The five choices for the core-set were excellent. They got in the two biggest charcters (Spiderman and Iron Man), two recent hit movie characters (Captain Marvel, Black Panther), and a really cool comics character in She-Hulk.

But Ms. Marvel? Pssh, come on.

I totally understand they want more female characters, so if we "limit" ourselves to picking female characters, off the top of my head I can think of Black Widow, Storm, Black Cat, Jean Grey, Gomorra, heck even SquirrelGirl is more relevant than Ms. Marvel. At least she has a real hero name that establishes a character trait other than being female.

Edit: I have now been informed Ms. Marvel is a popular minority character. I completely understand the reasoning for picking her then, even though I would've preferred a different minority female character in Storm.

Four reasons...

• One, she's awesome . Disney has made a push for her, and I'm sure Fantasy Flight follows in lock-step. Marvel's Super Hero Adventures (the Marvelverse where Spider-Man and Iron Man team up to stop Ultron from stealing a dump truck, targeted at 3 year olds) has her featured prominently.
• Two, she's a woman . More specifically, she's a teen girl, meaning she's got more in common with kids than grown women. Want to sell more packs and come across as inclusive? I'm not going to belabor this point, because you've already mentioned it.
• Three, she's an under-represented minority . Some people argue that's pandering, some people argue that's inclusivity. I think it's the latter, people who complain when Disney makes a push for a more diverse cast are already losers and lost causes.
• Fourth, she's not in a movie . I think that's important. Fantasy Flight wants to make it clear this is "all of Marvel", not just the comics.

So, using the examples you chose, nobody hits all of those points.

Let's just rule out the ones who've been in movies, because the easiest way to distinguish this game from 90% of the Disney merch is to move beyond the movies. So that leaves Black Cat and Squirrel Girl.

Black Cat is (a) white, and (b) hyper-sexualized, so maybe not the best choice for a family game. Squirrel Girl is (a) very divisive, and also, (b) white.

The X-Men and Fantastic Four have already been established as off-limits, because I'm sure there's a box set or two coming.

So, if we accept that Disney is making a push for a more diverse cast (and we should, because they're right), I ask:

Who is a better choice, if we want a non-white, non X-Men, female character who hasn't appeared in a movie?

I don't care what anybody's answer to that question is, because I think at that point there's no clear winner. Ms. Marvel is dope and is as good as any other answer to that question.

Black Cat and Black Widow already exist in the card pool as ally cards. That does not mean they wont be released as heroes, of course, but it's certainly not going to happen whilst the card pool is still so small. Gomorra, Jean Grey and Storm are all part of popular teams that they may want to release as part of a big box expansion (pure speculation but it has merit). Ms. Marvel isn't a major character when compared to some of those names sure, but she still has her place in the franchise, and I believe she had a part in the most recent Avengers animated series.

She's an Inhuman. She's a minority. She's a woman. She's awesome. She's still a relatively "fresh" hero.

I was way more hype to see her than Cap. Cap was always going to show up--seeing Kamala pop up early is awesome.

10 minutes ago, Inksplat said:

She's an Inhuman. She's a minority. She's a woman. She's awesome. She's still a relatively "fresh" hero.

I was way more hype to see her than Cap. Cap was always going to show up--seeing Kamala pop up early is awesome.

I totally forgot that she's an Inhuman. If she has the Inhuman trait (I hope she does), that bodes well for the future.

It will be fascinating to see how her card pool plays out. From what I've been able to tell, a hero's pool is representative of the hero's ability and personality. With Ms Marvel being the ultimate fan girl, I kind of want to see how she plays out.

As far as why Storm and Jean Grey aren't being talked about as hero pack releases, they are more team players and do not go off and adventure alone. Putting them in an X-Men themed campaign expansion makes sense. Black Cat has never been an hero, and Hellcat has been out of the hero game for quite a long time. Making them allies instead of playable heroes makes sense, at least for right now. Who know with future releases. Hulk is a current ally, and I am convinced that he will be in a future release which will essentially reduce his ally card into resource fodder.

As for Squirrel Girl, she's bound to see a release in a future hero pack or campaign expansion. I am leaning towards hero pack personally.

But enough of Me Marvel. Bring on the Ghost Riders

Ohhhhhh...she's a minority. Okay, I get it now. It's important to get minority females in there.

I consider myself schooled

Squirrel Girl is a meme. There are literally hundreds of characters I would want before her as heros.

11 minutes ago, Supertoe said:

Ohhhhhh...she's a minority. Okay, I get it now. It's important to get minority females in there.

I consider myself schooled

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but yes, it is.

34 minutes ago, CitizenKeen said:

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but yes, it is.

No I legitimately didn't know she was a minority in the comics. I have literally never heard of her character prior to this game, and it's not clear just by looking at her google images that she's islamic (since you know it's a religion, not a race).

