get a higher star version of dakan or something instead (not likely).

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Daken vs Punisher:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmKtdpt7kew

4

There is no way they can do Sentry without setting his power level so low he would feel hollow. The guy ripped gods in half (see The Seige where he tore Ares in half). He is so far above the power level of everyone already in the game if he was remotely accurate as a character, he’d be unbalancingly over powered. That or just a hollow version of his character. Either way, I’m kind of fascinated by the possibility.

As far as Victoria Hand, I think she has to be more of an NPC. She was never a front line fighter. I’m guessing we are going to see her as a proxy for Osborn in story terms, but I don’t see her actually fighting.

I think they could do Franken Castle, but Punisher is so new, it would feel rather odd to get a variation of him so fast. Skaar, for me anyway, is the most logical choice. They’ve established in story that the whole Iron-Man-is-a-damn-fool-who-sent-Hulk-into-space thing happened, and Skaar was a result of that story. He progresses the story forward of HAMMER vs SHEILD and gives the DA a new bruiser.

What I would love to see is Michelangelo or Isaac Newton show up, but that is probably a little too far from the core story. It would be cool to have Howard Stark and Franklin Richards running around tho…

And if you didn’t get that last part… go read S.H.E.I.L.D. by Jonathan Hickman.

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To keep the Sentry from being too over powered here are three options:

Just give him a black passive:

The Void - Black Passive
Level 1: If there is at least 1 black tile on the board the Sentry’s damage output is reduced by half.
Level 2: If there are at least 2 black tiles on the board " ".
Level 3: " " 3 " ".
Level 4: " " 4 " ".
Level 5: " " 5 " ".

With two other completely over powered powers and ridiculously high tile damage.

OR

Just give him low health.

OR

Just make him a **** icon_mrgreen.gif

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I hope they don’t introduce The Sentry. He’s more of a plot element than a character, and one of the worst Marvel characters ever.

Iron Patriot has got to be coming. How could he not be? I’d also like to see them introduce Green Goblin at some point.

I’m thinking Victoria Hand will be a storyline figure only, as Osborn and Fury have been so far.

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I…actually love that idea. A black passive that is nearly impossible to avoid, even when pumped up to lvl 5, but both let’s you know that sentry means business but also give him a shot of showing his insanity in special situations.

Only 2 issues I see.

  1. Ppl would just not put on the passive, lol, so it probably works better to do the reverse despite the way you said making more sense character wise. Instead it would be if there are fewer than 1 black tile, quadruple his damage. 2 tile triple, 3 tile double, 4 tile +50% 5+ tile neutral. The higher levels would increase where the +50% vs +0 would be. So @1 <4 tile is +50% and @2 <5 tile is 50%.

  2. This would mean they would have to add another caveat to his passive in that when sentry is in play no black tile can be destroyed or swapped. Otherwise moves that allow color swaps like magneto or grey suit would instantly allow for a fully powered sentry.

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Excellent point, but since it’s not really a power so much as a hindrance they could probably figure out an easy way to apply a Black Sentry cover to any Sentry when it is first recruited.

Edit: Or just put a similar condition on the others powers, if Black is lvl 0 this hits for 50%, otherwise at whatever it should for the lvl black is at. Thematically still makes sense since the Void is a presence that prevents the Sentry from being confident in using his powers (or whatever).

9

For that black passive to work, it would have to be forced on people.

Or what about this… it is a crazy powerful attack, but if there is black on the board, Sentry might attack his own teammates as the Void. That or stun himself as he reverts to his alter ego and cries in the corner.

However and if they do him, he would have to have completely new mechanics and shenanigans. That way he brings something unique to the game. If you think about it, each character brings a different skill set. Sure there are arch types, but having a truly unique character would be cool. As long as he isn’t truly unique the way that Invisible Woman is. She seems like she might be amazing… almost… and then you really start to think thru it…

Crazy idea here… what if Daken kills Punisher in the story, forcing SHIELD to get the help of Dr Strange to bring him back from the dead, because Fury owes him or something (its a comic, there can be a reason, it doesn’t have to be good, there just has to be one). And then The Hood gets all up in the Doctor’s business and we have some fun.

Also Victoria Hand threatened the baby of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Would be a way to bring him in. And if you bring in Luke, you should bring in Iron Fist and Daredevil. You could have a Streets of New York event. Cause really, I want to play with Iron Fist. I don’t know why… it is an irrational thing at this point… but I wants him precious… I wants him.

10

Iron Fist and Luke Cage would be incredible, not to mention the potential alternates; Classic Luke Cage (!!!) and like a dozen Iron Fists through the decades.

I’d also really love Franken-Castle but that’d go a little beyond a figure repaint. ;D

But hey, now we can look forward to, at the very least, Red Hulk and Mr. Fixit.

I hope this game goes on for years and years and that someday my Grandchildren are unlocking Artie and Leech covers…

11

Sentry would be great, but I mean he could just get a Hulk treatment. Hulk is the strongest thing out there but his cover is in no way like that. If it were he’d just 1 shot anyone with a tile match.
But something like the Void idea sounds pretty cool.

Iron Patriot would probably come in as 2* Iron man since we don’t have one yet.

(I’d expect another member of the Fantastic Four relatively soon as well.)

I think I’d be the least excited by Frankencastle, but if that meant the rest of the crew comes along that’d be pretty cool by me.

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A League of Monsters event would – I can’t even.

13

It would make sense in his Dark Avengers role as well. He’s not the biggest gun on the team, he’s just the boss. Ragnarok and Sentry (ugh) are the big guns.