Marvel Rivals is on the eve of its Season 3 launch, and with it a plethora of symbiote skins belonging to the Klyntar Warriors theme will arrive via the “Powers of the Phoenix” BattlePass. Part of what makes Marvel Rivals fascinating, let alone any Marvel ensemble game with an actual enormous roster boasted, is the tantalizing idea that many characters will either have iconic comic book costumes adapted and represented, as well as multiple characters sharing a themed style in their skin catalogs. Marvel Rivals achieves this wonderfully, and the number of symbiote-themed skins thus far demonstrates how great of a grasp it has on this premise.
Of course, Klyntar, Knull, and Venom have already been playing significant roles in Marvel Rivals throughout its lore and maps. But, with the announcement of a season that would be at least partly dedicated to symbiote skins, there likely would’ve been hell to pay and pitchforks raised if Marvel Rivals didn’t debut a symbiote skin for Spider-Man—specifically Spider-Man’s iconic black symbiote suit. It wasn’t long before Marvel Rivals’ Season 3 content was unveiled in content creator previews, including Spider-Man’s so-called ‘Black Suit,’ and it thankfully hasn’t skimped at all on its sacred Easter egg potential.
Marvel Rivals’ Season 3 Wolverine Skin Zigged When It Should Have Zagged
Marvel Rivals' Season 3 BattlePass features a Phoenix-themed Wolverine skin that hopefully won't ruin his chances of ever receiving a symbiote suit.
Marvel Rivals’ Spider-Man Costume Catalog is Only Beginning to Blossom
Like many other Marvel characters who have either been tossed into the roster already or may be at some point, Spider-Man has the advantage of countless seminal costumes hanging in his wardrobe that Marvel Rivals could draw from in the foreseeable future. As of Season 2.5, ahead of Season 3, Marvel Rivals’ Spider-Man skins include:
- Bag-Man Beyond
- Chasm
- Future Foundation
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
- Spider-Oni (Peach Momoko’s Demon Days)
- Spider-Punk 2099 (Punk Society)
Spider-Man costumes all have varying degrees of significance, and yet it’s quite difficult to overstate how popular the symbiote suit is. That’s not to say Marvel Rivals’ current catalog of Spider-Man costumes doesn’t feature any profoundly influential ones, but the Black Suit has always been held with a particularly fervent reverence, and with it Marvel Rivals has taken a rare opportunity to triple down on some fantastic Easter eggs within the wall-crawler’s BattlePass cosmetics in Season 3.
Marvel Rivals’ Black Suit Spider-Man Skin is a Treasure Trove of Popular References
Spider-Man’s black suit—whether it’s an alien organism or a simple cloth garment—has so many iterations now across several different media, though two alone have debatably been the cream of the crop.
It’d be fairly challenging to ever eclipse the black suit’s origins from the comics, for instance, with the only interpretation to do so arguably being from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. It would make sense, then, that Marvel Rivals’ Black Suit Spider-Man features the following references to both:
- In Spider-Man’s Black Suit MVP, Spider-Man can be seen striking a pose when he receives the symbiote that references The Amazing Spider-Man’s “Kraven’s Last Hunt” arc, specifically the cover depicting a black-suited Spider-Man emerging from his own grave.
- In Spider-Man’s Black Suit MVP, the final shot has Spider-Man strike a pose that references the cover of Secret Wars (1984) #8.
- In Spider-Man’s BattlePass emote dubbed ‘Evil Dance,’ Spider-Man is animated to perform the dance that Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker performs in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.
Making an effort to perfume the Black Suit with so many popular and ubiquitous Spider-Man Easter eggs is precisely why such skins will always be special in Marvel Rivals, especially with NetEase’s live-service hero shooter having demonstrated such passion and faithfulness when it comes not only to adapting larger-than-life characters but also producing its own original lore. As such, Marvel Rivals Season 3 is a Spider-Man celebration that will also be reveled by every character who receives a symbiote-themed skin.
Marvel Rivals
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 78 /100 Critics Rec: 84%
- Released
- December 6, 2024
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Violence
- Developer(s)
- NetEase Games
- Publisher(s)
- NetEase Games
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Limited - console crossplay, no PC crossplay
- Cross Save
- No
- Franchise
- Marvel
- Number of Players
- 1-6
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- December 6, 2024
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- December 6, 2024
- PS5 Release Date
- December 6, 2024
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Action, Multiplayer
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
- How Long To Beat
- 7.5 hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 20 GB