It is 100% important, I actually unironically believe that. I am alllll for diversity. If having minority characters means more people will play board games, I'm all for it.

One more thing I'd like to add is that they probably want to release packs they know for sure people want early. The only character in the core NOT on the current Avengers line up is Spider-Man, the most popular Marvel character. They added him because people love Spidey stuff.

So it stands to reason they will want to continue to release known popular characters next, like Captain America & Ms. Marvel (whose TPBs are huge sellers). It's also probably the reason she is the main character in that new upcoming Avengers video game by Square Enix.

Because she's awesome. Her comic is consistently entertaining and she's one of their more popular new heroes from this last decade.

I agree with Radix Squirrel Girl is fun but wouldn't be my first choice or in my first 30 choices for characters to add to this game. Though she is also a fairly popular character. So if they add her early I understand why.

I'm hoping for the Richard Rider version of Nova. He get pretty shafted so far in the MCU since they thought he'd be too similar to the Chris Pratt version of Starlord. If we got Sam Alexander in the game I'd be okay with that, but I'd rather Richard since I grew up reading him. Also he has more history and therefore more to pull from for cards. Maybe we can get an Annihilation campaign or something. Actually it would be pretty dope if they gave us Ko-Rel as Nova but that's probably too deep cut.

also she is in the new MUA 3 game and she rocks the house in it.

Have to admit my experience with her is low. Haven't read any comics with her. Mostly because I've read a few Marvel comics lately that I was told were good that were pure trash. Didn't want to bother reading her series after that.

My only experience with her was in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and I thought she was a little annoying. She's not a character I'm hyped to play but I'll give her a chance.

Too be honest, Spider-Man and X-Men related characters are the vast majority of the Marvel characters I love. Never really got into the other teams.

Just to point some other points out. An artist who did some art for the game said that X-Men and FF4 were off limits. The game was probably in development before Disney bought Fox. It's going to be a while since we see them in the game.

Like others said, Ms Marvel is being pushed by Disney and it's well deserved. The character is awesome and the team behind her won several rewards thanks to the social impact of th character.

Saying 'she's a minority rep' is kind of downplaying things. While that's part of it, she's also one of Marvel's most popular new characters which is why she's getting pushed a lot, sames as Miles. If you're picking a character who represents current/recent Marvel comics, she's pretty much the go to option that isn't another Spider-Man.

16 hours ago, Supertoe said:

No I legitimately didn't know she was a minority in the comics. I have literally never heard of her character prior to this game, and it's not clear just by looking at her google images that she's islamic (since you know it's a religion, not a race).

It is 100% important, I actually unironically believe that. I am alllll for diversity. If having minority characters means more people will play board games, I'm all for it.

She's Pakistani, and her origin does some really interesting stuff with it. One of the things that hit me was when she first gets her powers and transforms "into a hero", she shapeshifts into the original Ms Marvel--Carol Danvers. Blonde hair, blue eyes, skimpy outfit. Its a point she has to deal with that she was unable to see herself, a young brown islamic girl, as a superhero.

Obviously though I want all the classic heroes. But given that from what we've seen, they seem to be taking an alternating approach, I think that's the best of both worlds. I just hope we get a Spider-Gwen, Miles, and Old Peter soon so we can do a full on Spider-verse game.

Her comic sells really well. She's a fairly popular character with current readers.

An Old Peter B. Parker deck would be fantastic. There needs to be a card of him sneaking a bagel.

I think comic Spider-Verse would be more likely than movie Spider-Verse, since we don't even know if the license covers any of the non-comic versions. But I feel like Gwen and Miles are both popular enough that their inclusion is a question of when than if.

Ms marvel is cool. could also come to Misty Knight. She's very cool too.

On 8/3/2019 at 3:50 PM, Supertoe said:

No I legitimately didn't know she was a minority in the comics. I have literally never heard of her character prior to this game, and it's not clear just by looking at her google images that she's islamic (since you know it's a religion, not a race).

She is also an ethnic minority as well. She is (I think) Pakistani.

If you look at her compared to other comic characters you will notice they shade her skin a few shades darker for this reason.

On 8/3/2019 at 10:15 PM, Supertoe said:

But Ms. Marvel? Pssh, come on. 

Did I miss something? Where does it say Ms. Marvel will be a Hero?

https://imgur.com/oN99ZT8

From the FFG announcement.

I missed that, thanks

I think she is a reasonable choice, she's checks multiple demographic boxes at once and she has been involved with several major teams since she was created.

And FFG has a habit of gender equality in its games, like Arkham Horror and Lord of the Rings, for the sake of diversity

Besides she is one of the few "new" Inhumans created, which were actually fun