I am mildly obsessed with the roster speculation for Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls.
Because like the initial announcement had a fairly obvious selection of characters: you had Cap, Iron Man, Spidey, Ms Marvel, Star Lord, Ghost Rider, Doom and Storm.
All fairly big names. Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider is less so, he's the only one of them not to be in a live-action movie, but he was adapted in Agents of Shield and his star is on the rise right now.
Then the next trailer for the game arrives, and it reveals that the roster is made up of five teams of four, and the graphic at the end of each trailer is the leader of each team: Storm, Captain America, Spider-Man, Doom and Robbie Reyes.
Storm's team was that trailer's focus, and naturally it's the X-Men. We get Wolverine, who is so obvious for a Marvel game I forgot he hadn't been announced; Magik, who's a major rising star in Marvel media even if her only movie appearance was in the last gasps of the Fox era; and Danger.
Danger, the robot girl made from the AI of the X-Men's Danger Room. Absolutely a deep cut here from Marvel, it's a character who's turned up rarely since the end of the Utopia era, but a cute robot girl in an Arc System Works fighting game is hardly out of character.
The next trailer is Spidey's team, and it's Ms Marvel, they've worked together in the comics, makes sense; Star Lord, which... not entirely sure on the connection beyond them both being Peters (and have dated Kitty Pryde in other universes); and... Peni Parker.
Who, to be fair, is again a rising star thanks to the Spiderverse films and a place in Marvel Rivals. I'm honestly surprised she isn't getting her own solo comics at the minute. Definitely has more name recognition than Danger.
And on the graphic at the end a bunch of things have been drawn on: a marshmallow roasting on Ghost Rider's head, a wand in the spell Doom is casting, a first-place ribbon next to Spidey, a rubber duck, Cap's shield.
People speculate what all these symbols mean, whether they hint at yet to be announced characters, but it seems clear the Avengers are up next.
At this point, people also point to the Avengers logo looking like it has a 4 in it, and speculate the team might be an Avengers/Fantastic Four combo.
And while Avengers are next, it is just Avengers: the previously announced Cap and Iron Man, plus the obvious Hulk, and Shuri as Black Panther. Which is not the obvious pick, but she's headlined her own movie, so she isn't exactly obscure either.
The graphic at the end does something very interesting this time: there's two flashes where the colours invert to green and black, and there's multiple things written that are obscured when the colours aren't inverted.
There's a hashtag next to Doom, Spidey's face is scratched out, a #5 written in the top right corner, claw marks in the text, and what appears to be the number "361" written repeatedly in the bottom left corner:
The speculation on this one is all of a one-track mind at the minute:
Fantastic Four Vol.1, #5 is the first appearance of Doom. Similarly, he appears in Amazing Spider-Man Vol.1, #5; and Avengers #361 and Fantastic Four #361. The green inversion also screams Doom. So it's Doom's team next, the villain team.
However, if Spidey's face being scratched out points to a Spider-Man villain, then Amazing Spider-Man #361 holds a clue: it's the first time Spider-Man fights Carnage.
Carnage fits the pattern of being the less obvious pick while still being decently well known. Less obvious than Venom, still a major Spidey villain with a Sony movie appearance under his belt.
But, that still leaves five more to to go to fill out Doom and Robbie's teams.
Now, there have been two leaks. The first is from a Bulgarian retail site, and was brushed off as possibly just being an AI-generated product description as the stages and characters it mentioned are also found in Marvel Rivals.
The stages being Wakanda, Sanctum Sanctorum, and the Hellfire Gala.
However, Wakanda has since been confirmed as a stage, lending some creedence to it.
The two characters it leaked are Magento and the Scarlet Witch.
Magneto would fit with a villain team, especially one led by Doom.
Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch does fit on a team with Robbie from multiple directions. Most people are assuming it's a magic/supernatural team, like a Midnight Sons.
There are some speculating it might be more like a West Coast Avengers, as Robbie is basically the most popular LA-based hero, and much of Wanda's history was spent on the West Coast Avengers.
The other leak is from 4chan, and thus much less credible. But some guy claiming to work in a dubbing studio said they saw materials for the dub, and two pictures of unannounced characters.
One of them is She-Hulk, who is described as having a Cammy-like braid. Now, people are claiming the presence of Bruce disproves this one, but I'm not so sure, the two can very easily have different fighting styles.
The other is Spider-Gwen, who is described as wearing a pink-and-white leotard, a pink bomber jacket, and swords on her back.
To which a chorus of Um Actuallys rang out, as every corrected the 4chan leaker: that's not Spider-Gwen. That's Gwenpool.
Which, like. Yes. Please. Please. Please.
Anyway that's the current state of the Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls roster. I may be more than mildly obsessed.