Marvel Rivals has been a blast to play, for the most part, since it launched in December 2024. But it may have done irreparable damage to one favorite hero for many, and I think for me, too.
The game’s massive roster of heroes and villains is rife with Marvel favorites, but none more beloved than Spider-Man. The iconic wallcrawler is one of the most popular superheroes in the entire world, and he’s far and away my favorite, too. But Marvel Rivals has awoken a hatred for him that I and others don’t know how to deal with.
It’s part jealousy, part anger, part salt, and part “I’m too old for this shit.” But in the end, Marvel Rivals has taken my all-time favorite character in any medium and forced me to look in the mirror and say, “why can’t I handle the great responsibility OR the great power, but others can?”
“This game has ruined my love for Spider-Man,” a likeminded Spidey fan said in a March 11 Reddit post. “I’m too trash to be good with him, none of my spider teammates go positive or actually help with winning, and the other team has some menace pulling me off ledges and destroying the healers while he escapes every time I can put my hands on him. I am officially done with dealing with all the Spider-Men in this game and taking my talents to The Daily Bugle from now on.”
I honestly couldn’t have said it better myself. Spidey is one of the most difficult heroes to use in the game, but those who are good with him always seem to be on the other team when I play Strategist, diving on me and destroying my life’s essence. I wish I could wear the mask myself and dominate and “you get a web and you get a web and you get a web” to my heart’s content, but I am wholesale ass at playing as him.
“I grew up idolizing you, I wanted to be you so bad, now I can’t stand to look at you,” the Redditor said. I wouldn’t exactly go that far, as my office and bedroom are littered with Spider-Man regalia everywhere you look (literally, all four walls), and that won’t change any time soon.
But damn it, I wish I could be the webhead myself. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to swing through the skies. A lot of my most vivid memories are tied to Spider-Man, including seeing every movie in the theater, seeing Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark on Broadway, playing with every Spider-Man toy as a kid, and enjoying every video game.
Except for Marvel Rivals. He’s the menace that J. Jonah Jameson says he is. But I don’t care, I love him all the same. Maybe just a little bit less than normal.
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