Highlights

  • Skydance's WW2 Marvel game promises a unique narrative set during the 1940s with Captain America and Black Panther as playable protagonists.
  • The game should focus on immersive WW2 aesthetics, avoiding modern or MCU-inspired suits to maintain the era's integrity and storytelling impact.
  • Skydance must resist the temptation to include fan service or popular iconography unrelated to its period piece, prioritizing the authenticity of the game's historical setting.

As soon as it was revealed that Skydance’s still-untitled Marvel game would in fact be set during WW2 it instantly became one of Marvel’s most creative gaming properties. Arkane’s Marvel’s Blade may have taken that crown with its own Paris depiction in a dystopian, vampire-infested society, but the premise of a WW2-set Marvel game starring Captain America and Black Panther as only two of four playable protagonists is highly intriguing.

Skydance has the opportunity to tell a rich story between these four characters and its settings will likely be as integral if not more. The 1940s will hopefully help shape everything about the game from its architectural designs to how characters interact with each other, as well as how costumes for Captain America and Black Panther are decided on. It’s a recurring trend for superhero games to feature alternative suit cosmetics, and if Skydance obliges it would be fantastic if its alternate suits all adhere to styles that would be believable for a fictional 1940s in the Marvel universe. Better yet, no ‘modern’—or futuristic, from the time frame of the 1940s—costumes.

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Skydance’s WW2 Marvel Game is a Relic of the Past and Should Stay That Way

Skydance’s Marvel Game Needs to Stick to a WW2 Aesthetic Exclusively

There’s likely to be a diverse catalog of costumes that all reflect the game’s unique period piece, so not seeing any modern suit iterations would be a huge boon if Skydance and Marvel could restrain themselves from dipping into popular iconography beyond when the game takes place. The only real reason to include suits from a modern era would be to hook players with fan service and it wouldn’t make sense narratively if these potential suits aren’t supposed to exist yet. That said, expecting there not to be any modern suits may be a tall ask.

Unfortunately, Captain America’s suit already looks far more ‘modern’ than it needed to, showcasing an unremarkable cowl sans ear wings instead of something more comically star-spangled or akin to a military helmet, for example.

This might not even end up being what his default suit looks like, though it’s how he’s depicted in the obscured key art of all four playable characters. Either way, it hopefully means that other WW2-inspired looks make up his alternate skin catalog instead, while any costume that Captain America wears once he’s recovered from ice decades later should be declined and neglected.

If a post-credits scene teases a modern Captain America suit to suggest he’s been pulled from the ice then that’s one thing, but having him wear one decoratively throughout the game could diminish the impact that the WW2, 1940s-era atmosphere can offer. Enough iterations have seen a modern Captain America and Skydance will hopefully honor the parameters of the era it’s selected for its WW2 narrative by not needing to extrapolate beyond it needlessly.

Skydance’s WW2 Marvel Game Must Resist MCU Assimilation

MCU Trappings Will Only Hurt Skydance’s WW2 Marvel Game

By extension, it is imperative that Skydance’s WW2 Marvel game refuses to include MCU-inspired suits for the sake of cosmetic iconography. Realistically Captain America is the only character currently revealed for the game who actually has a costumed counterpart in the MCU since its Black Panther is Azzuri, not T’Challa, but having MCU-inspired costumes would be a sure-fire way to disrupt any immersion Skydance hopes to create with its rarity of characters and settings.

To be fair, suits from the MCU’s Captain America: The First Avenger could be feasibly and immersively adapted since nearly all of that movie takes place in the same decade that Skydance’s Marvel game will. Nonetheless, Skydance and Marvel would need to exemplify a tremendous amount of self-control and refrain from dogpiling a bunch of other MCU-inspired suits into the game.